4th Kyoto Prize Symposium [Theater, Cinema] Kazuki Omori, July 1, 2017

4th Kyoto University-Inamori Foundation Joint Kyoto Prize Symposium
http://kuip.hq.kyoto-u.ac.jp/
https://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/opencourse-en...
July 1, 2017

[Theater, Cinema]
Kazuki Omori
Director, Writer
Professor, Osaka University of Arts

Title of Presentation
“When Human Performance Disappears from Movies”

At the Academy Awards in the United States, there is a separate, independent category for animation, but in Japan’s Best Ten and other movie awards, animated films are regarded in the same light as other films. As someone who has made a career directing live-action films (in Japanese we call this “actual-image film”), I feel a bit uneasy when my films are mentioned alongside animated films. This is certainly not based on any sense of arrogance, but rather because of the fact that there is no acting in animation.

I perceive acting in a movie to entail the director, who is the producer of the movie, conveying what he or she wants to have actors express, and the actors, as the performers, portraying those ideas through their expressions, phrasing, body movements, mannerisms, and so on. In animated films, there are no actors. By animating the image that is the character, it is the producer of the movie who creates the performance. Although there are exceptions, most directors basically are not able to act and instead their talent is to draw the performance they want out of the actors. In animation, perhaps the director has the talent of dreaming up the performance.

This introduction has gotten a bit long, but the topic I will speak about here is not animated films, which is outside my area of expertise, but rather about performances in monster movies—a genre I have been involved with in a number of films. Traditionally, Japanese movie monsters are played by Human Beings who get inside of molded monster costumes—so-called kigurumi—and destroy a miniature town, crash through the sea, and smash mountains. In these cases, the monster is a performer, and the fact that the monster performs according to the demands of the special effects director, who is the producer, follows the basic principles of movie performances.

These traditional Japanese monster performances are widely recognized and have won a high level of support from people around the world. I am also one of those supporters. However, in monster movies of recent years, it has become mainstream for films made overseas, where the kigurumi tradition does not exist, as well as in Japan, to create the entity of the monster through CGI and make it move through computer programming. As a result, there is no longer a need for miniature towns. The monster can move freely through scenes of actual cities, oceans, and mountains, and can achieve previously impossible expressions and movements. The view has taken hold that this has given rise to a new level of realism and power. I am not denying that assessment, and yet if the monster is a living thing, shouldn’t the role of the monster be a performance? And if so, then shouldn’t the principle of producer and performer be upheld?