"Sono Sion: Whispering Star," on view at the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art (Jingumae, Shibuya Ward) through July 10, expands on the thoughts that were not fully expressed in the film itself by creating a spatial piece from a different angle. The diverse techniques used include not only the 555 storyboards from "Whispering Star," but also a shadow puppet projection and an installation of Shibuya's faithful dog, Hachiko, placed in the disaster-stricken area of Fukushima.

Sono, whose creative endeavors transcend the boundaries of genres—video, poetry, novels, art, music, and performance—how does the modern era and the people who live in it view us?


■ The world of the living and the world of the dead remain the same

--The shadow puppet projection in "Sono Sion: Whispering Star" overlaps with the final scene of the film. Does it contain a different metaphor than the film? While the film is a set, when I turned it into an artwork for the museum, I wanted to emphasize the role of shoji paper. It bridges the gap between this world and the other. These two worlds are connected by the thread of life. However, the idea is not that one is this world and the other, but that both are the afterlife.

When I wrote the screenplay for Whispering Star, I never imagined that I would be setting the story in Fukushima 25 years from now, filming a ruined town. The Fukushima people who appear in the film were also living vibrant lives in their towns 25 years ago, before they were abandoned. But those towns of Fukushima are towns that will one day be lost. This is true not just for Fukushima, but for every town. Even this moment that exists here now will be gone in 100 years, with not even a trace left, we will all be dead, and this town will have changed completely. It is destined to disappear.

In other words, humans live in a kind of illusion. This moment, too, is an illusion, a mirage. When you get down to it like that, aren't the town that exists here and now, and us who are still alive, and the afterlife not so different? It's not a particularly pessimistic way of thinking; it's the light of life, the connection of life. I simply wanted to express the nature of "life."

--Even in the film, there are times when it's hard to tell whether it's the world of the living or the world of the dead.

The film's ending set is nothing but shadows, and depending on how you interpret it, it could be thought of as the underworld. Human life is as vague and fleeting as a heat haze. I chose shadow puppetry to express that. Androids live for hundreds of years, but humans live for around 100 years and then perish. We are beings who live in such fleeting moments.

■Earth is in space too!

--You've featured a spaceship that's never been seen in science fiction films before.

There's a long history of science fiction films, but I wanted to create a spaceship that had never been seen before. It's a normal, one-story Japanese house with tatami flooring, old-fashioned furniture, and an ordinary exterior (laughs). Even if you're living on Earth, it's hard to realize you're living in space. Moving to the moon would mean living in space, but most people still think, "Earth is Earth, after all."

But Earth is space, too. By making the inside of a spaceship extremely everyday, I wanted to make the audience realize that Earth is also space. When we think of spaceships, we usually imagine people fighting enemies with high-tech equipment, but the spaceship in "Whispering Planet" is quite ordinary. People just clip their nails and brush their teeth inside...

■ A different way of depicting the earthquake and nuclear disaster

-- Following "Himizu" (2011) and "Land of Hope," "Whispering Planet" also focuses on post-earthquake Fukushima, but you portrayed it in a different way from your previous two works. It's important to change your perspective, and so "Himizu" is set in the background of the story of the earthquake and nuclear disaster, while "Land of Hope" takes a journalistic perspective. Furthermore, the landscape will change between the time immediately after the disaster and the time after, so if I have another opportunity, I think I'll make a film from a different angle. Of course, I don't want to end the problem or continue it, and I have no mission or obligation to do so. But it's true that it's a major metaphor for the problems Japan is facing today, and I still end up there.

-- Were you shocked by the fact that such an impossible landscape had appeared on Earth?

This may be a bold way of thinking, but there are parts of that landscape that I find beautiful, and at the same time, I feel a sense of desolation. Both of these exist in Fukushima, and it's heartbreaking. For example, in deserted towns, for the first hour or so, it's surprisingly comfortable, to the point where I think it's nice. I smoke a cigarette and think, "Wow, it's so quiet, this is nice," but after a while, I start to feel strange and insane. But I never thought that a time would come when a landscape like the ones you see in Hollywood movies would actually exist in this world. Cinematically, it's a landscape with a sense of déjà vu, just like the one in "The Walking Dead," which depicts the end of the world, and in many ways it feels like a mysterious place.

--You've been involved in a variety of creative endeavors across genres, but what kind of developments do you have in mind for the future?

Recently, I've been blessed with the opportunity to hold several solo exhibitions, but I don't intend to continue doing art forever. I've been feeling a strong desire recently to focus on film for a while!


[Movie Information]
"The Whispering Star," directed by Sono Sion
Opening May 14, 2016 at Shinjuku Cinema Qualite and other theaters
(Opening at the same time as the documentary film "The Creature Called Sono Sion," directed by Oshima Arata)

[Exhibition Information]
"Sono Sion: The Whispering Star"
Venue: Watari Museum of Contemporary Art
Address: 3-7-6 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Dates: April 3rd - July 10th
Hours: 11:00am - 7:00pm (extended until 9:00pm every Wednesday)
Closed: Mondays
Admission: Adults 1,000 yen, Students (under 25 years old) 800 yen, Elementary and junior high school students 500 yen, Those 70 years and over 700 yen

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