Interest
Video: Mamoru Hosoda Discusses Motifs in His Films
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The British distributor Anime Limited has posted a YouTube video which shows the director Mamoru Hosoda (BELLE, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children, Mirai, The Boy and The Beast) discussing the motifs and references which run through his films.
In the video, Hosoda brings up time travel, saying "It's a way of expressing that everyone has regrets." He remembers a journalist arguing that Hosoda's time leaps are too short, but for Hosoda time travel is a way to explore how "out everyday lives are an accumulation of these tiny regrets that all of us have to live with." But, Hosoda goes on, such regrets may be not all bad.
Hosoda also talks about the frequent appearances of whales in his films; "a creature that we really force our own image on to." He makes a similar case for wolves, as shown in his film Wolf Children.
The director brings up parallels in scenes in BELLE and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, both showing a boy and a girl in delicate conversations on river banks. "You feel like maybe the river, as well as reflecting the beautiful scenery, might also reflect one's true feelings."
