Interview with director Takahide Hori, who self-taught the movie 'JUNK HEAD', what is the path taken by creators who handle paintings, dolls, accessories, interiors, etc. in multiple ways?



Creator Takahide Hori created the obsessive stop-motion movie ' JUNK HEAD ' by shooting one frame at a time for almost one person over seven years. The work in which unique sculptures and characters develop a daily life that can not be called an adventure in a world with a sense of end is highly evaluated in the world, but Director Hori created this work without learning movie production. rice field. I had the opportunity to ask what kind of person made this intense work, so I asked various questions, including past works.

Movie 'JUNK HEAD' official website
https://gaga.ne.jp/junkhead/

'JUNK HEAD' was released in theaters in March 2021 and received high praise. You can tell what kind of awesome work it is from the first 10 minutes of the video released on YouTube.

[Official] Limited time 'JUNK HEAD' main video The opening 10 minutes or more has been lifted! --YouTube


GIGAZINE (hereinafter, G):
I look forward to working with you today. Director Hori is actively disseminating information on Twitter, but I noticed that he tweeted his past works. I commented myself that it was an oil painting called 'People and People' that I wrote when I was a high school student, 'I won an award at an art exhibition, but I'm sick.' What was your motive?



Director Takahide Hori (henceforth, Hori):
I wonder if I thought about humans in a dark way (laughs) I used to draw blood with my fingers cut in the picture, so maybe I was actually sick (laughs) At that time, the bubble economy There was an era like that, and it was a time when the world was in good shape, but on the other hand, there are people who are starving to death in the world, and in an era when the light and dark are clear, it is easy to make a lot of money. Some people are out. On the way to high school, I was comfortably going to school next to a person who was sweating in civil engineering work and had my parents pay the tuition fee, but I feel embarrassed or sorry. was doing. It was a work when I came up with the idea that the word 'equal for all humankind' is different, though it is different.

G:
When I mentioned that the Hochi Film Award congratulatory telegram arrived from my high school, I tweeted, 'I think I hated it when I was a student, but I think I'll be able to receive this kind of gift.' So do you ever think of that?



moat:
This was exactly when I was a high school student who was worried about drawing, and I had an atelier at school, and I was enthusiastic about drawing, but I threw slippers at the talkative and noisy people and said, 'Get out. I did something like that! Eventually, when I entered the atelier, the room became quiet and quiet. So, when the teacher was chatting and noisy with me, I said it with all my might, so I think everyone hated it (laughs).

G:
Well, it seems that Hori is not the only one who is bad (laughs)

moat:
When I graduate from high school, I think there is career guidance, but there is no such thing at all. I couldn't afford my parents' house, so I gave up on art school and continued my creative activities by myself while working part-time, but it wasn't until after a while that I learned about the scholarship system.

Aniplex Hironori Toba Producer (hereinafter Toba):
You can change your life in high school!

moat:
Well, it may have been good as a result (laughs)

G:
When he was in high school, Director Hori said, 'I thought I was a genius.' How did you get out of that 'belief'?



moat:
I attended a rare high school like Oita prefecture, which has only a music department and an art department, but I thought it would be the best of all. At that time, the students at Tokyo University of the Arts had a divine feeling, and it seems that the probability of passing the active duty is as low as 'almost a miracle', but I thought 'I will pass the active duty and kick it'. .. I had already rented a atelier before the pass notification came, but I fell there ...

(Everyone laughs)

G:
That was the case. Since I came to Tokyo, I was tweeted that I was drawing while working without going to art school, and I heard that I drew a lot of pictures with the theme of 'sunflower', but I drew about how many. Is it?



moat:
I think the number of sheets was at most dozens. It's an oil painting, so it takes a lot of time. I wasn't really interested in the beautiful flowers that lived, saying, 'I'm going to die soon,' so I used sunflowers as a theme because I felt the vitality. It's gone now, but at that time there was an atelier that I could use very cheaply, and I worked part-time for traffic control until noon, and then went to this atelier to draw rough drawings and pictures. I was there. I was just drawing pictures in the four-and-a-half-mat room of my apartment, so I laid a futon in the closet and slept.

G:
It is said that he traveled to the United States when he was 19 years old. What made you decide to go to America?



moat:
After all art, art is Soho in New York where art galleries gather. So, it's like going to Los Angeles and going around the United States all the time by bus. I didn't understand the words at all, but somehow (laughs)

G:
At all?

moat:
I didn't understand English so much that I was surprised, and I didn't have any money, so I slept with my knees on the street. I only have one or two clothes, so while I was wearing them, a hole was made, and he said 'Buy bread with this' and threw money at me, or 'Wear this'. Some people gave me shirts.

G:
Amazing (laughs) At this time, I was drawing pictures on the street and selling them.

moat:
I bought drawing paper and paints and sat down on the street to draw and sell them. It's about $ 5 or $ 10 at most, but it's pretty much sold in bulk, or it's gone once and then came back and bought again, and most of it sold. It may have been monochrome and Asian. Since I was drawing abstract paintings from that time, it may have been transmitted to people who have a good sense of transcendental parts.

G:
When he was in his twenties, he was working part-time at a coffee shop in Ikebukuro. Around this time, it was tweeted that he was told, 'Because I will be a patronage of paintings, please keep Chaka.'



Toba:
It's too funny (laughs)

moat:
It was an ordinary coffee shop open 24 hours a day, but there was a mahjong game in one corner, which was a gambling game. It is a part-time job that manages it, and although there is no daytime, it is said that yakuza people are infiltrated at night.

G:
oh…….

moat:
When I was complained that the power was off, I was angry and low-kicked when I answered 'Did you turn it off?' People at the chimpira level couldn't afford to pay for coffee, and sometimes they slipped under the counter and ran away, but great people had good tickets and said, 'I'm going to be a patron.' However, it seems that the person subsequently went to jail.

G:
So, besides Soho, he went to India. Why in India this time?



moat:
I think it was after the bubble ended, but there was a time when the religion and spiritual world were booming, and there was an atmosphere of 'I think it's India.' So when I went there, I was bitten by a stray dog from behind. India is a country with a lot of rabies, but the buttock is torn like a manga, and the Indians around me are surprised ...

(Everyone laughs)

moat:
It doesn't bite the locals, but when it turns out to be a stranger, it bites. At this time, I thought, 'Oh, I might die ...'. Also, India has an image of 'anti-violence', but because it is a poor country, it comes to tourists. I was traveling by rail, and on the sleeper train, there were a lot of Indians other than myself, and 5 to 6 people were sitting in one bed. So, even though I don't understand the words, if I was preparing to 'I'm going to sleep', I had an attitude of 'I'm going to keep my luggage because my luggage will be an obstacle to getting ready to sleep', so I left my luggage and finished the preparations. When I try to get my luggage, it's like 'luggage? I don't know'. I was in trouble with this, and when I showed a fruit knife and pretended to be rampant, dozens of Indians fled to scatter, and my luggage remained in the place where the Indians had been lumped until a while ago. There was also something like that. I was hit in the head with a fir, but I was young.

G:
This is also a fierce experience ... As a work I made around the age of 20, there is a picture of a work in which a copper plate was hit in a hemispherical shape. How big is the work?



moat:
I think it was about 1m x 2m.

G:
After seeing 'JUNK HEAD', I learned about the existence of this work, but I get the impression that there is something to do with it. What kind of image did you make this work at that time?

moat:
This is a work made by tapping a copper plate from behind and inflating it, but at this time, when I was putting in scientific knowledge such as atoms and quanta, I thought, 'The smallest unit of matter is a sphere.' I think I was hitting while doing it.

G:
This is also a work that Director Hori made in the past, and there is an original alien with three faces. It is publicly stated that you like the movie ' Alien ', but what do you like about it?



moat:
After all, it is the design of HR Giger . It seems like an infectious disease, and it's understandable that some people are still affected. In addition to that, it is the production at that time. Things that are scary do not come out directly, and they gradually scare me. I thought it was working very well.

G:
I heard that there was a time when I was applying for an art exhibition with the aim of winning a prize ...



moat:
Well, there was also a case where the work was bought for the prize money that was exhibited at the public exhibition of the art exhibition.

G:
Isn't it ridiculous that half of the applicants who apply for the prize money actually win the prize, although it is tweeted lightly?

moat:
After investigating the tastes of the judges properly, I am going to pick up the place that seems to be good. Maybe I didn't sprout as an artist because I was doing that kind of thing (laughs)

G:
So, I drew a combination of motifs such as dogs and whales, and said, 'I was hoping that the viewer would feel something meaningful.'



moat:
that's right. Somehow ... Isn't it likely to have a theme?

(Everyone laughs)

moat:
There are whales in places where there is no water, and there are airships that can move somewhere. I don't think too much about it.

G:
No (laughs), it's amazing that this can be made. Then you moved from painting to making dolls. Why did you decide to try making dolls?



moat:
After all, I was drawing while thinking with my head, and I thought, 'I'm not suitable for painting.' I once drew a doll character in a picture I put up in an art exhibition, but when I actually made it with the idea of 'let's make it a doll,' it also won an award. At that time, I learned the fun of making three-dimensional objects.

G:
So that's it.

moat:
At first, it wasn't a ball-jointed doll, but I was influenced by Katan Amano , a doll writer. When I brought the dolls to a store, I was asked 'Why don't you try this as a puppet?', And then I started making puppets. There were many puppets, such as rough wood carving dolls, and anime-like characters, but when I brought in a real doll, I received it very much and sold it for hundreds of thousands of yen.

G:
very!

moat:
While I was doing it, I started making cute girls, but sometimes the man who bought the doll asked me, 'Why don't you meet me?' I felt that I didn't have such a hobby, so I stopped making such dolls.

Toba:
Mr. Oshii was also addicted to ball-jointed dolls such as ' Innocence '.

moat:
That's right, it was such a time.

G:
You said that you made a model of a paleontology to be stored in the museum, and you imagined the soles of your feet, but wasn't it difficult?



moat:
After all, it wasn't difficult because it was a part that I didn't know in detail to the other side, so I could make it freely by imagination. Maybe I made it feel like a giger (laughs)

G:
On the other hand, I am also working on works that are extremely strict supervision.



moat:
This was supervised by a scholar who has detailed materials and is studying. Since it is a doll that fits in the palm of your hand, the sword is like a toothpick, but there are horses like thoroughbreds in Japan at that time, such as 'the degree of warpage is different' or 'the number of steps of armor is not enough'. Because I didn't have it, I received various supervision such as 'the horse's legs are long'.

G:
After the painting, he worked on dolls and three-dimensional objects, and he said, 'I ran a dining bar that I made as I like.' What happened in the end?



moat:
I rented a store in Ichikawa, Chiba prefecture, dismantled the interior and constructed it, and made my own aquarium and sofa. I was thinking of selling it to an employee when I made a profit, but that person said 'I want to be an actor' and quit. Also, I thought it would be troublesome to raise people, so I went to a real estate agent and canceled the contract, but usually the property needs to be restored to its original state and I have to return it to the state it was in when I rented it, but in my case The atmosphere was pretty good, so I was able to get a lot of money.

G:
This is also amazing ...

moat:
When I went to see it at a later date, it was a snack, and the Hannya side was displayed. I still occasionally pass in front of me, but it looked the same.

Toba:
It's the same (laughs)

G:
You said that you also worked on silver accessories. Is this a connection from the modeled object?



moat:
This is about 25 to 27 years old, and it is the story of the time when Chrome Hearts became popular. It's okay to start making it, but when I bought a magazine and looked it up, there were a lot of good works. I thought it would sell if I tried my best, but somehow I could see the future, so I quit immediately.

G:
In an interview posted on SPICE, he said that he had done various things but stopped, saying, 'I've been working on various genres halfway through. There are a lot of amazing people in every genre. Even though I was there, I was thinking that I couldn't do my best now. 'But what was the reason why I was able to finish with' JUNK HEAD 'this time? Was it?

moat:
Until then, I was halfway through, and I started making 'JUNK HEAD' when I was about 40 years old, and I thought this was the age of my last chance. It's an age that you might have given up if you were normal. Until then, I've been accumulating that if you put it up in an art exhibition, you can win a prize as it is, and if you make something, you can make something that sells, but on the other hand, it is interesting to draw a manga and write a story. I was also experiencing it. There were overwhelmingly many parts of the movie that I didn't know about shooting, but until then I was basically not good at asking people or talking in the first place, so I researched and worked hard on my own, but there are various things. I had the experience of connecting to work, and I had the experience of hiring dozens of staff, so I felt light when I said 'I can do it this time'. But I was confident.

G:
The details of movie production are recorded on the blog, and you can see that I am making various things myself, but at the same time, I also see that I am bidding off all kinds of things with Yahoo Auction .

moat:
It's true that Yahoo Auction was used up all the time, because it was poor (laughs) and I saved it for movie production and lowered my living standard to the last minute. The unit price of work itself is good, but it costs money to make a movie as it is, so it is a saving technique.

G:
Is the item you're aiming for at Yahoo Auction the type that competes to the end?

moat:
There, I quit quickly. 'I won't put out any more.'

G:
The way to use it is not to 'find a bargain' but to 'find a cheap one somehow'.

moat:
I agree.

G:
It was revealed that 'JUNK HEAD' is a trilogy, but in an interview posted on SCREEN ONLINE , about the production, 'I want to use more manpower from the next time (laughs). It took many years. I don't have one, so I have to make it soon! ' How much manpower do you want?

moat:
The average number of people in this 'JUNK HEAD' was about 3, so if about 10 people are resident and can turn it well, I think we can constantly announce about one work a year.

G:
You tweeted about designing a character with 3D modeling. How do you feel about the advantages and disadvantages of 3D modeling?



moat:
Maybe there is only merit ...? If there is a demerit, the modeled work will not be one piece, so the value when selling it as a work later will drop (laugh)

G:
What are the benefits?

moat:
After all it is a place where you can make many duplicates. There are limits to what you can do when it comes to making the real thing out of clay, but with 3D modeling you can even make the back side invisible from the front side.

G:
It seems that you will introduce a 3D printer in the next work, but what do you expect from the 3D printer?



moat:
The performance was not so high at the time of 'JUNK HEAD', but recently, stereolithography printers have become practical, and I have purchased more since this tweet. I'm thinking of using it where it can be used well.

G:
There was a tweet when I finished the storyboard of the next work, and the storyboard is placed all over the floor of the shukubo, but how many cuts will it be and what length will it be?



moat:
How many cuts were there ... 2000 or more?

Toba:
Was there 2050?

moat:
The time is about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

G:
You said that you stayed in a shukubo at a shrine. Why did you choose this place?

moat:
I was trying to concentrate in an empty space, but when I went there, I thought, 'I want something like the internet' (laughs). I couldn't connect to the internet at all.

Toba:
I was exactly that party, and when I talked about the content of the sequel to 'JUNK HEAD', 'I think it's better to do some things like this,' Mr. Hori said, 'OK, I'll fix it. I'm going to the shrine.' Because I say 'Yes !?'

(Everyone laughs)

Toba:
Originally, I was planning to stay in the car. My wife stopped me because it was too reckless.

moat:
My wife found me just before I stayed in the car, saying, 'There is something like this.'

Toba:
However, he seemed to be very suspicious of the shrine and said, 'Long-term accommodation is not good.'

moat:
When I called, I was told that even if I stayed at a shukubo, it would normally take a couple of days, so it would be a little long term. So I made a reservation not only by phone but also online. Then, I think I looked up the name, but I got a call and said, 'Please stay as much as you want' (laughs).

G:
(Laughs) By the way, regarding 'JUNK HEAD', the pamphlet is the only one so far, saying, 'If you don't hit a lot, you won't get 1 yen, but if you hit, you can make a lot of money.' It was tweeted that it was the income of the company, but it seems that it has managed to get started on the next work.



moat:
No, it's still not at all ...

Toba:
From now on, don't worry!

moat:
The 3000 copies shown in the tweet were sold out in about a week, and I hurriedly printed the next one, and more than 25,000 books were sold, so I wonder if I can make money from now on.

G:
It is said that the Blu-ray released in December 2021 was produced independently and shipped by itself. How do you feel about the actual work?



moat:
It's a lot of work, but if you throw it elsewhere, you'll almost lose money. I feel that by experiencing the work of creating a work and making a profit from it, I can create a new production style that allows me to create a free work.

Toba:
Aniplex is, so to speak, a video shop, so I gave proper advice saying 'It's hard!'!

(Everyone laughs)

G:
At the end of the interview with WIRED.jp, ' Thoughts put into' JUNK HEAD 'that Director Takahide Hori talks about ,' Hori said, 'I think that manufacturing begins with criticism. First, criticize religion and today's society. Whether it's good or not, I'll try the newly made one for the time being. I think that by repeating this process, I'll gradually get closer to the good one. I think it's still a long way off (laughs). ' But what do you think is 'still' about yourself?

moat:
I don't have much memory, I don't have any knowledge, and I'm below normal. I can't write Chinese characters, and I'm forgetting to multiply. I also can't express my thoughts in words. However, there is something I feel, such as 'I think this is bad' or 'I'll do this better', and I make a video of that and convey one word over the years. With that kind of stance, I feel like I can do it myself. If all goes well, I think you will be able to see the next work in about two to three years, so I look forward to working with you.

G:
I am looking forward to the continuation of 'JUNK HEAD', which is a trilogy. Thank you for a long time today.

The Blu-ray of 'JUNK HEAD' is on sale for 4950 yen including tax.

'JUNK HEAD' BD & DVD | YAMIKENstore
https://yamiken0123.stores.jp/items/6193867a2b3ca113a91a822b



The Blu-ray contains the main video (100 minutes) and the making video (60 minutes), and the bundled DVD contains the uncut version (114 minutes) of the 2017 completion stage. The uncut version has the motion blur effect removed to smooth the movement, so you can clearly see the movement when paused. DVDs are easier to play frame-by-frame and frame-back, and are suitable for a detailed view.



In addition, the art book that contains the world of 'JUNK HEAD' and all the cuts in full color is 4500 yen including tax.

'JUNK HEAD' Art Book | YAMIKENstore

https://yamiken0123.stores.jp/items/6193822372eb464ec78c4999



The pamphlet that includes not only the scene cuts and settings but also the state of making is 1500 yen including tax.

'JUNK HEAD' Pamphlet | YAMIKENstore

https://yamiken0123.stores.jp/items/619247d672eb462af153ee9f



You can watch ' BUZZ CREATORS' Movie Director Takahide Hori's One-man Video Revolution ' ' broadcast on NHK E-Tele in December 2021 on YouTube. You can see not only how Hori is making dolls, but also the new short story 'FRESH PEACH', which was produced for this program and features the three idiots that appear in 'JUNK HEAD'.

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in Interview,   Video,   Movie, Posted by logc_nt