Interview: Director Yuichi Satoh on ‘Poison Berry in My Brain’

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CHICAGO – An extraordinary filmed recently screened in Chicago, but not for the reasons that are expected. The Japanese film “Poison Berry in My Brain” was directed by Yuichi Satoh, and starred popular native actress Yoko Maki. What was extraordinary about the film is that the plot parallels the well-received animated movie, “Inside Out,” except “Poison Berry” is live action, and the character representations of the brain controllers are manipulating a frustrated woman, not a little girl. Funny they were both conceived around the same time, and were released in the same year.

Also what is funny is “Poison Berry in My Brain.” The story, derived from a popular Japanese graphic novel (manga). involves a 30 year old woman who hasn’t had any luck in relationships. When she falls for a younger man in her office, the brain people start pulling the strings. The set-up is very familiar to the viewers of “Inside Out,” as a microphone feeds talking points to the mouth, and the committee around the brain table represent impulses of human beings – in “Poison Berry,’ however, they’re are not named. The actors portraying these impulses are hilarious in using both high comedy and anger management. Yoko Maki is brilliant as the woman, not trusting her instincts because of past darkness (represented at her committee table by a bureaucratic record keeper), and going through the phases of developing her romantic crushes in victory and despair.

Poison Berry
’Poison Berry in My Brain,’ Directed by Yuichi Satoh
Photo credit: Asian Pop-Up Cinema

The director Yuichi Satoh is known in Japan for his television work, but creates a wonderful atmosphere in “Poison Berry,” his first feature film In many ways, an adult being manipulated by brain controllers is a lot funnier than the potential that Pixar created for the child in their version. HollywoodChicago.com talked to Yuichi Satoh – through an interpreter – and included a question about the similarities of “Poison Berry in My Brain” to “Inside Out.”

HollywoodChicago.com: What in your previous work experience got you the assignment for this first feature film?

Yuichi Satoh: The producers found the manga, and since the manga was about ‘secrets rooms,’ I was the first choice. I had produced a similar type of fantasy for television, so that’s how I got the assignment.

HollywoodChicago.com: The manga was hugely popular in Japan, how did you and the creator of that work, Setona Mizushiro, get together to assure that your vision matched her creation?

Satoh: Even though the manga was popular, I knew the film version would be different. We took the popular elements of the source that Mizushiro had created and developed it from there. The manga itself was a great piece of work, and we had a lot to choose from that originated from it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Casting was vital to this production, since the characters were familiar to so many. Which cast member proved to be most difficult in getting the right person?

Satoh: Actually it was the lead character, but only because we wanted Yoko Maki, and she had never done this kind of comedy, she was more of a serious actress. She initially hesitated to do it, but then took it on as a challenge to expand to another type of performance. She was very happy with the result, because the role fit so well for her.

HollywoodChicago.com: In doing this production, what do you feel you had to learn about women that you didn’t know before?

Satoh: I was astonished that woman actually felt age 30 was ‘old,’ but apparently they do think that way, even though the actress looked much younger.

HollywoodChicago.com: One of the great lines in the film is ‘to question your own work is to question your existence.’ Since this film explores existence, how did you want to ‘weigh’ in on the value of those thoughts?

Yuichi Satoh
Director Yuichi Satoh in Chicago
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Satoh: First, this wasn’t a serious film at all, it was a comedy. When we hired Yoko Maki, I knew that we could add some serious elements to it, because I knew she could handle it in performance. I wanted the thoughts to invoke knowing laughter, but I knew we also could balance it – like in the ending – with some romantic and serious moments.

HollywoodChicago.com: Of all the people who represented her thoughts, who did you relate to the best, in relationship to your own thoughts? Which one do you think represents the creative side of us?

Satoh: This is an easy answer, but all of them. [laughs] Everyone, I think, has a different collection of these emotions that were represented. So picking one of them is just too difficult.

HollywoodChicago.com: In America, there was a popular animated film called ‘Inside Out,’ which is very similar to ‘Poison Berry.’ Do you think the two films are related or do you think they were made up separately?

Satoh: I think they are separate, but I acknowledge they are very similar. That’s all I have to say about it.

HollywoodChicago.com: The whole world is going through a technological revolution, where images, programming and movies are available at a touch of a button. How do you think it has changed the arts culture in Japan?

Satoh: It has broadened it, because there is more freedom to do what we want. This has also created a tendency is to get more realism in acting, and more emotion. Smaller devices means more close up of faces, and we want the emotions there to be more real.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the first thing you talk about when your talk about your love for creating television and film?

Satoh: It’s about creating emotion in the story, the ideal being love.

For the trailer of “Poison Berry in My Brain,” click here.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Writer, Editorial Coordinator
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2015 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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