The talk show started after his latest American film “Little Boy” (started from 12:45 p.m. JST), which deals with the World War II. The MC was Ms. Naomi Itonaga (Hiroshima Telecasting Co., Ltd. announcer), and the interpreter was Ms. Pauline Baldwin. During the talk show, his voice came through occasionally. In spite of such an unexpected incident, director Monteverde talked via an international call and writing on his memo pad. His cooperation made a precious time in which we could directly hear director Monteverde’s voice.

“Little Boy” is a moving story about achieving the impossible, in which an American boy tries to bring his father, who is in World War II, back. This film (scheduled to be released in February of 2015 in the U.S) was screened as the world premiere. Director Monteverde talked about the reason why he chose Hiroshima as the place for the world premiere. “I heard a lot about war after I migrated from Mexico to the U.S. During the war, many people died and people have their own views on the war, which are different from each other depending on their positions. My brother lived in Japan, so Japan is an important country for me. In this film, there are images of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Hiroshima. I wanted people in Hiroshima to see this film”.

The title “Little Boy” is a nickname of the boy (main character), but also was the nickname of the atomic bomb, which was detonated above Hiroshima.  Director Monteverde said “I was shocked to know that a horrible bomb like the atomic bomb had such a childish nickname. I developed a plan for the film for three years by mixing hatred caused by the war and bullying among children.”

This film carefully depicts a process in which a little boy grows up while being affected by the adults around him. Director Monteverde talked about his feeling toward the film, “I made a story about a little boy, because I wanted to tell people that education is the most important thing. In this film, I depicted how an innocent boy feels the reality of war by looking at the war from various points of view from his mother, a priest, a Japanese and others who give the little boy advice to overcome hatred.

Mr. Kato is a juror of the final Competition, so Ms. Ito asked Mr. Kato, “What is your point when you judge a film?” Mr. Kato answered, “I would like to give an award to a person who I think “this person has potential or has promising talent” rather than a person who can already make a good film, because many directors in this Competition are young directors with a hopeful future”. Ms. Ito also asked, “On which point do you feel such young director have promising talent?” Mr. Kato answered, “I think a strong feeling toward a film may ruin the film, but such a distortion is also attractive”.

Finally, when Mr. Kato was asked about ideas for next films, he firstly talked about “Mt. Everest”, the film which will start to be shot next March. Mr. Kato actually mounted Mt. Everest for the film. He also had an interview with a surgeon and visited a hospital to see an operation for writing the script for “A Lone Scalpel”. He said, “I can’t write a script without actually visiting the place of it”. Then, he revealed that he is also writing two scripts. He didn’t reveal what the films are like, but he said those films will be his unprecedented films. The talk show ended with exciting expectations.

The film “In The Hero”, which is a movie starring Toshiaki Karasawa, was released in September 2014. It focuses on a‘suit actor’ who is a stunt man wearing hero suits and masks.

Reporting the talk show below in interview-style writing:

― Why did you choose the theme of ‘suit actor’?
 “ I had dreamed to make a movie about workers of movie stagehands.  I am also one of them, even a director. So I wanted to focus on it and express it as a funny story. I have worked with stunt men many times since I was an assistant director. They act at the risk of their life. One of thestunt men who acts in this film stunted in a Hasegawa movie, “the Man Who Stole the Sun”, which was screened yesterday, when he was 17 years old.”

― How was shooting the movie with theme of a ’suit actor’?
 “We had shot witha stunt team every day for three months. During that period, I got too confused if they were practicing or acting in front of camera. (laugh) In the last scene of big action (100 Ninja are cut down one after another), many legendary suit actors performed. I was absolutely charmed by their action.”

― What do you want to tell through this movie?
 “The answer is importance, difficulty, and the beauty of keeping on doing something. There is no goal, but something. I learned it from Mr. Krasawa’s attitude towards the film. He stoically shaped up with eating chicken tenders for three months.”
In this talk show, more time was spared than expected for Q&A by the good kindness of director Take. His attitude of answering to the audience membersone by one in a polite way was impressive.

― Have you ever felt your heart is likely to be broken in continuing working as a director?
 Every day, I feel it every day when I wake up in the morning. I’ve been making it with my teeth clenched. However, I enjoy my job containing both stress and excitement, because some people cannot continue this job in spite of their wish.

― What do you think about the last scene of this movie that a cast member says the movie belongs tothe director?
 That’s a joke (laugh). I personally think the movie belongs to audiences. In fact, the person who acted as a director in that scene was director Yee Jun-ik who came to the Damah Film Festival last year.　He is a wonderful movie director who is known as a skillful craftsman of the Korean movies.

 At the end ofthe talk show, a local hero, Maple Kaiser appeared on the stage. When he told his worries as a hero, director Take was surprised and said “What? Do you speak while you are a hero (or a suit actor)?” “Yes I do! I almost cried watching ‘In The Hero’.” Maple Kaiser answered. “The hero cannot cry at all, can they?” director Take pointed out. Then, Maple Kaiser answered with a shocking word “I really want to be an ordinary man now. You know, being a hero is hard work.” The hall was filled with laughter and smiles throughout the show by the appearance of Maple Kaiser and his humanity.

　Mr. Takushi Nishinaka, whose film was nominated for the competition, spoke first. He suggested a story about avenge of the convinced defendant’s family on the judge. Mr. Hasegawa looked back his penal servitude for a half year. He showed interest and said, “Judges are human being. They have emotion more than we think. If there aren’t any films describe judges as a human being, it’s OK as a new idea.”

An unknown member of the audience has wrote up his story and presented it. The story was set in a postwar prison and it’s about prisoners who are encouraged by watching Carp, a baseball team.
After reading the story, Mr. Hasegawa explained his impression, “In this novel, the prisoners have interesting characters. We have to think who to focus on and we have many things to describe, like the past story of the prisoners and unfoldment of time series. I want to create a film that people can empathize with the main character, so it’s too ensemble for me.”
He also said he feels ashamed to describe warm story. “My style is ‘Poisonous and Thrill’ and brief moment of tear. Poisonous is attractive, but it’s not bad thing. If I can’t feel it thrilling, it’s not my taste.” he emphasized that.