INTENTION OF THE PROJECT

From my own experiences, I was worried about the memories of the disaster fading away.

When I worked as an assistant, I knew of ‘The Drifting Post’, so I contacted to Mr. Akagawa who holds the post.

I wanted to make the movie that could not only ease people’s sorrow but stop memories fading away.

It was this motivation that inspired me to make this movie.

Through focusing on people who were injured by the disaster, we learn that our daily lives are precious and yet people don’t seem to mind how fragile it is.

Therefore, it is difficult for people to accept the reality when their important person loses their precious life.
However, finally, there will come a time when they accept everything, when they need to live their lives because of this loss of life, time and themselves.

Eight years on from the disaster, did we learn from lessons we learned?

I would like to speak to a society surrounded by conflict who don’t seem to mind the loss of human connections.
It is my hope that this film will inspire people to look to the future.

Kento SHIMIZU

PRODUCTION NOTES

【 REALITY 】

I did a lot of interviews with people who visit "The Drifting Post" and send letters through the post.

I then used their true story to make my film. All the letters that appeared in the film are real letters.
Through them, I was able to emphasise the true extent of what happened in the disaster.

When I conducted interviews with the people who wrote the letters,

all the actors joined us so they could face the reality and make full use of the humanity they were witness to.

【 DRAW THE INSIDE 】

I also did a unique audition for the actors.

For example; I set up a scene where they read letters that delivered to ‘The Drifting Post’.
To draw their reaction, I then recorded the video for the actors when they read out the letters.Of course, they didn’t notice that the camera was on.

In addition, when I did auditions for the student role, I let them write letters to their best friends,

because I also needed to see their emotional reaction.

In exploiting their personality, I could pursue the reality and use it for my own creation.

【APPEAL TO THE SENSES】

By conveying people’s emotional difficulties, I was trying make a film that showed the five senses of being human.

How a beautiful life was suddenly taken away by the disaster, like bubbles popping, or a calm sea becoming a rough sea. The film contains beautiful scenes and sounds effects, using poetic expression and a sense of distance.