Preparation for the Festival
Matsori no junbi based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Nakajima Takehiro, which takes its title from a picture by Paul Gauguin. This autobiographical film about a young man who dreams of becoming a screenwriter is set in the village of Nakamura, in Kochi prefecture on Shikoku, where Nakajima was born and grew up. Nakajima later turned the novel into a screenplay that was published in a private literary magazine. Kuroki Kazuo, who sent it to the magazine, enjoyed it and got in touch with Nakajima in order to talk about turning it into a film. Kuroki wasn't the only one to show an interest, as Fujita Toshiya also wanted to film the story. After a joint meeting, an agreement was reached that it would be difficult to develop the film within the studio system, and that therefore the only real option was ATG. There was a precedent, in that Kuroki had already shot a film with ATG, the highly promising Ryôma ansatsu (Assassination of Ryôma, 1974). The film is set in the mid-1950s, when Japanese cinema reached its highpoint both in terms of number of films produced and in terms of quality. The big film studios had to release a couple of new films every week; they found a loyal following in the provincial cinemas that were bound to the studios by a block booking system. Matsuri no junbi, cited by many contemporary songs and films, provides a striking picture of provincial life in the fifties. In 1988, this time as director, Nakajima filmed Kyôshû (Remembrances), the prequel to Matsuri no junbi, so to speak.