Sakamoto Yuji - Soredemo Ikite Yuku interview Part 2B

Finally halfway done! This is the juiciest part of the interview so far and makes me want to watch Mother after this. It also makes me question had happened with Woman's script because Sakamoto Yuji did Soredemo Ikite Yuku without restraints. Anyways, all corrections and comments are welcome. My translation is a bit rough in the beginning but the second half was much easier to translate. Hope the 2nd half of the interview is as easy. Original interview can be found here.

Abiko: Did they come out of Sakamoto-san’s head or influenced from feedback from an actor? I’m interested to know which one.

Samakomo: Let’s take Mitsushima Hikari as an example. Normally when you see her acting, words fluently flow out of her nonstop but I like the acting when someone has difficulty with their words. Character who feel strongly about something about something but cannot express themselves well. I think that's where Mitsushima-san is at her best, or most captivating, so that's the kind of dialogue I went with. When I see this type of dialogue on television afterwards, I think, ‘this person said some interesting things’ and it is this type of model that I wanted to do.

Abiko: I see, so you get those type of inputs. In the case of novels, of course there are people who set up their models before writing but for me, I start from zero and I don't write with a model in mind. This difficult to write style of dialogue erupts in this dorama because because you use the novelist way of writing. Without this type of conversation (where characters don't express themselves well), the meaning cannot be communicated. The atmosphere before and after or the colour of the actor's face all are important parts of the dialogue. However, all of that looks natural.

Sakamoto: Yes.

Abiko: Especially in regards to recent tv doramas, I think they over explain things. No one actually talks like that (in real life). I find it painful to watch. However, Sakamoto-san's script feels like its creating distance from the viewer (making it more difficult for them to follow). For example it won’t explain why a character says ‘yes’.

Sakamoto: For as long as I’ve done television, its probably at the top of the what type of script one is not supposed to do. Fundamentally, television is about (characters saying) lines like ‘This is what I'm feeling now’’. Then there is the problem of having to tell the viewer "What is next" so that they understand. As well for dorama creators, there is a question of whether that is a fun thing and a lot of creators face that dilemma. In my case, because of of my age, I don’t really care about dorama taboos and I’ve been breaking them recently. This time I sincerely didn’t try to follow the rules of dorama and wrote whatever was appropriate for the subject. I could do it because the producer was of the same opinion.

Abiko: This is an unusual case, isn’t it?

Sakamoto: The producer was someone who had always been doing variety shows. After doing them for 20 years, he had finally come into the world of doramas and was just happy to be doing doramas. As he was the producer of the variety show Warrateiitomo! He had nothing to lose and nothing to hope for. He said, “For the time being, do whatever you want!” Usually television is for people who wash plates while watching. This time, I made the dorama for really pay attention to what they are watching! On that point, the producer and I never wavered and creating a dorama where if you don’t watch attentively, you will not understand what is happening.

Kurashina Kana is never be meiwaku.

Oguma: Excuse me, I have a question I want to ask. Similar to Mother, this time the 7th episode had the killer and the lover’s recollection scene which lasted more than 30 minutes. Many doramas have recollection type scenes in them but I think that such a deliberate flashback are not done in other serial doramas.

Sakamoto: At the time of doing Mother, it was something I tried although there were dissenting opinions. In Mother’s recollection scene, the main character played by Matsuyuki Yatsuko did not appear. It was mostly acted by the abusive mother played by Ono Machiko. At that time, Ono Machiko wasn’t that famous. There were many people who thought that was out of place. In the first place, I didn’t intend to do that recollection scene. At the time that the dorama started airing, I received mail speaking ill of the abusive mother from people I knew. “She’s a pig who only knows how to depend on men!” 

Both: (Roar of laughter)

Sakamoto: Even now, I’ve kept that precious mail. (laughs) "A good for nothing for abuses her child!" I thought that she was misunderstood. So with that feeling, I had to explain it to these people although the dorama was already close to the ending…  Do you want to hear about some minor details?

Oguma: Yes please.

Sakamoto: At the 9th episode, Matsuyuki Yukiko’s character got caught, episode 10 was the trial and the 11th was the ending. Actually the whole of the 10th episode was supposed to be about the trial where the main character is judged but that was taken out and the recollection scene put in. I wrote the script for Ono Machiko’s character and then everyone became worried. (laughs)

Abiko: Is that because no one famous appeared?

Sakamoto: For the whole episode, the main character did not appear and usually the viewer would not accept it….