———Did you have a plan for this film before your debut work?
Chie Hayakawa
Before filming for "PLAN 75," I started writing a script to apply for a scriptwriting workshop run by the Visual Industry Promotion Organization (VIPO) during the COVID-19 pandemic. I had always wanted to make a film with a child as the main character.
———Why did you want to make a children's film?
Hayakawa
I think it was probably because, at the same age as Fuki, I realized for the first time that movies were interesting, that there were people here who understood my feelings, and that I wanted to make movies. I incorporated the things that I had been carrying around for decades, things that I felt I wanted to make into a film at the time.
———What impression do you have of the 1980s, the period in which the story takes place?
Hayakawa
It was a time before the internet, when people were fascinated by faraway foreign countries and not everything was revealed. Programs about psychic powers that would be considered problematic today were broadcast on TV, and there was an innocence that made people think that they might actually believe in them.
———Are there any parts that link to your own experiences?
Hayakawa
My father passed away when I was 19, so my experience is different from Fuki's, but he was diagnosed with cancer when I was 10 and fought the disease for 10 years, so the sights and smells of the hospital ward and hospital life are close to my own experience. I changed the events in the story and scenes to portray the emotions I felt at the time, and made the film accordingly.
———How did you feel at the time, and when do you think you became an adult?
Hayakawa
I felt like I was fairly grown up, but at the same time I felt like I was insignificant, so I had mixed feelings. But I think what changed my perspective as a child was when I stepped out of the world of just my family, looked at my friends' families and other things, and began to realize that my parents, who I had thought were perfect adults, also had flaws and weaknesses.
--What was the deciding factor in choosing Suzuki Yui to play Fuki at the audition?
Hayakawa
What's fascinating about him is that you can't predict what he'll say or how he'll act. He's not nervous or shy, he's always talking, and you get the feeling that he's a real, living person! You want to keep watching. I think a movie can be made just by having a main character like that.
———His relationship with his mother, Hikari Ishida who is prone to anger, was also realistic.
Hayakawa
It was very natural to see her say harsh things to her family. Apparently she was often given the role of a gentle mother, and she said, "I'm happy to have a mother like that" (laughs).
———The fact that the English conversation class that Fuki attends is a place where she is exposed to different languages and expressions also symbolizes her change.
Hayakawa
When I was studying abroad at a university in the United States, I had a composition class. I wrote about my father, who had passed away two years earlier, and when I presented it, classmates who I wasn't particularly close to came over to hug me one after another. I was a little surprised, but somehow it really touched me. The strange experience of being hugged and having my emotions stirred is reflected in this. I think it was the surprise I felt when I first encountered a way of expressing emotions that was different from the Japanese way.
———This film was entered in the competition section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival. What are your thoughts on the festival?
Hayakawa
The primary purpose of the event is to bring together film lovers from all over the world to celebrate film, and I see the awards as secondary, but I still feel a sense of responsibility. However, I'm happy to be reunited with the people I worked with on the film. I'm sure Yui-chan will be loved, so I'm looking forward to it.
