Domains
(Okoku: Aruiwa sono ie ni tsuite)
JAPAN / 2018 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 150 min
Director: Kusano Natsuka
Script: Takahashi Tomoyuki
Photography: Watanabe Yasutaka
Editing: Suzuo Keita, Kusano Natsuka
Sound Design: Hwang Young Chang
Producer: Suzuki Tokushi
Presented by: Aichi Arts Center
Produced by: Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art
Source: Kusano Natsuka
This film focuses on the changes that actors’ bodies undergo as a result of the director’s instructions. Different shots or performances of the same scenes are presented to foreground the process whereby they gain a grasp on their roles through script readings and rehearsals. Shifting between documentary and narrative storytelling, the film is a portrait of human emotion, as it explores familiar themes of friendship, kinship, and other such intimate bonds. Re-edited from the 64-minute 2017 version.
[Director’s Statement] The greater part of this work consists of rehearsals, which is usually the un-filmed part of the film. Words, little by little, settle into bodies and are uttered forth. They grow closer to their intended voices. Even though each actor knows what the other will say next, that knowledge must be erased so that the character is encountered anew. The film wants to capture the work the actors do, and so this is the focus of its gaze. How does a film’s story operate the body of an actor? How does the audience come to know unseen “domains” through the actors’ bodies?
From Kanagawa Prefecture. Kusano Natsuka, born in 1985, has a degree in creative writing from Tokai University’s School of Cultural and Social Studies. In 2014 she directed her first feature-length film, Antonym, with the support of the 10th CO2 (Cineastes Organization Osaka) grant. It went on to receive the Skip City Award and Best Director Award at the 11th Skip City International D-Cinema Festival in Saitama Prefecture. Domains, her second feature-length work, has previously screened at events around the globe, including the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2019.
Interview