Making Heart 05:
Nagasaki Shunichi and Muroi Shigeru
By Tom Charity
You can’t go home again, said Thomas Wolfe. It doesn’t stop us trying though; after all, home is where the heart is. Thirteen years after he made Heart, Beating in the Dark Nagasaki Shunichi has returned to the title, the characters, the themes, and the situation of his underground classic. But this is no ordinary remake. It is both more faithful and more problematic.
In its 1982 incarnation, Nagasaki ’s film is about a guy and a girl (Naito Takashi and Muroi Shigeru) going at each other as the walls close in around them. It’s raw, explicit, and disturbing—all the more so for the mesmeric whirring of the Super 8 camera in the background. Influential in Japan’s indie scene, but not widely seen anywhere, Heart Beating in the Dark is a transgressive, rough, bruising movie determined to get under your skin, like it or not.
Heart, Beating in the Dark 05 begins with Nagasaki discussing the idea of revisiting the film with his two original actors reprising their roles, older now, and possibly wiser (in reality, both have become celebrities in the interim). During the course of the film-within, they will encounter a younger couple reenacting scenes from the original movie, sometimes counterpointed with the original Super 8 footage to complete the collage effect.
In other words, this is a remake, a sequel, a documentary about its own production, and none of the above. But for all its audacity, it touches us in a very direct and simple way— because it probes our unstable claim on the past; the regrets that cannot be undone; the changes time imprints across our face.
In a way it’s analogous to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset (2004), a bittersweet meditation on the aging process in which the actors are inextricable from their characters. But the Linklater comparison only goes so far. Imagine Before Sunset if the young lovers had blood on their hands—and instead of talking all night they found a room in which to…relate. Amour fou raises the stakes considerably, and makes the reunion a good deal edgier.
On top of all this, the original was already a much more experimental film, with the actors swapping roles or engaging in neo-Godardian philosophical soliloquies. In the 2005 version Nagasaki takes this much farther. We see documentary-like scenes in which the actors discuss the project in rehearsal. Naito, for example, has a strong desire to redress the amorality of the first version by punching out his younger counterpart. Muroi, on the other hand, is more forgiving of Inako’s youthful transgressions. Thus the movie becomes an open-ended experiment, a kind of critical post-mortem on its own remains.
Not surprisingly, there isn’t much in the way of a conclusion. Without giving too much away, it’s fair to say that everyone has a chance to test their impulses—although it’s pretty clear that Nagasaki now has much more time for his characters in middle-age than he does for their youthful counterparts. Whether he has found closure in the process Nagasaki isn’t saying, but Muroi for one says it still feels like unfinished business: “I wonder if we could do another version in 20 years time…”
Cinema Scope: Whose idea was it to revisit Heart, Beating in the Dark?
Nagasaki Shunichi: The executive producer’s idea.
Scope: How widely seen was the original in Japan ?
Nagasaki : Initially it was shown to a very limited audience at a small art gallery. Not many people had seen it.
Scope: So were you surprised at the producer’s suggestion?
Nagasaki : I’ve known of this for a long time, and every time our paths have crossed he has suggested this, time after time. But it was only recently he persuaded me.
Scope: So you had resisted? Why?
Nagasaki : What purpose would there be to remake something I already did? I had a problem trying to understand why I would do that.
Scope: If we go back to 1982, can you explain why you wanted to make Heart, Beating in the Dark at that point? Where were you in your career then?
Nagasaki: In 1982, I had just made my first 35mm film, The Lonely Hearts Club Band in September , but I wasn’t satisfied with what I had done. So I went back to square one and asked myself what I needed to do to make a good film.
Scope: It’s a very simple film to make: a room, two people, and a Super 8 camera….
Nagasaki : Exactly so. I wanted to find how much I could put into the film, how far I could go with limited resources.
Scope: And did you feel that process put you back on track?
Nagasaki : When I started out my notion of a commercial film was really just a copy of what people expected of that genre. My first film conformed to those expectations. This film, Heart, Beating in the Dark, gave me the courage to make my own films, to lead instead of follow.
Scope: One of the striking things about the new version is how little you are in it. So for example, the idea to make it more of a sequel than a remake comes from Naito Takashi, not from you.
Nagasaki : I wanted to think of the term “remake” in a more philosophical sense. That yes, we’re using the same actors, albeit decades after, it is a remake and a sequel, but I wanted to focus on this aspect—we can never undo something in life, but if there is another chance in life then we seize on it. I wanted the viewer to ponder this broader sense of the term “remake.”
Scope: Which doesn’t quite address the specific sense of why you are not more directly in the film yourself?
Nagasaki : Well, that’s not where I wanted the film to be focused. Although it is my thoughts which are portrayed from time to time, it’s more about the relationship between the actors past and present and what a “remake” might mean.
Scope: And very much more focused in the older actors than the younger couple, now.
Nagasaki : That’s probably true, yes. As much as the focus is on remake, the message is that there is no such thing in life. I’m loathe to be very specific because it’s better if the viewer senses these things.
Scope: The two actors present two contrasting attitudes to the young Ringo and Inako. He wants to punish, or at least to punch, his younger self. She is more sympathetic, and wants to guide them…where would your own perspective lie?
Nagasaki : My own attitude probably includes a bit of both. We want both to reject and to accept, but my own stance is that neither is really possible.
Scope: It’s a very strange film, a bit remake, a bit sequel, and a bit something else. Was it closely preplanned? Did you have a script from start to finish?
Nagasaki : It changed over time. The initial plan was just to remake the same film we did 23 years ago, but to do it set today. But we wanted the two actors to be in the film as well, which is when the documentary aspect came in. But after adding that it still felt incomplete, so then it became a sort of a sequel. So it is a remake and a sequel and a documentary all as one.
Scope: But the documentary is staged?
Nagasaki : That’s right.
Scope: In those scenes it looks as if you give the actors a lot of freedom. How representative is that of your working method?
Nagasaki : It is to an extent. They get some freedom, but those scenes were all scripted. They improvised somewhat, but within the script.
Scope: Were you surprised at where the film ended up, because the ending feels very open?
Nagasaki : There wasn’t an ending in the original script; it was something we were looking for. Specifically, I wasn’t sure which cut to go with at the end, whether to finish with the past or the present. I thought about it night after night, and so did the producer. As it ended up I am quite satisfied with it. The film as a whole takes on a very different feeling depending on the ending, so it was nerve-wracking to come to a conclusion on that.
Scope: Has it been a rewarding process for you? Might you do it again, with a different film, or with this film again in 40 years time?
Nagasaki : Getting the actors back after 20 years, it’s a rare opportunity, and it was very satisfying in that sense. As to doing any more like this, I haven’t considered it.
* * * * *
Scope: Were you surprised to be invited to revisit this character?
Muroi Shigeru: I was very happy because that character had always stayed in the back of my mind.
Scope: Twenty-three years ago you must have been pretty young. Was it your first role?
Muroi: I was still at university at the time, but I had been in many student films. And Mr. Nagasaki saw me in some of them before he offered me the part.
Scope: So were you studying acting?
Muroi: I was studying sociology. Film was like my club, my hobby.
Scope: It’s a very brave role to take on.
Muroi: I was young and adventurous and doing a lot of experimental stuff with student films. Now that I’m older I would probably hesitate to do it. But I had the power of youth back then!
Scope: What are your memories of making the film back then?
Muroi: Mainly I remember it was fun to be in it. It wasn’t a commercial film, so I did my own make-up, I brought my own clothes. They were physically difficult scenes, and I took care of myself as far as that goes. We did the shooting at night, and I remember the neighbour in the apartment next door used to complain about the noise.
Scope: For the remake, was there already a script when they came to you, or did it evolve as we see in the film?
Muroi: Nagasaki ’s first idea was just to remake the original story, but Naito and I both really like the original, and we didn’t want to just make cameo appearances in it. We suggested it should reflect the time that has passed for these characters. From there, there were at least two scripts. And it changed quite a bit in post-production too. So it was an evolving film.
Scope: Did Nagasaki give you much input into directing those changes?
Muroi: As a director, Nagasaki needs a lot of rehearsal. One of things we discussed in rehearsal was that Naito/Ringo would be an electrician now. So it was very easy to imagine what kind of character he would be. But Inako was quite invisible. There was a lot of discussion about what sort of job she might have, what kind of man she might be with, how many men she had gone through. There is one line in the film that says now she is trying to pick up the money for some man she is with, but it’s ambiguous. So there was a lot of discussion about character.
As an example of how open-ended the process was, when all the post production work was done and we had the first screening, Nagasaki said to me, “Inako doesn’t love Ringo anymore, does she?” I hadn’t realized it at the time—we made the film without knowing. There is always this doubt between a man and a woman; or perhaps there is love, but they cannot live together. I think the film doesn’t give you the answer.
Scope: I think he loves her! At some points you are playing yourself, at other points you are Inako. How much of yourself do you see in the film?
Muroi: In Japan , my image is bright, sunny, comical. And that is part of me. But if I put that in the film it might have destroyed the movie. So it was tricky to find what part of myself to share while suppressing that—and still being myself.
Inako always stayed with me. And it was the same with Naito. And Mr. Sasaki, the producer, had the same film. It was not made professionally at all, but we all had this very strong feeling about the film. Now, having made the 2005 version, it doesn’t feel completely finished. I haven’t talked to Nagasaki about this, but I wonder if we could do another version in 20 years time, we all have such strong feelings for it. That film felt so real, it’s as if Inako was living somewhere in a corner of Tokyo somewhere.
Scope: If a friend came to you and said, there are these two DVDs on the shelf, and they are both called Heart, Beating in the Dark, and you are in both of them, which film should I watch and why? What would you say?
Muroi: Well, naturally I want them to look at my younger self, first of all. But I really am fond of the 2005 version. When we first screened it someone said to me, “You haven’t aged very much,” which was nice. Then they turned to Naito-san and said, “But you’ve got older.” What is it to mature? As an actor, if I were to choose…It’s completely impossible to choose.
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