Kore-eda Ditches AI Notes on 'Sheep in the Box' — SkimNews
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- Kore-eda Hirokazu ran his AI-themed screenplay 'Sheep in the Box' through a generative AI chatbot he nicknamed 'Chat-kun' but ultimately discarded its notes, finding them technically correct but creatively uninspiring.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu concluded that AI, despite holding vast film data, has no personal film history or life-changing cinematic experience, making its input less valuable than that of a human with even limited but passionate film knowledge.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu decided to keep AI out of his creative process, stating that making films is fun and human-driven, akin to how Olympic races remain meaningful despite robots potentially running faster.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu premiered 'Sheep in the Box' at Cannes and 'Look Back,' his live-action adaptation of Fujimoto Tatsuki’s manga, at Venice, with both films exploring how people confront loss and memory.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu reflected that reading 'Look Back' during the pandemic reignited his drive to make films, feeling encouragement from peers who have passed away rather than pressure to continue.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu noted that young Japanese filmmakers like Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Fukada Koji often secure funding more easily in France than in Japan, highlighting structural challenges in the domestic film market.
- Kore-eda Hirokazu observed that anime dominates about 70% of Japan’s box office and that independent 'mini-theaters' are vanishing, threatening the development of future filmmakers who once discovered cinema in those spaces.
Why it matters: As AI tools increasingly enter creative industries, Kore-eda’s deliberate rejection of AI input underscores a material shift in how authorship is valued—not by efficiency or data scale, but by lived experience. His stance highlights a growing tension between algorithmic precision and artistic authenticity, with implications for funding, training, and cultural preservation in Japan’s shrinking arthouse ecosystem.
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