20-09-2016
Hoshino Reiji was the hurricane of the Asian Summer Film Festival 2016. He came as a juryman carrying a foolish film under his arm for the non-competition section, The Best of Tetsudon, and he left as a friend, idol, and a funny and charming buffoon for much of the audience. They (and we as well) are completely in love with his sympathy and brash. The friends of the film blog Mike y sus chinos interviewed him to know more about his film.
I’m Mike, from an Asian Film Blog, and I would like first to congratulate you for the session.
The public was much more handsome than me. I would like to thank the organization, I would like to emphasize that for screening my film you must be a little crazy, so, I guess the organization of “Les Nits”, somehow, they are.
That’s why we like Tetsudon, because we are all, a little crazy. I would like you to explain a little what is Tetsudon, and what does it mean in Japan, if they make kind of a festival … because I was very surprised, it was an experience for me because, despite having much sleep, your film really hooked us.
It was formerly a live event, a festival that mixed films, mostly shorts, with live comedy. 10 editions were made.
How often such festivals are held?
Currently the festival has changed its style, no longer has the live part, the last three years, only films are projected. But despite everything, during the presentation of the film I always do a little live show.
I was very surprised that during the screening, the audience is encouraged to express their opinion on each of the short films (clapping, booing, etc.)
This system is unique in Japan.
How got you interested in this kind of films? And why do you encourage the audience to express their opinion in the same room?
On one hand, have always liked films a little ‘dumb’ and on the other hand, in Japan the audience in the movie theater is always silent, and this is becoming stricter over time: you can not clap, you can not speak or make noises … so you can better control the audience. Since I was not happy with this type of repression in theaters, I decided to change the way the public reacts with movies so they can enjoy and freely express their opinion. In plain text, I think theaters in Japan are kind of shitty …
So do you fancy more the ambience here, I assume?, usually in Spain, and in Catalonia, in Horror, Fantastic, and Asian film festivals, the audience always claps or boos, and express their views freely. So we really enjoyed the experience on the screening of Tetsudon with very good short films and very bad ones …
It is done conscientiously for the audience to have fun both ways, if we wanted to we could make a movie only with good short films, but then the audience won’t be able to booing and especially shouting, “I want my money back!”
In this case, I behave more like an orchestra conductor than as a traditional producer. And I wanted this to make it clear in my own name, Hoshino Reiji, this is my stage name, Regi is an Italian word that means hold, in footballing terms would be the one who holds the ball.
Regarding this short films, It was not entirely clear to me if they are all directors and professional actors, or are amateurs, and non professional actors, that send these short films for its inclusion in your film.
H: The two cases. So far there were 70 directors, many of the players have not been paid for appearing in short films, because it compensates them knowing that the film will have great impact on the audience.
We would be asking a lot more questions, but other colleagues are waiting for interviewing you. I only want to reiterate our congratulations on Tetsudon, which has been a fun, new and amazing experience. We had a great time, and I hope to follow you in your website, your Facebook and in everything you do, and if I ever go to Japan I will go to meet you and “get my money back”.
