Shoji Ueda, born Masaharu Ueda, is one of Japan's most accomplished directors of photography. His received his first cinematographer credit in 1971 with the film "Damasarete moraimasu"; since then he has photographed 21 films.

In 1980 he shot Kurosawa's film "Kagemusha" (The Shadow Warrior). He proceeded to shoot every subsequent Kurosawa film until that director's death in 1998: "Ran" (Chaos), "Yume" (Dreams, 1990), "Hachigatsu no rapusodî" (Rhapsody in August, 1991), and "Madadayo" (Not Yet, 1993). He also photographed "Ame agaru" (After the Rain, 1999), which was directed by Takashi Koizumi from a script by Kurosawa.

Mr. Ueda visited the 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival to participate in a two-day focus on cinematography. His most recent film, "Warabinokou" (To the Bracken Fields, 2003) was shown at the festival. It is his fourth collaboration with the director Hideo Onchi, and a masterful film on every level.

I spoke with Mr. Ueda through his translator, Fumiko Morizono, on January 31st, immediately after the second festival screening of "Warabinokou." Because Mr. Ueda had only a little bit of time before another event, we talked in the hallway outside the theater in Bangkok's Emporium Mall, little children running all around us. The following is a literal transcription of our conversation. Ms. Morizono's replies to my questions follow consultations with Mr. Ueda.

ADAM JONES: I want to say congratulations again on a very beautiful film. I had some questions about the equipment that you used. When you were at the set, Warabino [a very small village in the film], you had a crane, I think?
FUMIKO MORIZONO: No crane.
AJ: Did you have just a dolly?
FM: Remember the scene that, like, there's a moving scene? Yes, he used a dolly in that part.
AJ: The scene—Is that the shot where Ren comes after...
FM: Remember the part that Nui was running out from the house when it was raining? Yeah? Like, that time, he used a crane.
AJ: OK. How about the shot were, uh, Umakichi leaves the house, and Ren comes after him?
FM: Dolly.
AJ: Wow, that's very... How—how did you manage to work in the snow? [Ueda gestures.] Oh, so you were far [away], OK. In the snow, I was wondering how you, uh...
FM: Because, like, it's a movie that tells the story in the past, right? So he tried to use, like, less equipment as possible...
AJ: Yeah.
FM: To show the, the oldness and the, yeah...
AJ: Yeah. I liked very much how you—you keep the camera very still.
FM: He say that, like, he make the camera stay still because he don't want to be the camera the one who act. He want the actors to act, show their ability more. Not like, you know, move the cameras and destroy their abilities. That's why he tried to make the camera stay still.
AJ: Yeah. I, I agree. I think that the more the camera stays still, the more emotion that is often...
FM: He say he like the part that like, you know. Because he want to make it still because you have the feeling that, like, uh, the third person that watching can, like, stare at their act. Not like, you know, moving around, or, like, cannot concentrate on one thing.
AJ: It puts the attention on it.
FM: Yeah, the attention.
AJ: I also had the question about what kinds of lights you used for the inside scenes.
FM: He say that the light that the normal people used.
AJ: Right. That's what I wondered, if it's... I love the look of the film. I love that it's very underlit, that the lighting is very low.
FM: He said that, you know, in the past, in that scene, there's no light, and even candle is very expensive for them to use it. So he tried, he want to show that, uhm, the mood, show the oldness, that's why he tried to use very less light. Which is different from like, you know, when he took the, when he was, like, cinematographer for Kurosawa.
AJ: Yeah. I like that a lot of the light when they're inside comes from the side.
FM: He say that he tried to use, uhm, natural light, nature light, because, like, he cannot take from the top, view from the top, because there's a roof.
AJ: Yeah.
FM: And he cannot use a lot of light because it gonna be—look not natural.
AJ: Yeah.
FM: So he used a lot of natural light.
AJ: Uh, it looks great. I—uh. The blacks are very, very rich in the film. The black portions...
SHOJI UEDA: Yeah, thank you.
AJ: And the—the shots always have a very nice texture to them. Uh. The... I very much like when you put--uh, very, the people are very dark in the front, and there's bright, uh, like the snow, the field behind them.
SU: Yeah, thank you.
FM: He say that he tried to shoot that—that way because he want to say that human is also like, uhm, have a good relationship between nature and, like, by looking at the, uh, the nature's very beautiful, and by showing that, uh, you present, like, you know, the human is not as big as, like, you know...
AJ: Yeah. Yeah. It's almost the opposite of what many other filmmakers would do, where they would make the people very bright, and put the nature behind them. But it's almost as though that the background comes forward into the shot.
FM: Because he want to show that, like, human and nature are the same. And he don't want to divide that part up.
AJ: And my last question is, uh, where was, where was the film shot? And how many days?
FM: Because everything that he used, even leaves, the color of leaves, the snow, everything is real. So it took him, like, one year. Because he have to wait for the month.
AJ: Right.
FM: The seasons to come. Everything is real. Even house, everything.
AJ: That's amazing.
FM: He took in the, like, you know, in the mountains, the place where, like, you cannot even use the cell phone.
AJ: And where—where is that?
SU: Yamigata.
FM: Uhm... Yamigata.
AJ: OK. And so, so there were... If it took you one year to shoot, was there time off in between?
FM: Yes.
AJ: Wow.
SU: Yeah. The four seasons.
AJ: That's, that's excellent. Thank you very much for spending this time.

END

return to reports from the 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival