2007 Croatian Subway Newspaper Interview

(The opening sentence of the Croatian Metro newspaper reporting on "MIDORI")

Tokyo in the 1950s. A young flower girl named Midori, who has lost her parents, is taken in by an outdoor show.

She is made to work like a slave and is bullied until a mysterious magician, who is very short, arrives at the show.
The magician, who has dwarfism, gives her a bright hope.

"Midori" is a Japanese cult film. Based on Suehiro Maruo's manga "Mr. Arashi's Surprising Human Show", Harada did the drawings almost entirely by himself and it took five years to complete.

Harada Hiroshi was born in 1962. He started making films at the age of 14.
He was influenced by "Dokuritsu Eiga Undo" (the Japanese Proletarian Independent Film Movement) and studied the directing direction of director Satsuo Yamamoto, who was a member of that movement.
In 1983, he worked on a TV animation with veteran Japanese animator Yasuji Mori.
Today he continues to work within the avant-garde movement, combining images, music, marionettes and dance.

His animated film Lullaby of Death (1985), which addressed the issue of child bullying in Japan, was screened at film festivals around the world.

（We were able to find the English text of the interview, so we will post it as is.）

1. Could you name the most important reasons for working in animation, which seems to be one of the most demanding and time consuming art form?

The reason why I produce a cartoon film.
It is based on a wish of the peace.
The expression of the movie must not be censored. However, the real society must be peaceful.
If society is peaceful, animated cartoon production is enabled.

2. What is your background, and how did you start in animation?

I wanted to make an animated cartoon alone from childhood.
I watched "dinosaur Gertie" of Winsor McCay　at 14 years old.
I imitated "Gertie" and have begun to make an animated cartoon with only 8mm film and paper and a pen.
I watched experiment drama of "Syuji Terayama" at 20 years old.
And I used technology of the experiment drama for an animated cartoon.


3. How long does it take to make a feature animation film? Do you work alone, or you engage a team, what is the process of creating your films?

Paint,Background, Photography, Sound,
These operated by the team of several professionals.
However, in then Japan, there was not the animator who undertook work such as MIDORI.
Therefore the part of the cartoon film operated alone.
It took five year for completion of MIDORI.


4. Do you find it important that your films gain acclamation by the audience and critic in general?

I thank the people who chose "MIDORI" heartily.
I feel very glad that I can participate in Zagreb.
(The Japanese animator calls ANIMAFEST by a pet name called "Zagreb".) *1

5. Can you make for a living by doing animated films?

The wage of the Japanese animated cartoon is low even if I obey a Japanese big business, large capital.
The wage which an assistant animator gets is 180 yen per one piece of animation paper (8kn).
All Japanimations are produced in defiance of a law of Japanese worker protection.
Because I perform the animated cartoon of the indie while doing such work, the living fails.
I must sacrifice something for compensation to make an animated cartoon.

6. Is it hard to get funding for your projects?

In Japan, animation having an ideology is disliked.
If a taboo is included in a movie, there is no company giving money more.
MIDORI was made by a Japanese subculture, an underground performance, a donation and a volunteer of trauma survivors.


7. Do you have experience with major animation companies?

Yes.
I entered the company of the TV animated cartoon at the age of 20.
My first work was "Doraemon".
I still do the work of the TV animated cartoon now.


8. Could you name some of the authors who influenced your work?

I respect Japanese movie director / Satsuo Yamamoto(1910-1983).
Isao Takabata (Isao Takahata) of the director of the animation is splendid.
Other than Japan...
"Moscow Does Not Believe In Tears" V.Menshov,
"The Kitten" I.A.Popov,
"Fame" Alan Parker,
"L'ANGE" Bokanowski,
"Solaris" A.Tarkovsky,
"Suspiria" Dario Argento,
"La Lectrice" Michel Deville,
I like these, too.

In Zagreb, the venue was packed and not everyone could get in.

*1　Harada doesn't think it's important to receive praise from critics, so while he understands the question here, he seems to be answering it differently.