Hirokazu Kore-eda is widely regarded as one of the finest working film-makers and received the Palme D’Or for his film Shoplifters. He tells Canvas about the creative inspiration behind his latest film, Broker, set in South Korea, finding creative inspiration at window seats on the bullet train, and “borrowed” views in Japan.
The place where I do my most valuable creative work is on the train. Especially the bullet train - I love the bullet train. Otherwise, I like a plane. I also like hotels and cafes in foreign places. I look for places that are blustery and busy, where there’s a lot of activity around. Or places that are in movement. Many of my films, especially my early films, were thought of on bullet trains or planes. I really like window seats - I’m always trying to get that seat if I can.
Right now, I’m sitting in my office on the third floor in Shibuya, and the reason why I decided on this place in particular is because there is this thing in Japan called shakkei, which in Japanese means “borrowed view”. This is an idea that comes from temples in Kyoto. From where I sit I can see the trees of the house next door. These trees become green in the summer and red in autumn. The idea of borrowing a view is that I’m looking at a view that’s part of somebody else’s land, it’s a view of somebody else’s place that I can see from my own. This comes from the fact that in Japan there’s not much land, and it’s not a negative thing but a positive thing, to be thinking of someone else’s place, and so “borrowing their view”. This is a very Japanese concept, and I like it very much. I decided on this office because of the access it gives me to these trees.
Image-making to me is about encountering the world, getting to know it. I think I was drawn to the ability that image-making allows us to perhaps even change the way we see the world. I think that’s something that’s always within myself, that I’m always thinking about - film’s ability to connect us to the world. With Covid, this became even more crucial. For example, it’s very convenient that I get to talk to you [the interviewer] over Zoom, where I can talk remotely and see someone, but I think if I was meeting someone in person there’s so much more that we can offer each other. By doing everything remotely the things we exchange are just information, so much doesn’t get transferred. Covid wasn’t something we had a choice in, but I do feel that the window we’re looking out of becomes more limited if we’re held apart from each other. It results in a warping of human relations. There’s a lot of misunderstandings that happen. It’s important for film to be able to show us this aspect of ourselves. As a process, film also offers us the ability to overcome this disconnect.
