Makoto Shinkai’s 2007 anime “5 Centimeters Per Second” is being adapted into a live-action film.
The task fell to 34-year-old Yoshiyuki Okuyama, an up-and-coming director and photographer.
Working with staff around his own age, he studied the original anime to turn it into a story of renewal and personal growth as a lonely young man comes once again to appreciate the richness the world has to offer.
“When we did location scouting in Tokyo and Tanegashima island in Kagoshima Prefecture, we found places that featured in the original animated film,” Okuyama said.
“We wanted to pay tribute to Shinkai and his staff by taking on the challenge of capturing the scenes from the same viewing angle.”
Okuyama made a list of each cut from the original work and studied the camera movements, the expression of light and other factors.
He opted to use a fixed camera for scenes in which Takaki (played by Hokuto Matsumura) spends his adolescent years. The aim was to show how isolated the character is from society.
In contrast, he used a handheld camera for scenes in which Takaki develops feelings for Akari, his first love, during his elementary and junior high school years. The aim was to depict a freewheeling sense of time.
While Takaki grows increasingly lonely as he clings to his memories of Akari, he is portrayed in the live-action version as a young man who is restored through his interactions with adults.
“The most difficult part for us was how to incorporate his innermost thoughts,” Okuyama said. “But we took on the challenge and managed to make it work, I think.”
Shinkai, who was also 34 years old when he released the original anime film, has won critical acclaim for his works featuring landscapes that hark to emotions left unspoken.
“I can still acutely remember the bittersweet sensation, melancholic sentiment and vexation that I vividly felt when I was in my teens and 20s,” Okuyama said. “I feel like I was meant to be involved with this project at such a timing.”