Continuing with our featured film Kintsugi, we had the chance to interview its editor-director, one of the most recognized in the Philippines—Lawrence ‘Law’ Fajardo.
While we do not doubt that this man can handle any genre, as someone who is known for works such as Kultado, Amok, Imbisibol, all seemingly hard films—we ask his experience and thoughts in creating Kintsugi, a love story.
OPF: The tough parts first: what challenges did you encounter in creating Kintsugi?
Fajardo: For me at least, I realized that making a film about love or romance is not that easy—it is not just a job you have to finish, you have to genuinely fall in love with the characters, root for their relationship, their love story. This is my first attempt for the genre—I thought this would be really easy to do… but boy, the love story genre is complex.
OPF: How about the casting? Considering that they come from two different cultures, how were the performances of lead characters JC Santos and Hiro Nishiuchi?
Fajardo: That is another thing, because it is like ‘abstract’ casting—at first there is that tiny worry in your mind because you don’t know what actors will be given to you, there is no certainty if there will be a spark or magic between the two when they come together as a couple in the film, and that is something the audience can see and feel. They may have great personalities or possess fine acting skills, but they might not look convincing together—the result may be pleasing enough, but believability is very important in making a film.
In our case we were blessed that we got JC Santos and Hiro Nishiuchi—we knew that we had JC Santos as the lead guy but finding the love interest would be challenging for us, because you don’t often find two lead actors who can appreciate and compliment each other physically and mentally…when Hiro auditioned for the role, she was the last girl who auditioned— although I first met her via video call, that was her first audition. She did well even though it was her first film.
They made a pretty couple—JC is handsome, Hiro is beautiful, and there are moments when you think they’re too pretty—we had to remedy that, it was quite a problem… but kidding aside, again, we have to always consider the issue of believability.
You cannot fake a scene, fake an emotion, that you are falling in love with your co- actor. If we want to be as pure as possible, a man and a woman who love each other is difficult to re-create in a movie, since the the usual tendency of the actors and the director is to stage it, set it in a beautiful place to set the mood. We dressed them with posh clothes and gave them dialogues that would be believable for the character to fall in love. We show the audience that these couple are complimenting each other, but there are times that they did not compliment as well as we wanted, that happens sometimes—consciously or unconsciously maybe, they tend to ‘act’ the way they’ve been trained, and I guess that is the biggest challenge, but of course that is because we don’t want it to be just like any other love film, so we worked on it. This also makes you understand that subtlety is hard to achieve, especially in a genre that usually require high emotions or passionate scenes.
OPF: Tell us more about the story.
Fajardo: There is nothing new in this kind of movie, boy meets girl, girl meets boy, it has been told a million times. We have also seen a lot of diaspora films before. I think the question is what you can add to that type of story; we need something that hasn’t been done for the genre. So we challenge ourselves in the process of realizing the movie.
The setting is in Japan, and many films have been made about Japan already— but kintsugi, that was new to me. I knew nothing about wabi sabi or kintsugi before, so this sparked my interest.
Each film we make, we take it seriously but this film had something that made it very special—in return it ended up teaching me. It was a delight to learn about the craft of kintsugi, learning and reading about the whole essence and the true value of the craft. I hope, when the audience gets the chance to see the film— that it would open up to them a deeper meaning to life—right or wrong there are choices we willingly make and situations that fate simply hands us, and we end up scarred, torn, imperfect, and we have to learn how to accept it—to move on, to be healed by time and to look forward to what the future would be offering to you.
OPF: How was the process of creating the story/ screenplay with its writer, Herlyn Alegre?
Fajardo: We really didn’t know where to go exactly at first. Herlyn and I explored a lot of possibilities. In short a lot of what ifs… the big question is how to properly represent Japan— the place and the characters involved in the place. Saga is known for pottery, so we needed a simple love story that involves pottery.
I wanted to tell a romantic drama based on the reality of the characters. A craftsman and a teacher. A Filipino craftsman in love with a Japanese teacher. There are lots of questions and logical inquiries about how to court a Japanese lady. What do you do when you fall for them? How do you know their taste, their preferences? Is social status, the nationality important? Because all these inquiries are important to the whole aspect of falling in love. If we don’t fall in love with and believe the characters, then it will fail.
We had to clarify the relationship of the subject and the object. We looked at Japan’s customs and traditions, where we can find the film’s conflict. We looked for Filipino stories and experiences, which would be the drama of the film. We looked at the nature of human beings— by their needs and wants—that would be the fight between good and evil and desire for perfection. We looked at the behaviour and relationships between Japanese and Filipinos—that would be the love story of the film. So that is how the story came about.. we went back to nature, and nature gave us the answer. I think we seek for perfection but nature will always suggest where our true destiny will be.. we fail and we recover—then we change ourselves for the better, a new direction, a new purpose.
Stay safe! Support good Filipino films! Kintsugi will have its premiere at the coming Sinag Maynila. Here is the trailer:
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