Zeze Takahisa Urges Filmmakers to Prioritize Originals — SkimNews
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- Zeze Takahisa argued at a full-house Tokyo Talk masterclass at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he was appearing as director of opening film “Sukiyaki,” that pursuing original concepts is “incredibly important” even as the industry fixates on the “source material market.”
- Zeze Takahisa joined a pink-film production company as an assistant director in 1986 and debuted as a director in 1989 with “Extracurricular Activity: Rape,” which won him the Pink Grand Prix Award for Best New Director.
- Zeze Takahisa said he and Sano Kazuhiro, Sato Toshiki and Sato Hisayasu used the “Four Heavenly Kings of Pink” label for collective cachet; overseas reception came before domestic recognition and was later “re-imported” into Japan.
- Zeze Takahisa said pink directors had to insert a bed scene every 10 minutes or so, but greater freedom from the early 1990s let him explore female criminals’ motives and make the 1994 “Genuine Lesbians: Embarrassing Positions,” about female soulmates and past-life mysticism.
- Kokkuri-san marked Zeze’s mainstream debut in 1997, after which he alternated between pink and mainstream films for the next decade.
- Heaven’s Story was Zeze’s most ambitious film to date in 2010: a 278-minute revenge drama screened in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section and awarded the FIPRESCI Prize.
- 64 was a 2016 two-part mystery/suspense adaptation of a bestselling novel, showing that Zeze also works in the commercial source market even as he calls original concepts uniquely compelling.
Why it matters: Filmmakers working with originals gain a concrete defense in Zeze’s account: he says the industry fixates on source material, while the movies filmmakers found compelling were originals. His 278-minute “Heaven’s Story” won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival, and the 2016 bestseller adaptation “64” shows his position comes from inside the adaptation market.
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