Yuki Kawamura: 'I found out about the woman, Norie, not just a mother'
Les Films Fauves
CLAPPER: Your documentary, NORIE, is an incredibly intimate and personal feature. What caused you to bring it to mass audiences?
Yuki Kawamura: This film is not the first time I have made a personal feature. I consider this as a trilogy of the Women of my family. The first one is Grand Mother, the second is Mirror of the Bride, and the third one, Norie.
Your father, Munemitsu, goes on his own emotional journey throughout the film similar to your own, but his is more dense and personal – especially his emotional breakdown during the Sapporo bar sequence which is devastating to watch. How did you find the balance between documentarian/filmmaker and son?
My role was to be both filmmaker and son at the same time. As a filmmaker I’m trying not to push to get the results I want, I wait till some accidents come out by chance. Because it’s more interesting and we can’t make it happen again. The Sapporo bar sequence was an accident too. As a son, I try to listen and not to judge or impose my opinion.
Was there ever a point in where you had to put down the camera let the emotion run its course?
No, when I’m shooting I only think about the film so I try not to be too emotional.
The film is as much about your father Munemitsu as it is your mother Norie, you capture their ongoing love beautifully — did you ever pause and think you were painting a portrait of grief and its acceptance was your sole idea to showcase who your mother was?
When I make a film I try not to decide in which direction I want to go. I let it go and shoot what is possible, what comes to me. It was a good surprise that I looked for my mother and finally, I discovered my father through the film.
Did you have to convince your father, and even yourself, to dive so deep into your mother's life in the wake of your family’s ongoing grief after thirty six-years?
In the beginning, I felt I had to make a film about my mother. But it came very naturally, I made my mind after I received the mail of a friend of my mother that was looking for me for a long time. Concerning my father, he was very willing at first but he felt different after we start shooting in Sapporo. Too many memories everywhere I think.
You grew up from the age of two without the presence of your mother, do you think you have made up some lost time while making NORIE?
I always feel my mother’s presence everywhere. But I had made up some lost time with my father I think.
Did you find anything surprising about your mother, Norie, from her friends or letters that startled or affected you the most?
What was surprising for me was that, through the letters, I found out about the women, Norie, not just a mother.
Your mother was an incredibly talented woman, but her own dreams and aspirations were sidelined due to 1970s social misogyny. How do you think she processed this?
She was fighting against social misogyny in her own way, discreetly. She never gave up even when the situation was not right. She tried to be herself at least. She said in her letters that she wanted move to Finland for example.
You shoot the film exclusively in monochrome, which wonderfully heightens the emotional weight of the feature, was it always the plan to shoot the documentary this way?
The monochrome idea came when we were editing the film. I found the monochrome was the best way to stand out the emotions of my father.
If there was one thing you could say to your mother Norie today, what would it be?
I don’t know but if my mother wouldn’t have died maybe I wouldn’t have chosen to become a director. Her death made me think and feel a lot of things in own personal my life and it indirectly led me to the cinema.
Norie made its premiere at the Visions Du Reel 2019 and most recently LuxFilmFest Home Edition programme 2020 and is currently awaiting an international release. Read CLAPPER’s review.
This review was edited for clarity
