TOSHIO SUZUKI INTERVIEW: LAWSON opened a special LAWSON Gedo Senki website which has some interesting stuff like an interview with Goro Miyazaki. Recently they have also uploaded a second interview: an interview with Producer Toshio Suzuki. The original can be found over here. Anyway, my Japanese friend Nanashi and I myself made a translation which you can read below. Enjoy!



Producer Suzuki Toshio: one of the most influential persons at Studio Ghibli who appears in front whenever a new Ghibli work is announced. The desire and intention of Mr. Suzuki to greatly influence "Gedo Senki", Miyazaki Goro's directing debut. I settled down to ask him the story of this work.

In this age of confusion, now was the time to make "Gedo Senki"

Q: The opening day of Studio Ghibli ‘s latest work "Gedo Senki" has approached.

The original is a long story that has Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.3, Vol.4, Vol.5, and the separate volumes. It was a considerably big problem which of these we had to make. In the end, we took up Vol.3.

Q: Why is this?

Normally, perhaps you’d think you should start from Volume 1, don’t you think so? However, the beginning of Volume 3 has such a composition: “The world has become strange. Farmers don’t plow their fields. Craftsmen have forgotten their crafts and don’t produce anything. When moving into town it is crowded with people, everyone is restless and seems to move without a sense of purpose." This exactly expresses our current time. When making a movie, it should stand for something. If it does not do so, its persuasive power is lost. Being drawn to the part of “The world has become strange…”, I thought that this should be what we would make now.

Q: Feeling close to the atmosphere of this time was one of your reasons of selection, wasn’t it?

As we had to have a lot of meetings for this movie, we made a new office in Ebisu. At first everyone had to go to Studio Ghibli in Koganei. However, with this project I noticed everyone's condition had changed. Everyone didn’t seem to have any room. They didn’t seem to have enough time. Then, I thought that if we would make our office in Ebisu near the center of Tokyo, it might make their visits easier. "People moved restlessly from place to place, but seemed to be without a sense of purpose." My surrounding were just like Le Guin, the original writer of "Gedo Senki", wrote. When reading Vol.3, I was moved about this key point. It’s a wonderful book. And, Le Guin is a terrific person who has foreseen today's atmosphere in the old times. The atmosphere of nowadays age is just like this. No one can escape from this baptism.



Even when using the power of science, we can't rule everything

Q: Please tell me about the charm of "Gedo Senki".

"Gedo Senki" is a fantasy story in which magic appears. I think that usually in lot of those stories a hero obtains magic and uses it as a weapon to fight. However, though the magic of "Gedo Senki" is wonderful, they are made to have a hard time when they make a mistake in using the magic. In Volume 3 Ged already became lord Archmage and he has mastered all magic, but he doesn't try to use magic at all. Then, "What is the magic in this world?", we have had this doubt. I think that is the ideal way of magic as a big theme of Gedo Senki’s story.

Q: How do you interpret the magic in this work?

There is brain scientist called Mr. Mogi Kenichirou. Some time ago I appeared on NHK’s TV-program "Professional". The reason why I appeared there is that Mr. Mogi acted as caster and being interested in him wanted to meet him. Mr. Mogi has won the 4th Kobayashi-Hideo Prize for "Brain and imagination” (Nou to Kasou). Through this book I got in touch with Kobayashi Hideo. Kobayashi Hideo is a very logical person. He says that "It is thought that science can express everything numerically. But actually, the things that can be expressed numerically like that might be about 30 percent." In other words, he’s striking a note of warning , saying that "tragedy will occur when people believe a versatile science too much". Once at a certain time the Japanese forgot endurance, patience, and perseverance on the boundary. They were self-conceited that people are able to rule everything with the help of science. But people can't control the weather even though they prepare as much as they want to. In the old times, when people sweated and worked hard making farm products, it often happened crops became useless due to typhoons or any other natural disaster. During those times, people learned endurance, patience, and perseverance. However recently, discarding these kind of things, they only relate within the possible range of science. This is what today’s society is like and I think that is how we will go ahead. Introductory remarks became long ago. I think that the magic in "Gedo Senki" is like the science of present time. So when replacing it, you can suddenly understand what Le Guin wrote in her book. This is also expressed in the copy of the movie, "Mind of people become strange", and we’d like the viewers to try to face this meaning carefully.



It is important how we live, because we know we’ll die some time

Q: It may become a very important work at the present age supported by the development of the science.

People do various things and at the end think about a perennial youth and eternal life. They come to want an eternal life. This is a big theme of the original story, as well as in the movie. What happens if they demand this? This is written in the original: "By all means at one time people are bound to die. It is only the human to know that. That‘s the gift given from heaven." Because we know that we will die some time, we will be able to think on how we should live now.

Q: Indeed, it is important to watch at your own death. Don’t you think so?

In the West there is a way of thinking that "when life ends, death starts newly". On the other hand in Japan it is thought that "when a person dies, death also ends there". In such a meaning, "Gedo Senki" very much has that oriental idea, which was a large reason why we wanted to produce it as movie in Studio Ghibli.

Profile
1948, born in Nagoya. After graduating at Keio University Literature Department he joined Tokuma Shoten Publishing, participating in the foundation of the animation magazine "Monthly Animage" where he served as assistant chief editor and chief editor for over 12 years. He got acquainted with Takahata Isao and Miyazaki Hayao through the edit of the magazine and so started participating in their filmmaking. Starting from 1989 he produced all Ghibli works.