One
of the greatest veteran directors still making
films, the 86-year-old Kon Ichikawa, has arrived
in Berlin to receive the Berlinale Camera and
premiere his new film, Dora-Heita
amazingly his 74th. The director (who received
his first Venice prize in 1956 for The Burmese
Harp and his first Cannes prize in 1959
for Odd Obsession) is accompanied
by his lead actor, Koji Yakusho.
The
deliciously entertaining Dora-Heita revives a
kind of film-making little seen since the heyday
of Kurosawa: the samurai drama with strong elements
of action and comedy. The script was written over
30 years ago, so why did it take so long to get
it filmed?
"The
script has been lying there for all these years,"
says Ichikawa, "but it came back to life in my
mind when I met
Koji Yakusho. He was perfect for the role. To
be honest, it's nowadays hard to find actors who
can play historical parts with conviction. He
can do that, and at the same time give the character
a modern inflection. You can probably tell from
the film how much I treasure him."
Yakusho
himself blushes in the face of all this praise.
"I began my career playing historical roles
in TV dramas," he recalls, "and so I see Dora-Heita
as a return to sources. It's a bit harder to
play historical characters than contemporary
characters because there are so many precedents
in Japanese cinema to measure yourself against.
But I've reached the right age to play a samurai."
Still
quick-witted (and still a chain-smoker), Ichikawa
refuses to see the film as a retro item. "If Dora-Heita
contributes to a revival of the costume-drama
genre, which seems to be just around the corner,
I'll be very happy. But my own project hasn't
really changed. I always try to show human beings
the way they really are. That's what I always
hope to achieve."
It's
74 not out for Ichikawa