Makoto Shinkai’s latest pic Suzume is the first Japanese animated picture to play in competition at Berlin in two decades. However, Shinkai told a press conference in Berlin that a successful festival run has never been high on his list of priorities. “I want to entertain an audience with this film.
From the beginning, my objective was to reach a large number of people. A large audience.” Shinkai said. “I want to entertain the audience.
Even if, for example, this film wasn’t shown at any festival, I don’t think it would’ve been so bad because what I wanted was to get lots of young people to see this film.” Shinkai later added that the price of a cinema ticket in his native Japan is “very expensive,” so when making Suzume, he was determined to guarantee that the anime was worth the hassle for audiences. “I wanted to make sure the film is entertaining so that nobody regretted spending so much money to go to the cinema.
That was important to me,” he said. The last animated Japanese film to debut in competition at Berlin was Hayao Miyazaki’s cult classic Spirited Away in 2001.
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