Director's Message Katsuya TOMITA Born in 1972, Yamanashi Prefecture Kofu City birth in. He wanted to become a musician after graduating from the TOKAI university KOFU senior high school, so he went to Tokyo. The music activity did not to go well, and after spending time on watching a lot of movies, he became interested in making films himself. Spent five years for the production, the first work 'On the cloud' (Shot on 8mm) was completed and released while working in the delivery industry in Tokyo in 2003. The screen time is 140 minutes. Script writing, directing, and editing was all done by him and this work won the best scholarship in "The Film School of TOKYO, Movie contest 2004". Using the prize as the capital, he made another movie 'The Route 20 National Road', and it was released in 2007. The independent screening event was held by "Sakuraza" in Kofu city, Yamanashi prefecture in October of the same year. Afterwards, the premiere was opened to the public in movie theater "UPLINK X" in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo. In 2008, it was open to the public on a nationwide scale in the movie theater of the single pavilion system. 'The Route 20 National Road' won the 9th place in the Japanese movie best ten of 2007 in movie magazine "Cinematics". It created a stir in the Japanese movie field, and it was screened many times in domestic and korean film festivals such as The 5th MEFF Japanese film festival which was sponsored by a Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs culture agency. My thought when making the movie 'Saudade'. Director Katsuya TOMITA When writing "Saudade" by using a Japanese katakana, “ヂ”（"Di"）is used as the last character in stead of“ジ”（"Ji"）, especially in Brazilian Portuguese language. A typical meaning of "Saudade" is nostalgia to the hometown. However, this word has a very complex meaning that even Japanese-Brazilians cannot tell the meaning with simple words. Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's hometown. It is a mixture of complex feeling. The two movies we made are both set in our hometown, Yamanashi Prefecture. Especially, former movie "The Route 20 National Road" was a story that had depicted the lives of young people lived around the 20th in national road line (bypass road where Kofu was carried out). Large-scale commercial store, pachinko parlor, and the ATM (cash dispenser) of the consumer finance. These facilities line along the national road, and taking people from city center. This film depicts the life of the youth who was not able to have a hope in living there and should show you the universality to all towns in modern Japan. Many movies that depict the hometown are made. Find excellent feature of the regions and make movies that put weight on that excellence and that contributes to the activation of the place. It is certainly one of the methods. However, such movies are never likely to depict negative aspects. By picking up only good aspects, it does not answer the question of why it became difficult to live. We have heard so many times on the news of the exhausted small town, becoming hollow, and the recession that nobody has experienced. Countless disastrous incident and crimes are also reported due to the serious recession. However, most people regard the news as things happening in different world. "Oh, really? The countryside is like that now?" Isn't our reaction something like this? Do we know what really is to become hollow and the reason why it happens? Have we ever been aware of this problem, thought about it, and wished if it changed? Because Yamanashi is our hometown, we have chosen negative aspects as a theme of the movie. We have selected the problem that a lot of people do not want to watch as a theme. I believe that the role of the art is to choose the subject with critical eyes against the real life, and to discover universality from the pieces. I strongly believe that not looking away from what actual life is really like and being conscious of the reality will become one step to the future. The trigger for starting making this movie was a really small experience. I started researching Kofu City for this movie about a year ago, and the other day I met a Japanese-Brazilian guy. The following is the episode that actually happened to him. He went to the parking lot to rent the parking space. Suddenly, the manager of the parking lot began to tell him about the car burglary that happened there recently. The criminal was Peruvian, so the manager was suspecting all foreigners who looked like Peruvian. Because it was a false accusation, my friend desperately defended himself. However, the manager felt scared of his self-justification. After all, he was not able to borrow the parking space there. We, having known his character well, have neither the prejudice nor the misunderstandings for the immigrants, but a lot of Japanese people do have prejudiced opinions and the misunderstandings toward immigrants. They can be only cleared by communicating with them. Afterwards, we were able to talk to the manager, and the manager apologized to my friend. Misunderstanding was solved. The problem does not even come to light if there was no communication. It is clear that this small communication became one very big step to the future. Through the one-year-research, I discovered that a lot of immigrants live in my hometown Kofu. Especially, the scale of Japanese-Brazilian immigrants' community was very large and its existence cannot be ignored to make the movie in Kofu. A lot of Japanese migrated to Brazil about 100 years ago as a development immigrant, and they must have encountered unimaginable difficulties. However, Brazilian people fortunately accepted Japanese immigrants, so, I think that is why the descendant of Japanese immigrants were able to return to modern Japan. How many Japanese has the recognition of such historical backgrounds and communicating with them? The hometown of the generation of Japanese-Brazilian who are now becoming the third and the forth is Kofu, where they were born and grew up. It is clear when we talk to them. They, Japanese-Brazilian immigrants, have the feeling of "Saudade" for Kofu, which is both a new land and the hometown. And, it is also our hometown. We, as Japanese, need to regain the feeling of saudage again. I wanted to give this message by making the title in Portuguese as warning. The theme even deepens with the warning. "Saudade" has another meaning "things cannot become true even if we long". Many people discuss that they want to do something to change the situation, but the discussion seems like it is based on bringing back the town to the state of what it used to be. Many movies makes people feel nostalgic of past, making them feel that the old times was good. People can go back to the past only for two hours while they are watching a movie, but once the movie is finished and they go out of the cinema, they are back again to the present. At least, what we make is not a tool for the escape. A life is painful, and not easy. Still, even if they do not want, people should live. If it is so, let's live a better life. I think that our work movie is a creation activity based on such a will. Translated by Ayako Kamegai このサイト内の全ての画像・文書・情報について複製や無断転載等を禁じます。 © 2009 REALWAVE Inc. All rights reserved.