It can be hard to make a mark as a young filmmaker. Seems even when you have a decent idea, the funding drops out. Or, once you’ve finished your masterpiece, no one is interested in distributing it. It really does take a special kind of person to try and persevere against these odds. Yu Irie, it seems, is just such a person.
The 29-year-old director/screenwriter is in town this week, having travelled all the way from Japan to attend our Festival du nouveau cinéma and screen his odd and amusing film 8000 MILES. If the title reminds you of Eminem’s 8 Mile, rest assured the similarity is intentional. The story follows a group of young men in the suburbs of Saitama, Japan, who fantasize that their fledging hip-hop group Sho-Gung will someday lead to international stardom. The only problem is that they seem to have a serious lack of originality and are missing a plausible business plan to help them escape their dreary, minimum-wage lives. In other words, don’t expect a triumphant ending here. The title has two meanings for Irie, “…as a reference to Eminem, and the distance between dreams from Saitama to the east coast of the US.”
Having big dreams is something Irie can relate to. In fact, when asked which of the five lead characters he sees himself most in, the filmmaker is fast to quip that “their negative qualities are all reflective of me.” But don’t let his self-deprecation fool you. He is a far cry from 8000 MILES’ bumbling, soft-skinned protagonist, Ikku, who runs at the sight of a former ex-girlfriend and can’t summon up the gumption to stick with a job as a waiter.
Since he realized, at the tender age of 19, that his calling was to make films, Irie has gone on to graduate from the Nihon University of Art and start up his own production company. After a string of successful shorts, he decided to make the leap into features and saw this project as his testing ground.
“I wanted to see what I could do after ten years,” he explains, and turned his attention to the odd contrast between hip-hop’s marginal popularity in the outskirts of Japan versus its considerable appeal in the US. “It is curious to see how much it is accepted (in North America) and the power it has in society.”
Seeing the project through, however, turned out to be a massive undertaking. Though shot on a modest budget with the help of several friends, 8000 MILES still nearly bankrupted Irie. “I was distributing and doing advertising for myself. I ran out of money and couldn’t pay the rent.” And then, things turned around in a big way. After premiering in March, the film has been screened in 11 cities across Japan and won the grand prize for the Fantastic Off-Theatre Competition at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. “Now, I’m in Montreal,” he smiles, with justifiable pride, “… so things can work out.”
Catch the final Montreal screening of 8000 MILES at Ex-Centris tonight at 9 pm, and stick around afterwards to chat with Yu Irie, who will be in attendance. Today also marks the final day of the Festival du nouveau cinema. For the festival’s final screenings, go to their website.
