Director Shô Miyake is one of the most promising young filmmakers from Japan. He has become a regular of the Berlin International Film Festival since his 2018 film And Your Bird Can Sing, an observation of a trio of twenty-somethings struggling with adulthood in the city of Hakodate in the summer. His follow-up film Small, Slow But Steady (2022) was based on hearing-impaired female boxer Keiko Osagawara’s memoir. Shot on 16mm with intricate attention to the sound design and spaces of boxing gyms and his protagonist Keiko’s world, Small, Slow but Steady built a steady reputation on the festival circuit.
With his latest film, All the Long Nights, Shô Miyake marks an evolution in his filmmaking. His strength as a filmmaking has always been his detailed, observational and unhurried style which enables him to create lived-in atmospheres for his characters and relationships to play out against. But with All the Long Nights, the writing of his characters and their interpersonal relationships has grown more confident, with a strong sense of direction and clear character arcs.
Hokuto Matsumura and Mone Kamishiraishi in All the Long Nights
Shot once again on 16mm, All the Long Nights is based on a 2020 novel of the same name by Maiko Seo and follows Misa (Mone Kamishiraishi), an ordinary young woman who suffers from severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS) to the point of debilitating mental health. She moves to the outskirts of Tokyo to work in a factory assembling science kits for students. Takatoshi (Hokuto Matsumura), who suffers from panic attacks, similarly moves away from a fast-paced corporate life to work at the factory due to his mental health. Initially resentful of small-town life, he grows to appreciate the everyday acts of kindness shown by Misa and the colleagues in his factory. While the initial premise reads like a predictable boy meets girl romance, the narrative is anything but. The relationship between Misa and Takatoshi is platonic but rich in depth, and the film unfolds gradually to reveal the complex characters and relationships of Misa and Takatoshi’s colleagues in the factory, their family backstories and more. Miyake’s direction balances the warmth the story needs without allowing it to veer off into becoming overly saccharine and precious. Anchored with a strong cast, Miyake’s film is a wondrous ode to life––for all its pain, and suffering, challenges and bitterness, the everyday kindness, humility and love people have for each other is a quiet but transcendent triumph of human will and determination.
We were excited to speak to Shô Miyake, and assisted by translator Hinako Nakagawa, we got to chat with him about his latest film All The Long Nights, as well as his filmmaking and writing process through his previous films And Your Bird Can Sing and Small, Slow but Steady.
On writing the film
What drew you to adapting this book, All The Long Nights by Maiko Seo? Was it to do with the subject matter (about mental health issues) or the characters or a combination of different reasons?
I was drawn to the characters. For me, characters are always the most important element. The two protagonists in this work repeatedly reconsider their preconceptions and assumptions, asking themselves “But is that really true?”, and taking small actions for the sake of others. I felt attached to their portrayal, and it was as if I too was becoming free from conformity along with them. I was also attracted to the story of the two searching for a happy way of life that didn’t involve romance, and I felt it offered an opportunity for a new challenge.
How was the screenplay writing process like with your co-writer Kiyoto Wada?
It would take a long time if I tried to explain it all, but I think we were constantly considering what the words in the title meant. Also, a big theme of this story is “never forget to have a sense of humor about things,” and working with Wada-san on the script was always a ton of fun.
How was adapting a novel different from adapting a memoir, as you had previously done with your film Small, Slow but Steady?
I never put any thought into the difference between adapting a novel and a biography. In the sense that I spent all my time thinking about the themes, and looking up what I didn’t know, they were the exact same.
Did most of what happens in the novel make it into the film, or were there any changes to the story and characters? For example, was the subplot about the two students making a documentary about the factory always part of the story?
The most significant change was the addition of the planetarium element. The idea for the planetarium came to me while I was contemplating the words in the series title.
I wanted to include teenagers who weren’t yet of working age because this film is not a coming-of-age story, but a story about work. In other words, I wanted to give the protagonists something that they could be contrasted with, in terms of their position in society. Also, by having middle school students freely coming in and out of the company, I feel it concretely conveyed the open and welcoming atmosphere of Kurita Science.
On shooting the film
You chose to shoot on 16mm film again with your cinematographer Yuta Tsukinaga. What is the quality in 16mm that made it right for Small, Slow and Steady and also All the Long Nights?
I chose 16mm film for different reasons for each film. For Small, Slow But Steady, I wanted to intentionally limit the number of takes by using 16mm, to maintain the freshness of the actors’ performances and make sure the crew stayed sharp. For this movie, since it’s a story about the protagonists discovering the world outside themselves, I wanted to create a film where the audience could also experience a sense of an infinite outside world through the light, wind, and the swaying shadows of trees. I chose 16mm as the most appropriate format to achieve this.
Your films And Your Bird Can Sing, Small, Slow But Steady and now All the Long Nights, are so memorable because of the mood and atmosphere that they create. The locations in the film, such as the book shop and apartment in And Your Bird Can Sing, the boxing gym in Small, Slow but Steady and the Kurita Science factory in All the Long Nights feel so “lived-in” and real. How do you go about creating these spaces in your films, especially the factory in All the Long Nights?
It’s thanks to the production department finding these wonderful locations, and the art and decoration departments putting in a ton of effort to build them out. The lighting department also plays a big role. Each department uses a lot of creativity and thought to express the difference in seasons and times of day. As a director and scriptwriter, all I can really do is write a script that allows the staff to approach their work with enthusiasm, and ensure they have the necessary preparation time for their tasks.
Your films have been described as being ‘documentary-like’ because of how they observe people in their environments, such as your depiction of Hakodate in And Your Bird Can Sing. And yet they also feel very ‘storybook’-like. Part of it is the use of 16mm, but it’s also about the locations you choose. Can you talk about the town you shot All the Long Nights in, and the locations shown in the film?
The story is in some ways like waves, and so I wanted to film it in a place with a lot of hills. It’s set mostly in Oota Ward, in Tokyo. That’s an area with a lot of hills, and historically it’s had a lot of small businesses and factories like Kurita Science, which made it the perfect place, in my mind, to locate this movie.
On the actors
The main roles of Misa and Takatoshi were very important to cast. Mone Kamishiraishi and Hokuto Matsumura did very well, especially in showing how both characters’ relationship with themselves, each other and everyone else has progressed throughout the film. What made you decide to cast them in the lead roles?
It was originally the producer’s idea, and I knew intuitively it was the right move. On a surface level, both of their wonderful voices have succeeded in taking this movie to a deeper place than would have otherwise been possible. Also, the real core of this movie is the fact that both of them truly love the story this movie is based on, and respect the characters. That invisible power was the most important element of the movie.
Depicting some of the mental health issues that the characters are afflicted with can be very challenging, such as the severe PMS Misa has which affects her moods and behaviour, and the panic disorders that Takatoshi has. How did you work with your actors to portray these conditions sensitively?
The most important thing about their acting, both of them, is that they don’t show off their pain. It felt to me like it would be more realistic if they tried to hide their pain and pretend everything was okay.
You also have many interesting supporting actors in the film. Tomomitsu Adachi was also in your film And Your Bird can Sing and he plays a much meaner role than the supportive colleague we see in All the Long Nights. Ken Mitsuishi plays the boss in the factory, and Kiyohiko Shibukawa plays Takatoshi’s former boss. As someone who watches a lot of Japanese films, these are very familiar actors who are memorable even in supporting roles. How did you come to choose these actors?
All three are actors I greatly admire. I suggested them to the producer at an early stage. It was a great honor to work with Ken Mitsuishi for the first time, and I’m also happy that Adachi-san and Shibukawa-san were able to take on roles different from their previous ones.
Hokuto Matsumura (left) as Takatoshi and Kiyohiko Shibukawa (right) who plays Takatoshi’s former boss.
On future projects
You’ve worked in both television and film, including genres like horror and sports. What ideas, genres or subject matter are you interested in exploring in the future? And are you working on anything now that you can tell us about?
I want to continue exploring things that I don’t yet know or understand. I’m currently working on several projects