gentamatsugami

Barck Floop: Why did you decide to make a teenage girl the main character of your feature debut?

Genta Matsugami: After the 2011 Fukushima catastrophe a lot of everyday themes became absurd to me. The earthquake has further deteriorated Japanese economy and worsened financial situation of thousands of families across the whole country. After all those years many kids and adolescents still have their wings clipped, putting their economic and educational perspectives in question. Unfortunately, as opposed to adults, they don’t have much power to improve the social situation they are doomed to deal with. I decided to create a young, determined heroine to project the hopes for change onto her.

BF: Why are the males depicted so caricaturally?

G: To contrast them with the main protagonist and make her stand out as a courageous heroine. If I depicted men in a very realistic manner they would seem to the audience like slothful villains. I believe that humans are not intrinsically evil and I wanted to get detached from the concept of having good vs bad. I also wanted to add humour to the story.

BF: Why was the brother crawling on the floor for half of the movie?
I thought he was injured.

G: After chosen actors read the script thoroughly I asked them for their feedback on the characters. The actor for the role of the brother came up with this idea of crawling and I found it funny, so I approved it.

BF: Was it Aya Kitai’s first role?

G: Before starring in “Demolition girl” she was a fashion/haircut model.

BF: Why did you decide to give the main role to a non-professional actress?

G: I wanted to avoid casting a famous actress that already had a fixed screen image. I found Aya Kitai’s rebellious aura perfectly matching the character specifications of Cocoa.

BF: Do many teenage girls work in fetish video industry in Japan?

G: Yes, a lot of young girls, like junior idols, act in fetish videos wearing swimwear or underwear. Japanese government doesn’t have strict regulations about it as the boundary between art and fetish video is fluid. There are cases when poor parents push their daughters to star in those films.

BF: Did you create the fetish in “Demolition girl” or did it already exist?

G: This kind of fetish video is called “a crush video”, however when you google it you mainly get animal abuse. Many fetishists get really exited watching animals get hurt by women stomping on them. Just like in Cocoa’s case when she’s treading on insects. Still, Cocoa had a clear awareness of what she was doing so when the director asked her to do more hardcore stuff in the videos, she refused.

BF: I wouldn’t call the fetish video within your movie sexual. It looked like video art to me. Was it a stylistic choice or do fetish videos have that aesthetic value?

G: The video is based on my interview with a real fetish video director. I also carefully studied the videos he gave me and tried to produce something similar. ( I am not a crush video fetishist. )

BF: How did you meet the crush video director?

G: He was a friend of a friend.

BF: Is it a common profession for people involved in the arts?

G: It might be a job for some directors before they start making money from their movies. Like for example for Noboru Iguchi who started off as a porn director.

BF: What do you think is the source of highly developed fetishism in Japanese society?

G: Directly speaking, the Japanese are perverts. The general philosophy in Japan is very different from Christianity. In my opinion Japanese people were originally very open to sexuality however after modernisation in the end of the 19th century European values were imported to Japan what has influenced a lot of things. The government has introduced stricter ethical regulations to keep up with the values of the incrisingly culturally globalised world. For example for centuries there had been public baths that naked men and women could enjoy together. Unfortunately, because of the westernisation, nowadays there is a division between male and female baths. Chaste Christian normalisation has impacted the liberal Japanese sexuality which, nevertheless, managed to leak through the wall of oppression leading to such phenomenons as fetishism.

Takashi Sakamoto: There is also another, more contemporary side to this issue. When you watch Japanese pornography, female genitals are often hidden from the viewer’s eyes what stimulates his/her imagination. In Ukiyo-e art, between 17th and 19th centuries, nudity was still exposed, yet, as Genta said, things began to change. In Manga from 1960s until 1980s it is typical to obscure genitals by the use of characteristic symbolism. Mangakas say that if they showed everything openly it would be less stimulating to the reader’s imagination. It’s more exciting when you’re just teased by the idea of nudity. It’s a kind of masochism.

G: The audience of Cocoa’s crush video is masochist. They get satisfaction when the girl stomps on the object which is a metaphor for themselves.

BF: I could really empathise with Cocoa. Both the actress and the character were very convincing. Is there going to be a sequel to “Demolition girl”?

G: Actually, this was a common question amongst the American audience. I don’t have a plan for the sequel but I enjoy speculating on Cocoa’s future.

BF: Can the material situation of a deeply unpriviliged girl like Cocoa improve after taking a loan and attending university?

G: There is a possibility but it’s going to be difficult. I wish the chances for succeeding were more equal than they really are. Aya Kitai has received a lot of questions concerning what she wanted Cocoa to be in the future. Her answer was always “I just want her to stay alive”. I wish her the same.