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Hollywood Story:
One Filmmaker's Journey from NHK to the Silver Screen
Keishi Otomo
Graduate of the Faculty of Law
Feb. 28, 2022
From Baseball Kid to Aspiring Lawyer & an Admissions Interview Gone Wrong
- Is it true that you wanted to grow up to be a professional baseball player as a child?
Yes, I can trace my dreams of becoming a baseball player back to the retirement ceremony of Shigeo Nagashima, the Tokyo Giants' superstar third-baseman. I remember when he turned to the fans and said those famous words: "The Giants are forever!" I thought he was the coolest person on earth. I decided that I just had to play baseball, so I joined a local youth team and became obsessed. I never missed a beat running five kilometers every morning.
But when I reached junior high school, I realized that I didn't have the talent to go pro [laughs], and I eventually had to give up baseball in high school due to a knee injury caused by all the intense training I did. I lived alone in Morioka during high school after my father was transferred for work, but I couldn't focus on my studies, so to pass the time, I would go to the local movie theater district in Morioka and watch European films. So, of course, my grades plummeted. While in high school, I took the entrance exam for a national university but failed miserably on the mathematics and classical Japanese portions. Even now, when I'm stuck on something at work, I have nightmares about not being able to solve problems on a math exam. [laughs]
- So, after failing the entrance exam and studying for another year, you got into the Faculty of Law at Keio University.
I became interested in different social issues in junior high, so I wanted to become a lawyer to fight for social justice. In fact, my first choice was Waseda University because I admired its rough-and-tumble image. But I decided to go to Keio after I was late for my admissions interview, which might not make much sense. On the day of the interview, I overslept and arrived at Mita Campus just in time to find out that the interview was actually at Hiyoshi. [laughs] Frantic and dreadfully late, I hurried to Hiyoshi, wherethey let me into the interview. I thought to myself, "The folks at Keio sure are generous." [laughs] Of course, at the time, I assumed I had failed miserably, only to find out later that I had passed. When I talked to my father about it, he told me that I seemed to have better luck with Keio than with Waseda. I agreed and decided to enroll.
At university, I started preparing for the bar exam. It was the height of the bubble economy, so all of the students, myself included, were going to campus dressed up in the street fashions of the "DC brands" boom. Eventually, my studying for the bar exam came to a standstill. In the precedents we were reading, the names of the parties to the case were all replaced by arbitrary letters like "A, B, C." There was nothing human there. Without the name or age of the person, like "Otomo, Age 55," for instance, it's hard to imagine the context around the case. That's when I realized that I'm an irrational person and probably shouldn't be a lawyer, so I gave up on the bar exam once and for all and went back to watching movies. At the Faculty of Law, I settled on "International Law" as my seminar. Specifically, I researched the international rules on space debris like satellites, which was interesting as a contemporary issue with progressive space exploration. I also enjoyed the fact that there was no easy, cut-and-dried solution. I guess I was never cut out to be a lawyer. [laughs]
A Filmmaker Is Born: Interviewing at NHK & Living in Hollywood
- How did you go about finding a job?
Actually, I thought about going back to school at the Faculty of Letters in my senior year. I would have been allowed to start as a third-year student since I already had my bachelor's degree. I wanted to go on to graduate school and become a literary researcher. But when all of my peers started job hunting, I got caught up in the momentum and began visiting companies for some reason. I suppose it was fascinating to hear the stories of Keio alumni in various industries, and I ended up calling on more than 50 companies. Among them, I was particularly interested in the media and advertising industry, so I figured I would take the NHK entrance exam as practice. I was still going to graduate school, after all. In the interview, I talked about my love for Kumagusu Minakata and Leonardo da Vinci, as well as my thoughts on the role of the "senses" in the visual age. I remember talking about an NHK special I had seen on the phenomenon of "phantom limbs," in which soldiers who have lost their legs on the battlefield feel an itch in their nonexistent toe. The interviewer was very interested in what I had to say, and we hit it off. It was there that I felt a connection with the company, and it solidified my desire to work at NHK.
- What was your study abroad experience like?
I learned about new television and film production methodologies and visited film shoots at the University of Southern California (USC) and other film institutions. During the two years I spent in Los Angeles, I got to know many filmmaking professionals in Hollywood, and I was also inspired by filmmakers who had come from other places like Hong Kong. It was also during this time that I started writing my own screenplays. I spent my days totally immersed in Hollywood film production, so after returning to Japan in 1999, I felt like refusing to come to work because of the vast cultural gap. I struggled for a while but finally found success with the Saturday drama The Vulture, which was broadcast in 2007.
- The Vulture won awards in Japan and abroad, and you later directed a popular feature film based on the TV series.
I had wanted to do a dynamic social commentary through drama, which I could finally do with The Vulture. I also wrote the screenplay for the three-part NHK drama Shirasu Jiro (broadcast in 2009), which was highly acclaimed, and went on to work on the historical drama series Ryomaden (broadcast in 2010). I wasn't so interested in NHK's epic Taiga dramas, but in the end, my desire to portray Ryoma Sakamoto—a popular samurai character at the end of the Edo period—prevailed. We radically changed the rules of production surrounding the conventional Taiga drama, from the camera equipment to the way we shot each scene. People around me began to suspect I was trying to sabotage my career at NHK, and I felt a growing desire to create and shoot something of my own from scratch. In the latter half of Ryomaden, I began to receive offers to direct films, one of which was Rurouni Kenshin, which would become my independent directorial debut.
The Challenges of Film Production & Thoughts on a Hometown Rattled by Disaster
Well, I quit NHK in April 2011, so I was still working for NHK on the day of the earthquake. I was shocked to see the devastation in the disaster areas on the news. At the same time, I was worried about whether I would be able to leave. Fortunately, we were able to wrap up shooting in August as scheduled since Warner Bros. is a foreign company. As for the action scenes, which are the main attractions of the film, I think we were able to create a new type of Japanese action never seen before by making full use of what I learned in Hollywood and assembling a strong team of professionals from the people I knew.
- The Rurouni Kenshin series is a hit overseas as well. It must have felt amazing to have such a great response to your first independent work.
That definitely felt good, but at the same time, I was feeling increasingly concerned about my hometown in Iwate Prefecture, which had been devastated by the earthquake. I began to revisit Morioka, which I had all but neglected, and renewed old friendships with my friends from elementary, junior high, and high school. I also wanted to do something for the community as a filmmaker, so I organized events for the local movie theater district where I used to go in high school. One event commemorated the 150th birthday of Inazo Nitobe, the author of Bushido and a native of Morioka, before the release of Rurouni Kenshin. Nitobe's Bushido has a lot in common with the concept of Rurouni Kenshin. Later in 2019, I filmed Eiri, a film based on the Akutagawa Prize-winning novel set in Morioka. Local residents were delighted, which made me feel like I had repaid a small debt to my hometown.
- The final two films in the Rurouni Kenshin series were released in 2021, marking a decade since you went independent.
The film was slated for release in 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was frustrating to see all of the movie theaters in major cities across the country shut down under a state of emergency. I went and petitioned Diet members personally to open them. Much like its titular character, the Rurouni Kenshin series ended up an underdog facing adversity. But I am proud to say that through Rurouni Kenshin, we've pioneered a new style of Japanese cinema. The same cast and crew have been together since the first film, so there's a real sense of connection and community.
For the past ten years, I've been taking on whatever work I could. Now, at the not-so-tender age of 55, I have to think about how many more films I have left in me, and it's time to choose my projects carefully. I'm currently looking at offers from Japan and overseas about period dramas that go back to the roots of Japanese cinema, as well as hard-hitting socially-conscious human dramas. Whatever I choose to do, I'll show the world that there's yet another side to the film director Keishi Otomo.
- Could you say a few final words to current students?
In uncertain times like these, I dare to say, "Life is fascinating only because it doesn't turn out the way you want it to." When you're young, you tend to stick to your plans and ideals, but you'll find many unexpected opportunities and encounters if you just loosen up a bit.
Enjoying solitude is also essential for personal growth, so be sure to watch lots of movies. Films serve as a window into lives and worlds you wouldn't otherwise know. That window can lead anywhere—to the United States, Italy, France, and elsewhere. I hope that students will use film to broaden their horizons and look deeper into themselves. I, too, will continue to strive to make films for everyone to enjoy.
- Thank you for your time.
Keishi Otomo
Film Director
Otomo graduated from Keio University's Department of Law in the Faculty of Law in 1990. The same year, he joined NHK and was posted to the Akita Broadcasting Station, where he was in charge of news, sports, entertainment, and documentary programs. He transferred to the NHK Drama Programs Division in 1994. In 1997, he went to Hollywood, where he spent two years learning the latest film techniques. Upon returning to Japan, he directed the NHK TV series Churasan, The Vulture, Shirasu Jiro, and the historical drama Ryomaden before going independent in 2011. As a film director, he has produced several acclaimed works, including the Rurouni Kenshin series, Platinum Data, March Comes in Like a Lion, and Eiri, set in his hometown of Iwate.
