- Hi, I'm Krista Smith.
And today we have Hikari, the writer director of 37 Seconds.
(speaking a foreign language)
(upbeat music)
Where did you come up with this idea?
Because it's about a woman that has cerebral palsy,
and you go on this journey with her.
It's like kind of a coming of age and whatnot.
But how did that idea come to you?
- So originally I had this script about a girl
who's really finding out who she is as a woman,
and as a human being.
Where she exists and belongs in the society
because she doesn't feel anything.
And so a fifth different,
the story was pretty much the same,
but the rest of the story was about really finding out
can I have sex, can I be in a relationship?
But when I found the beautiful beautiful Mei,
she wasn't paralyzed and she had cerebral palsy,
so I decided to rewrite the script.
That's what happened.
And I interviewed her, I interviewed her mother.
A lot that I found out through just meeting her,
and learning her, and how she worked,
what she did everyday life.
And that kind of helped me build the rest of the story.
- Casting a disabled person, I mean,
in some ways it's exactly the same
as casting an able-bodied.
But what were the challenges you had
working with the wheelchair, and getting the right angles,
and working with someone who's never acted before?
- Having the actual disabled person in the movie
was the only choice I wanted to make.
And that was the first thing that I said to any producer,
is like I am not casting actors for this particular role.
Anybody else can be an actress.
But I know she's somewhere out there,
and we just have to look for her.
Doing that shoot, I think one thing
we really paid attention to, what we needed to do,
was make sure that we have enough time for the shoot.
Because it takes time to do anything.
So we scheduled for 45 days.
We could've probably shot in 20 days if was able-bodied.
But yeah, for me as a director,
and I love working with camera, of course.
So I shot part of the movie as well.
The angle was very important.
And she's on electric wheelchair
so you can't just do this, it has to be, you know.
You really have to time it
and so there's a lot of struggle in that.
And then also, everyday was just like new places,
or something happens, so we have to prepare for it.
And so it took longer than I expected it.
But for emotionally I think I just
literally talked her through it.
And then sometimes we couldn't do too much coverage
because, I mean, even though we did,
it wasn't as good as just holding one camera.
So there's a lot of choices that I made
in the post-production, in the editing.
- When you started out doing this,
obviously you have an intention
for what you want an audience to take away.
- Right, I wanted to make a movie.
It's a girl is with a disability.
But I wanted to be the movie that,
regardless if she's in a wheelchair or not,
it's a story about this girl
who's trying to make it work for her.
(speaking a foreign language)
- Have they seen, have the actors seen the film yet?
- Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah.
They love it, yeah.
She was very shy.
She loves it, but she's like,
oh I don't wanna see myself naked.
(laughing)
So we understand.
- You went to USC Film School?
- Yes, I did. (laughing)
- So were you born in Japan?
- Yeah, I was born and raised in Osaka.
But I always felt Japan wasn't
quite the place I wanted to be.
And I literally was watching a TV show
in the middle of the night,
there was a palm tree from California.
It was a beautiful sky, palm tree.
And then it was playing Mamas and Papas California Dreaming.
- Do you remember the TV show?
Do you remember the name?
- It was called Jetstream, but it was like,
yeah it was a Japanese TV show.
And I was like, oh, I wanna be there.
I wanna move there someday.
And I was like 10 years old.
- How was your family with you leaving Japan?
It's a very far distance.
- Yeah.
I think, I grew up with a single mom and her parents.
And I think they just already knew
that I was just yearning for something more.
So they're very very supportive.
- What was the urge to do film
and what led you in that direction?
- I start singing when I was 10 years old.
I was in a chorus group.
And so that was kind of my
introduction to the performing arts.
And I did a lot of musicals and operas.
And I loved everything about it.
(muffled talking)
And well, actually waitress. (laughing)
Acting was...
- Parallel, right? - Parallel, yeah.
I served at House of Blues, and all those places.
And right around that time when I didn't have a visa
I couldn't audition so I picked up a camera
and I started taking still photographs
of my friends who were actors, and dancers,
and that got me interested in doing behind the camera work.
I saw a bunch of people, artists, tried cold business,
did all the things that any hustlers would do.
And then I just got to the point where
I just wanted to do more.
- Well congratulations. - Thank you.
- I'm so happy I got to meet you.
- Thank you. - 37 Seconds.
You have to watch this movie.
Hikari, thank you so much for coming by The Corner Booth.
- Thank you so much. - Yeah.
- I'm gonna hug you.
Thank you.
(jazzy music)