Ken Watanabe talks about his new film, “Memories of Tomorrow,’ about a successful Japanese businessman whose life is shattered by the onset of early Alzheimer’s. Watanabe also served as the film’s executive producer.
While still an acting student, Watanabe’s stage appearance in a play directed by the well known Yukio Ninagawa caught the attention of critics. He next played a samurai hero in the national TV drama series “Dokugan ryu Masamune’ that made him a household name in Japan. In 2003, Watanabe starred opposite Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai’ which introduced him to Western audiences and pushed him to the center stage of Hollywood as he became Japan’s best known actor abroad. Since then, he has appeared in such blockbusters as Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins’ opposite Christian Bale and Liam Neeson and Rob Marshall’s “Memoirs of a Geisha’ opposite Ziyi Zhang and Gong Li. Most recently he starred in the Academy Award nominated “Letters from Iwo Jima’ directed by Clint Eastwood. During this period, Watanabe has also continued to make films in Japan including “Another Battle ‘ Conspiracy’ and “Year One in the North.’
In his latest film, “Memories of Tomorrow,’ Watanabe plays Saeki, a 50-year-old successful ad executive whose life is practically perfect: he commands the respect of his employees, he loves his wife Emiko (Kanako Higuchi), and his daughter will marry soon. But one day , Saeki has trouble remembering names and confusion sets in. His wife convinces him to visit a doctor who delivers a devastating diagnosis: early-onset Alzheimer’s. “Memories of Tomorrow’ follows Saeki and Emiko as the couple embarks on a journey where every day marks a step closer to losing everything.
Ken Watanabe is an extraordinary actor and an extremely gracious person. In this very personal film sensitively directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, he delivers one of the most remarkable performances of his career.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about how this project came about and why it was important for you to make this film’
Ken Watanabe: A couple years ago I discovered the story while I was shooting Memoirs of a Geisha and after I read the book, a warm feeling remained in my heart and as an actor, I wanted to convey that same feeling to an audience. I wrote a letter to the author in the middle of the night, that was the beginning of this movie project, and I started to negotiate with the studio and I decided upon a director. I wanted to be closely involved in the making of this movie from beginning to end before it was shown to an audience.
Q: How challenging was it to produce as well as star in it’
Ken Watanabe: [Laughs] Of course I don’t know everything that a producer does, but I am able to recognize if this movie is too long or too sad or too sentimental or too melodramatic or otherwise. Yes, it’s a first impression. There’s just one small hope that I want to show and I wanted to give to an audience. I kept this in mind as the producer and I discussed it with the director, the publicist, the cast and the screenwriters. So every moment I was in touch and enjoying [my involvement].
Q: So you selected the writers and the director’
Ken Watanabe: Yes, and the cast as well.
Q: How did you prepare for the role’ What type of research did you do’
Ken Watanabe: In developing the script we were very sensitive about which elements we should show in this film. I tried to show enough of the disease so that the people who have experience with it will believe the story and those people who haven’t had experience with it will not be afraid. So it’s a really sensitive moment. We tried to discuss and we re-wrote the script eight times. But we didn’t want to show the patient’s life. We wanted to show the daily life of Saeki, who has the illness of Alzheimer’s, and how it completely changes his life, and we tried to explore his daily life. That was the most important thing.
Q: This is one of the most vulnerable characters I’ve ever seen you play. Your character takes an interesting journey. What did you discover about yourself’
Ken Watanabe: For an actor, acting is like memory ‘ dialogue, movement, background, feelings, everything ‘ but you know it’s my style just before shooting I have to throw away everything because he [Saeki] doesn’t know about his future. And at this time I need one more process: I have to memorize the loss of memory. Does that make sense’ [Laughs] And so I have to take two steps forward and two steps back while also shooting and so sometimes I am confused. I’ll forget about my feelings or something. I always told the crew if I forget my lines or movement, it was a part of my character.
Q: What was the most memorable or most difficult scene that you shot’
Ken Watanabe: The last scene. Everyone on the crew was so emotional. And it was so emotional for Emiko who played my wife. But I never touch’ I didn’t have to touch and connect to the other people’s emotions and I kept my distance from all the other people and I talked to the wind or insects or leaves or trees. I’m not alone. I was not alone. All of nature and a beautiful wind — everything surrounds my feelings. But the scene was so emotional. I’m really unbalanced in that sequence. There are many different layers to my performance in that scene. It’s was a very emotional and interesting and isolated scene for me as an actor.
Q: What would you like an audience to take from this film’
Ken Watanabe: Alzheimer’s is a very sad illness and it makes life difficult for the person who has it as well as their family, but it’s not as bad as you think. After this movie, I learned a lot from this illness. Many patients have lost their memory, but their feeling and emotions still remain and of course, their heart. We shouldn’t be so afraid of this illness. We should trust our family and our friends.
Q: This film makes a profound statement about the importance of love and letting the people that are part of your life know that you care about them even when they are suffering from a disease like Alzheimer’s.
Ken Watanabe: Right. The film was first screened in Japan when we showed it to real patients and their families. 50 people came to the screening. It was hard, but we had a great time. One of the patient’s wives couldn’t understand how her husband felt when he was fired by his company. But after seeing this movie, she completely understood his feelings and his sadness. Even nurses, doctors, and families can’t watch patients 24 hours a day. They couldn’t understand everything that patient was going through because they weren’t with him all the time and couldn’t see what he was experiencing at work. So there are some hints and some good opportunity to think about the real patient’s feelings.
Q: How is it going from Japanese films to major American feature films to doing something like this that is small, intimate and personal’ Does doing the larger films give you the opportunity to do smaller films like this that are important to you’
Ken Watanabe: A movie is of course entertainment, but we also try to show through this film something about the feelings of life. I try to do both things.
Q: What do you have coming up next’
Ken Watanabe: [Laughs] Nothing yet.
“Memories of Tomorrow’ opens in Los Angeles on Friday, June 8th and in San Francisco on July 13th. [by sweet_kisses]
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