Q. You shot footage at JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus, right?
Yes, that’s right. We had the full cooperation of JAXA, who let us film in the gallery where they have a life-size model of HAYABUSA, in the lab where they performed endurance tests on the ion engines, the press room where they held press conferences, and other locations. We also filmed the capsule retrieval training scene at the Sagamihara Campus - the people who launch the balloon and install the scanning antennas in the scene are actual JAXA personnel. I think one of the very interesting aspects of this film is that so many JAXA people who advised us actually appear in it, which you wouldn’t know unless told. Q. Did you feel like you were at a real space exploration facility? At JAXA’s Sagamihara Campus, they have on display the rocket that launched HAYABUSA, and space food in the gift shop, so I really felt I had an interactive experience with outer space. But I do think the Sagamihara Campus feels pretty analog.
They have places where you have to hold up ID at the entrance and you hear the authorization sound, but for example at first glance I thought that the labs don’t look like they have much of a budget compared to national or public universities. It seemed very handmade compared to the pavilion-like spaces in the gallery they have to amuse children. I was surprised by the chaos in the gallery when I first went.
But I think the fact that HAYABUSA’s achievements came from such a place is what makes it Japanese.
Q. What was it like talking with the people at JAXA?
When I had the chance to talk with Dr. Matogawa, who was the Office of External Relations Director, I was very surprised to learn that the rules of planetary movement that were used to design the HAYABUSA mission were discovered 400 years ago.
There were countless elements involved in getting HAYABUSA to get to and return from the distant asteroid Itokawa, such as setting the probe’s trajectory. On top of that, not all of these elements are active at the same time. I think it’s truly amazing to be able to control for all these variables and design a trajectory for a space probe to reach such a small object. They live in a world that regular people like us can’t even imagine.
I wondered what new scientific techniques were used, so I asked, "What are the recent principles concerning the movement of heavenly bodies?" Dr. Matogawa clearly replied, "Kepler’s laws." Shocked, I asked, "Wait a moment. Kepler’s laws?! Kepler’s laws were discovered in the early 1600s, around the same time that Newton discovered gravity. That’s all we’ve been using for the movement of heavenly bodies?" Without any hint of embarrassment, Dr. Matogawa said, "Yes."
Kepler’s laws were discovered at a time when they didn’t have astronomical telescopes like we have today. I didn’t expect that with all the advanced technology we have here in the 21st century, like the Hubble Space Telescope, we are still using principles for planetary movement that were discovered centuries ago.
Q. What do you particularly want us to see in this film?
That the world-class feats HAYABUSA achieved were made by a close-knit group of individuals who are like the people sitting next to you on the train. I think that’s the greatest thing about this project, and it’s something to be proud of. In this film, I’d really like audiences to see what the HAYABUSA people are like.
Lots of people know about HAYABUSA. There have been many TV shows and video content about it, and there are plans for another movie. I think the greatest thing about this movie compared to all the rest is that you can see just what the scientists who achieved these feats are really like. It’s not a documentary or a reenactment - it’s a human drama. Q. There are also people in the film who were unable to stay involved with the project to the end. Is this also part of your idea of depicting this human drama? A number of experts from outside JAXA participated in the HAYABUSA project. For example, Dr. Jun Saito, on whom we based the researcher invited to lead the development team for the camera mounted on the probe, was contracted by JAXA for a set period of time. That’s why he couldn’t stay on until the end. But even so, he thought that he had to continue carrying out his duty. I wonder what motivated him at that time. Did he want to discover or achieve something, or was he worried about how the results would be scrutinized? With this film I also wanted to address personal feelings under such circumstances.
Q. Is HAYABUSA different in any way from other works you’ve directed up to now?
I have many times completely reproduced things that everyone knows about. For example 20th Century Boys and Beck were based on comics, and I turned the still images into a three-dimensional depiction. Many fans see comics as something that moves, so a perfect production is a gift to these people.
On the other hand, all the scientists who appear in this film are largely unknown to the public, except for their names. Even though people may recognize their photos, most people have never seen them in action. But I wanted to make complete replications of these people who achieved great feats with HAYABUSA because I can say with all honesty that they are "gods." I’ve never before reproduced something that is generally unknown. Q. The people from JAXA who came to your set were surprised to see the director watching the actors on a monitor in a separate room and giving them instructions from there, rather than having them perform in front of you. Is this something that you’re particular about as a director? Conventionally, a movie director is right next to the camera, watching the performers act with his or her own eyes and indicating whether they’re doing well or not. But working in TV, it’s common practice to do it from behind a monitor. I started out doing a lot of work on TV dramas, so it’s not so strange to me.
One reason I work from behind the monitor is that I’m not so assertive, so when I see the performers acting right in front of me, I tend to just say that everything looks good. There were many times when I said everything was okay, only to regret it later, so I thought I’d like to take a step back and see things objectively. That’s why I continue to direct from behind a monitor.
