BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
This program involves conducting brief email interviews with the directors of the international films featured in the festival, in lieu of the traditional Q&A session that follows the screenings. Through this program, we hope to provide a platform for filmmakers to discuss their work and share their insights with our audience in China.
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
It's Time to Play Together｜一緒に遊ぶ時間だよ｜是时候一起游玩了
Kokoha Kubo
2024｜0:16:22｜Japan｜Japanese｜International Premiere
Director: Kokoha Kubo
Interviewer & Translator: Pincent Liu
Coordinator & Editor: Suliko
导演：久保心花
采访、翻译：刘品呈
统筹、编辑：苏丽珂
Q1: These images appear mainly from the documentation of your parents’ life and trips. First of all, can you tell us a bit about their experiences with cameras and filmmaking? It seems to me that some of the footage comes from experienced cameraperson, rather than casual recording. How did you communicate with them about your decision to make films based on their footage?
这些影像似乎主要来自于您父母的生活、旅行记录，首先能介绍一下他们接触摄影机并且长期进行影像记录的经历吗？在我看来一些影像片段来自于有经验的拍摄者，而不像是随手记录的。你又是如何与他们沟通你想要根据他们的这些素材来进行创作的决定的？
A1: The reason it might seem that way is that the footage was selected from long takes. My parents don’t have any special experience with cameras or filmmaking; these images were simply recorded as home movies. Capturing everyday life continuously is difficult, and we often have to decide what to include and what to leave out during filming. In that sense, I feel there is a lot I can learn from my parents' approach. I didn’t discuss this project with them beforehand. I’ve used home movies as material in previous works. At first, I hesitated to use them, but my parents seem to view their past selves and their present selves as completely separate. I really like this perspective.
呈现出这个效果，是因为这些素材是从长的镜头中被挑选出来的。我的父母对摄影机或电影制作并没有任何特殊的经验，这些影像只是作为家庭电影记录下来的。连续捕捉日常生活是很困难的，在拍摄过程中，我们经常要决定要留下哪些及省去哪些。从这个意义上说，我觉得我可以从父母的方法中学到很多东西。我没有事先和他们讨论过这个项目。我在以前的作品中使用过家庭录像作为素材。起初我犹豫是否要使用它们，但我的父母似乎把过去的自己和现在的自己完全分开来看待，我真的很喜欢这种视角。
Q2: I am curious about the creating process of the voice-over. Were some of the voice-over originally with footage? If some of the conversation/interview voice-over were added at a later stage, were they conducted while showing the footage in front of your parents? I wonder how this kind of process went. Also can you talk about the few complete silent scenes where there are subtitles still? Whose lines are they? Still one of your parents?
我很好奇旁白的创作流程是怎样的？其中有一些旁白是视频素材原本就带有的吗？如果有些部分是后期添加的旁白，那你是通过将这些被整理后的影像素材放映给你父母观看的同时进行采访吗？我很好奇这个过程是怎样的。另外，能聊聊其中少数几个对白无声音但有字幕的片段吗？这些字幕的叙述主体并不明确，也是你父母吗？
A2: I often get asked, "Are these your parents?" But the narration is not done by my parents. It was done by a couple who are friends of mine. Let me explain the process of making the narration. First, we wrote fictional dialogue for the silent scenes. One of the couple read the lines aloud, and the other listened. After that, the three of us discussed the footage, and the couple would talk while watching it. Since it was their first time seeing the footage, sometimes I would add explanations or suggest lines to guide the direction. There was some improvisation, and this was supported by their relationship.
In the silent scenes, we avoided making it clear whose lines they were. As one of my friends said, "Even if you're right in front of me, you can't really know. How many people are like me?" This illustrates that we can never fully know someone else's thoughts. Interestingly, when I showed the footage to my parents, my father said, "I don’t remember saying that, but maybe I felt that way." When my friend said, "It was cooler than outside. I remember that day as being strange," I thought it sounded like something my mother would say. In this way, I selected the words and images.
经常有人问我：“旁白是你的父母吗？” 但其实它不是由我的父母完成的，而是一对夫妇，他们是我的朋友。让我来解释一下旁白的制作过程。首先，我们为无声的场景编写了虚构的对白，这对夫妇中的一人朗读台词，另一人则倾听。之后，我们三人讨论镜头素材，这对夫妇一边看一边说。由于这是他们第一次看到这些镜头，有时我会添加一些解释或我建议的台词来引导方向。这其中有一些即兴创作，而他俩之间的关系也对这种即兴发挥有所帮助。
在那些无声的场景中，我们避免明确让人知道台词是谁的。正如我的一位朋友所说的：“即使你就在我面前，你也不可能真正知晓。有多少人像我一样？”这说明我们永远无法完全了解别人的想法。有趣的是，当我向我父母展示这些镜头时，我父亲说：“我不记得我说过这句话，但也许我当时也有这种感觉。”当我的朋友说“比外面凉快，我记得那天很奇怪”，我觉得这听起来像是我母亲会说的话。就这样，我选择了这些文字和图像。
It's Time to Play Together, Kokoha Kubo, 2024
Q3: In the opening scene, the moving and flowing graininess in the shadow by the light attracts me a lot. How this kind of texture was captured? It is much a sense of encountering magical moments on the details of everyday life, which mirrors what this tender, sensual, and intimate film is perhaps about. Can you tell me why you put these lights and shadows in the opening part of the film, earlier than your parents’ physical appearance in the film?
在开头的场景中，光影中流动的颗粒感非常吸引人，我好奇你是如何捕捉到这种质感的？这让人有种在日常生活细节中遇到一些奇妙时刻的感觉，这也正反映出了这部电影给人的感觉，它很温柔、感性、私密，能谈谈为什么让这些光影的片段先于人物出现在电影里吗？
A3: This footage was recorded the ceiling, with the focus shifting due to the brightness of the light. Originally, it was a short clip just a few seconds long, but as I extended its length, the movement of the particles appeared. It would have been great if this effect had been captured directly by the camera, but in reality, it emerged accidentally during the editing process. When you stare at one point for a long time, a visual illusion occurs where the edges seem to tremble. As a child, I thought "objects can’t withstand being stared at for too long." As you pointed out, this footage symbolizes the theme of the work, which is why I chose it. I placed it before the human figures appeared in the film because I wanted to give the impression that someone, somewhere, is talking in a room.
这段镜头拍摄的是天花板，随着光线的亮度，焦距发生变化。最初，这是一个只有几秒钟的片段，但随着我延长它的长度，粒子的运动就出现了。如果这种效果是摄影机直接捕捉到的就好了，但实际上它是在剪辑过程中意外出现的。当你长时间盯着一个点看时，就会产生一种视觉上的错觉，边缘似乎在抖动。小时候，我认为“物体经不起长时间的注视”。正如你所指出的，这段镜头象征着这部作品的主题，这就是我选择它的原因。我让它在电影里先于人物出现，因为我想给人一种在房间里的某个地方有人正在说话的感觉。
Q4: Unexpectedly, the parts of the film that were shot in China, a somehow foreign country to your parents, do not show much sense of exotic or alienated, but possibly a universal familiar sense to many audiences from different countries, just like a remote hometown in a foreign land. Can you talk about how you felt when you edited these travelling moments?
出乎意料的是，影像中在中国拍摄的部分，对于你父母来说也许仍然属于一个陌生的地方，但对于不同国家的观众来说可能都没有太强的陌生感，反而可能有一种普遍的熟悉感，有时影像中的他乡有种遥远的故乡的感觉，能谈谈这些旅途的片段在你剪辑时给你带来的感受吗？
A4: I agree. My parents lived in China for several years. For them, China was both a travel destination and a part of their everyday life. The sense of familiarity in the footage likely comes from the fact that my parents, as the filmmakers, viewed the landscape with a sense of closeness. I don’t have memories from the time I lived in China, but I heard a lot of stories from my parents. When I watched this footage, it felt like my imagination had overlapped with reality. It wasn’t so much that memories were coming back, but rather I thought, "Ah, so this is what it was like."
我同意。我的父母在中国生活过几年。对他们来说，中国既是旅行目的地，也是他们日常生活的一部分。影片中的熟悉感很可能来自于我的父母，作为影片制作者，他们以一种亲近感来观赏这些风景。我没有在中国生活过的记忆，但我从父母那里听过很多故事。当我观看这些镜头时，感觉就像我的想象与现实重叠在了一起。与其说是记忆涌现回来了，不如说是我在想：“啊，原来是这样的。”
It's Time to Play Together, Kokoha Kubo, 2024
Q5: One of the most interesting part of the film is the relationship between the sound and the image, which reminds me of certain Marguerite Duras films, traveling between her France and India in a way. That is to say, the sound and the image sometimes separate and sometimes fit together. Can you tell me what your goal is in terms of the sound-image relationship?
影片的声画关系非常有趣，让我想起了玛格丽特·杜拉斯的电影作品（她的部分作品以某种方式在印度和法国两个国家之间进行穿梭）。也就是说，这部电影的声画关系似乎是若即若离的，有时分离有时契合，能谈谈你对这部作品的声画关系是怎样考虑的吗？
A5: Thank you for the interesting comparison. When sound and image align naturally, it creates a more grounded impression compared to the moments when they are separate. This contrast emphasizes the sense of reliving these memories, even though the footage is entirely new to them and should feel unfamiliar. In the silent parts, only the visuals and subtitles exist. Sometimes, when you read the subtitles, you might miss the visuals, and vice versa, and you have to choose between one or the other.
谢谢你有趣的对比。声音和图像自然地结合在一起的时刻，与它们分离的时刻相比，会给人一种更坚实的印象。这种对比强调了重温这些记忆的感觉，尽管这些镜头对他们来说是全新的，应该感到陌生才对。在无声的部分，只有画面和字幕存在。有时当你阅读字幕时，你可能会错过视觉上的内容，反之亦然，你必须在两者之间做出选择。
Q6: This idea might be a bit private, perhaps due to our past experiences with East Asian archival home movies, few audiences may have ‘expected’ certain conflicts between the characters while watching the film. However, your work somehow refuses to go into that direction. Even though it is not entirely without any melancholy, it is indeed tender, lovely and joyful just like what the beautiful title of the film sounds like. Was the drama of conflicts something you deliberately tried to avoid? Is your memory and impression of your family mostly joyful, which is of course reflected in the film, or maybe you intentionally avoided the unhappy part?
这个想法可能有点冒昧，也许由于对于东亚家庭档案影像的观影经验，少数观众也许在观看这部作品过程中可能有“期待”着人物之间矛盾冲突的出现，但你的作品并没有向这个方向发展，虽然并非完全没有忧郁的感觉，但它的确是温情、可爱和快乐的，就像这个很美的片名一样。冲突的戏剧性是你故意想要避免的吗？是由于你对家庭记忆的印象正是如此还是你有选择地回避了记忆中可能不甚愉快的部分？
A6: From what I’m able to observe within my limited perspective, I think most people are living by finding compromises rather than hoping for change through conflict. However, I also believe there are events where conflict is inevitable. In interpersonal relationships, conflicts do occur, but often the reasons are unclear. There are times when conflicts happen without understanding why, and even when trying to be kind, things don’t go well. I think these thoughts are reflected in the absence of conflict in the film.
从我有限的视角所能观察到的情况来看，我认为大多数人都是通过寻找妥协而不是通过冲突来改变生活现状的。然而我也相信在有些情况下，冲突是不可避免的。在人际关系中，确实会发生冲突，但原因往往不明。有时冲突发生时人们并不明白原因，即使努力表现出善意，事情也并不会顺利。我想，这部电影中冲突的缺失反映了这些想法。
more information: https://www.bisff.co/selection/it's-time-to-play-together