At the end of Shinji Somai’s seminal childhood portrait “Moving” (1993), its young protagonist takes a detour on the way home from school and drives more easily along the sidewalk – and the filmRolling credits – just stops cards from a jump, skip and jump. A passerby asks where she is going. “To the future!” she said.
It is a mantra as the film’s co -former, Satoko Okudahave taken to the heart. After winning the Japan Academy Prize for best script in 1995 for “Haunted School”, she cemented herself with animator Mamoru Hosoda when they worked together on “The Girl Who LEAPT THROUGH TIME” (2006), an anime sequel to Yasutaka Tsutsuis icon. Hosoda and Okuda would continue to collaborate on two more anime features: Family Cyberthiller “Summer Wars” (2009) and parenting “Wolf Children” (2012).
It is a triple opportunity to talk to Okuda: her cooperation with Mamoru Hosoda Has returned to theaters in new 4K remaster, “Moving” is now flowing internationally on Mubi, and her latest script, “Hello“Directed by Lee Sang-Il, has exceeded expectations at the box office to become the highest Japanese live-action movie of all time in its home country. The film centers on the life of a male Kabuki actor playing female roles and is Japan’s entry for 2026 best international feature Oscar.
Prior to the film’s release, Okuda talked warmly and sincerely with IndieWire about her three decades as a semi-visible creative in Japan’s film industry-the first interview she has ever given an English-language publication.
Writing was an endeavor that came to Satoko Okuda from an early age. “I loved constructing sentences and mounting words,” Okuda said. “I applied for competitions as a student, and after applying for several, I won one, which gave me my start in my career.”
Okudra’s first professional screenwriter credit was at Shinji Somai’s function “Moving”, now generally regarded as one of the largest Japanese films in its era. “Since the protagonist is an elementary school student, I think (Somai) wanted someone who was an amateur at that time, if you want – to catch that essence,” Okuda said. “That’s why Satoshi Ohonogi and I both worked on it together. We both got offers, and the original intention was to choose the better script, but in the end it turned out that the director thought that the sum of both would be the best of all possibilities. That was why there was a two -author situation.”
Renko, the film’s child protagonist, stands out. She is hard and determined and always speaks her mind. It is an honest archetype that reasoned in Okudra’s subsequent script. “When I was going to watch movies as a child, women were portrayed as the sexy tool or device to pull the feet of the male character in a movie,” Okuda said. “I remember being very frustrated. Why can’t they be more human? Why can’t they save themselves from a pinch rather than always having to trust the male character? I think much of that kind of frustration comes out in my script.”
Okuda stands out to write intimate interpersonal moments between characters who are believable and recognizable every day. “I’m not trying to create fictional characters. It’s more that I try to create a projection by someone I think would exist,” she explained. “This is perhaps why there is not much abstraction in these characters.”
Okudra’s work extends over horror, imagination and historical drama, but the heart’s heart is always a story of the coming age. “In many of the films that I tend to gravitate against, we will see the growth of the protagonist,” she said. “Looking at our main characters go from their previous version, watching them overcome challenges, doing what we can as an audience to cheer on them and see them become the next version of themselves – I think it is very satisfying.”
Many of the Okudras script has been based on novels, including “Moving” and “The Girl Who LEAPT THROUGH TIME.” Domestic, it is common for movies to deduct from best -selling novels or manga. “When I adapt from existing work, my first step is to fall in love with it,” she said. “I’ll try to tell people, like damn,” look, guys, there is such a fun and amazing story here. “I think of that lens when I start writing. I don’t want to make a carbon copy of what the original underlying work is – I think” adaptation “has an important meaning. To think about the moments of the story that leaves an impact and how to translate them into the screen is an important part of the process.”
A decade from “Moving”, Okuda received an offer from the then anime director Mamoru Hosoda to write her re-stagination of “The girl who jumped through time.” “At that time, it was rare for a screenwriter for Live-Action to work with anime,” Okuda said. “But Hosoda is a huge Cinephile, so maybe he had seen some of my films and liked them.”
“I’m not approaching (writing for anime) for different-you still gets a two-hour time window within which I will tell you a story. But Anime has more freedom,” she said. “Often with live action, I say:” We can’t do the stage in that way-it’s just not feasible in the production budget. “
Okuda’s role in working with Hosoda took a different form with each project, but a collaboration back and forth defined their process. “With” the girl who jumped through time, “we worked from a source novel,” Okuda said. “I wrote the draft, then Hosoda would refer back to the source novel, and we would make adjustments to the script accordingly.” Wolf child “was more of a common writing process. I would write the first draft, and Hosoda would take it and do a second draft and hand it back to me, from which I would make a third draft.”
Hosoda’s personal experiences are the essence of “Summer Wars” and “Wolf Children.” “In the process of marrying his wife, he had to visit her hometown and large family, an experience he tried to capture in” Summer Wars. “” “Wolf Children” is a story about his own mother, “explained Okuda. My process was not so much to try to match his experience to my own, but to match the personal moments that moved him to experiences that many of us have gone through – perhaps in different ways, but with a similar essence.”
When asked if her is an emotionally advanced process, Okuda said: “I am a very emotionally driven person. The one who taught me screenwriter used to say:” Emotions are what drives action – without feelings there are no acts. “To this day I keep it in the back of my mind as I write characters.”
Satoko Okuda is still working in relative ambiguity even though they have contributed to many of Japan’s biggest films. “The Japanese film industry cares a lot about the role of a film and its director, rather than the more technical creative behind a movie,” Okuda said. “I have been in this industry for 30 years, and yet I am still asked Interviews“Oh, what have you written more?”
“It was very challenging over the past three decades to be a woman in this industry. I think it is only in the last decade where we have started to see many more female producers and directors – and it changes the perspective,” she said. During the two decades earlier, I would usually be the only woman in the rooms where important creative decisions were made. Often my opinions or feedback would be transferred in favor of other directions in which the team wanted to control the ship. Take a film’s heroes, for example, for example, they want to turn that character into something that would serve the male audience. More beneficial for integrating and integrating women’s perspectives and opinions. ”
In fact, women are at the forefront of Japan’s internationally recognized film today. Chie Hayakawa had premiere “Renoir” in the competition in Cannes this yeara movie that praises “movement.” “To hear that parallel drawn makes me extremely happy,” Okuda said. “I think that as a creator it is impossible to completely escape from the influence of those who have come in front of you – and I am also part of that ecosystem. If my contributions to the industry can in some way help throw that bridge from the past to the future and be part of the bigger story, nothing would make me happier.”
Okuda is aware of her audience as she writes. “I try to imagine what kind of audience would see this type of story. With so many forms of entertainment at hand, the decision is to see a movie more meaningful, so I do everything I can to make sure it is a pleasant experience,” she said. “I wonder,“ Who will the people watch the movie? “You have your theories, but you never really know until the movie is released.
“I want to deliver stories to the people who need them the most,” added OKUD. “When I was a payman I would stop at the theater on the way home and watch a movie. Whatever weighs me in the office simply blew away because of the movie trip – the mountain and the roller coaster that I decided to board the way home from work. I like to go to the theater anonymously when I have been working. fun. ” These comments mean more to me than what is said on social media. ”
“Kokuho” has filled theaters with many of these comments, and its success has surprised its writer. “On the day of the first show of ‘Kokuho’, I felt a wave of joy and thought, ‘This is exactly what I wanted to see!’ ‘She said. “At the same time, I had no idea if the audience would be interested in a three hour movie about traditional performing arts, and I was worried about its box-officer performance. None of us ever imagined us that it would be such a hit. A North American edition has been confirmed for next year. I feel both worried and excited to see how the audience there will respond to this story about a man who is believed to be one with his art. “I feel both worried and excited to see how the audience there will respond to this story about a man who has believed to be one with his art.
Thanks to Mikey McNamara and Kanako Fujita for translation. Gkids opens “Kokuho” in theaters from November 14.
