The World of YUKIKO MISHIMA 掲載

　三島有紀子の作品は、娯楽作品であると同時に、〝人生に突然起こる理不尽〟や〝不平等からくる理不尽さ〟といった社会問題や「なぜ生きているのか？」という哲学的思考を映画にぶちこもうとする、日本では稀な作家のひとり。結果、あたり前に見える日常を緻密なディテールで描きつつ、現代社会にある覆いきれない理不尽を観客に共有させる。世界各地での劇場公開は、現代人がすべからく抱える問題を抉りだしている証左でもある。

　三島は、4歳から親に連れられ名画座に通い、邦画洋画の古い名作（デイヴィッド・リーン、フランソワトリュフォーなど）に多く触れる。10歳から映画監督を目指し、18歳の時８㎜フィルムでインディーズ映画を撮り始める。大学卒業後、企画や作品が認められ、名門であるNHK（Japan Broadcasting Corporation）に入局。同局の General TV、Educational TV でドキュメンタリー作品を多く監督。服飾デザイナーであるコシノファミリーの作品では、全員がデザイナーのため戦国時代のような戦いの中で、家族として結びつきが生まれていくプロセスを見つめ、映像では色が与える視覚的効果を打ち出している。二年という月日をかけ老女と子供の文通を追いかけた作品では、日本で老いの悲しみと本心を語れない日本人の手紙という独特のコミュニケーションを日本の地域文化とともに浮き彫りにした。

　転機となったのは、神戸を取材した阪神淡路大震災である。不意に訪れた理不尽な生活の中でも、日常を真摯に生きていく姿を追いかけ、〝日常の軋み〟こそが映画で描くエッセンスだと感じ、それまで企画していたドキュメンタリー作品をすべて作ってから2003年32歳でNHKを退社。伝統ある京都の東映撮影所（ Toei studios Kyoto ）で、助監督として日本映画作りの基本を学ぶ。その後、NYでのＨＢスタジオ（ The Herbert Berghof Studio of New York ）講師陣によるサマーワークショップに参加し、演技の基本について学ぶ。そして、外から見た日本の特徴、〝血の濃さを重んじる文化から生まれる理不尽さ〟について考えはじめる。帰国後、短編映画を監督、舞台の脚本を書くなどキャリアを積み2009年40歳の時、谷崎潤一郎原作『刺青　匂ひ月のごとく』で長編監督デビュー。オリジナル脚本で監督した二作目『しあわせのパンBread of Happiness』（ 2012 ）は、震災の避難所で感じた〝share〟というテーマをパンを分けるカットで執拗に描き、小説も上梓。映画ともに日本台湾韓国でもヒット。2015年『繕い裁つ人A Stich of Life』では、家と伝統に縛られたドレスメーカーの女性が、閉じ込めていた自分を解放し自分の人生を生き始める姿を家の古時計のようにカメラを据え、長い歴史と伝統の中での抑圧と解放を見つめた。2017年『幼な子われらに生まれDear Etranger』では、子連れ同志の再婚であるパッチワーク家族の食卓を廊下からねらい、唯一血のつながらない父親を「不在」として描いた作品で、第 41回モントリオール世界映画祭審査員特別大賞(the Jury's Special Grand Prize at the 41st Montreal World Film Festival)、韓国全州映画祭(an official invitation to the Jeonju International Film Festival)など、20カ国以上の国で上映され、国内外で受賞。2020年『Shape of Ｒｅｄ』は、現代版「人形の家」(Henrik Johan Ibsen)であり、女性の自立を、ラブロマンスを通して描いてみせ、2022年3月に『The HOUSEWIFE』（ART HOUSE）のタイトルでフランス公開している。まさに、嫁ぎ先の家を牢獄のように捉えており、緻密な色設計で信条を表現、女性が車のハンドルを握る姿を象徴的に撮る。最新作の短編『Ode to Joy』は、名優富司純子Sumiko Fujiを迎え、コロナ禍での老女と青年の犯罪バディものをほぼ色のない映像で描き、世界中のあらゆる世代が感じている理不尽さがにじみ出るアート作品。

　Yukiko Mishima's films are not only entertainment films, but also attempt to put social issues such as "unreasonableness thatsuddenly occurs in life" and "unreasonableness that comes from inequality" and philosophical thoughts such as "Why are we alive? He is one of the rare filmmakers in Japan who attempts to put philosophical thoughts such as "why we are alive" into his films. As a result, while depicting in meticulous detail the everyday life that seems so ordinary, he makes the audience share the unshrinkable unreasonableness that exists in modern society. The film's worldwide theatrical release is proof of its ability to plumb the issues that all people today face.

　Mishima began making independent films in 8mm format at the age of 18, aspiring to become a filmmaker at the age of 10. After graduating from college, his projects and works were recognized and he joined the prestigious NHK (Japan Broadcasting and he joined the prestigious NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). He directed many documentaries for NHK's General TV and Educational TV. In his work on the Koshino family of clothing designers, he focuses on the process of family bonding amidst the war-like battles that took place during the Warring States Period, as they are all designers. The film follows the correspondence between an elderly woman and her child over a period of two years, highlighting the sorrow of aging in Japan and the unique communication of Japanese people who cannot speak their true feelings through letters, as well as the local culture of Japan.

　The turning point was the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which he covered in Kobe. He followed the people who were living their daily lives with sincerity in the midst of the unreasonable life that came unexpectedly upon them, and felt that the "friction of daily life" was the essence of what he wanted to portray in film. He left NHK in 2003 at the age of 32 to study the basics of Japanese filmmaking as an assistant director at Toei studios in Kyoto. Later, he attended a summer workshop at the Herbert Berghof Studio of New York (HB Studio), where he learned the basics of acting. He began to think about the characteristics of Japan as seen from the outside, the "unreasonableness that comes from a culture that values bloodlust. In 2009, at the age of 40, he made his feature film directorial debut with "Shisei: Tattoo: Savoring the Scent of the Moon, The Tattooer," based on the novel by Junichiro Tanizaki. His second film, "Bread of Happiness" (2012), which he directed from an original screenplay, relentlessly depicts the theme of "sharing" felt at an evacuation center after the earthquake and tsunami, using cuts to separate the bread. In "A Stich of Life" (2015), a woman dressmaker, bound by family and tradition, frees herself from her confinement and begins to live her own life, as if the camera were an old clock in her home. In 2017, he won the Jury's Special Grand Prize at the 41st Montreal World Film Festival for "Dear Etranger," a film that depicts the "absence" of the only father who is not related to the family through the hallway of a patchwork family's table, a remarriage of a family with children. It has been screened in more than 20 countries, including the Jury's Special Grand Prize at the 41st Montreal World Film Festival and an official invitation to the Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea. In 2020, "Shape of Red", a modern version of "A Doll's House" (Henrik　Johan Ibsen), will depict a woman's independence through a love romance, and in March 2022, "The HOUSEWIFE" (ART HOUSE) in France in March 2022. He captures the very house of his daughter-in-law as a prison, expressing his creed through meticulous color design, and symbolically filming a woman at the wheel of a car. His latest short film, "Ode to Joy," with renowned actress Sumiko Fuji, depicts an old woman and a young man as crime buddies in the Corona disaster in almost colorless images, an art piece oozing with the unreasonableness that every generation around the world feels.