Days off

I've been taking full advantage of my time off. Wednesday I traveled to majestic Mt. Fuji, and went to a natural hotsprings spa at the foothills of the mountain. I had an okay one hour shiatsu - but the hot water and cold plunges were wonderful.

Tuesday I went to a museum in the Ueno section of Tokyo. I saw some very interesting contemporary art at the Royal Museum. Then I went back to the Asukasa section (getting pretty proficient riding the rails here) to buy kimonos for Randi and Olivia.

On Tuesday night, director Koizumi-san took us out to dinner at the Kurosawa restaurant (owned by his son), with Kurosawa's daughter and grandson (our film's wardrobe designer, and supporting actor). Kind of a Hard Rock Cafe to the film legend - with his original storyboards, and various memorabilia all over,e.g. posters, photos of Mifune and Kurosawa hanging out, etc., according to his daughter they were huge whiskey drinkers.

Hanging here, working, it's pretty amazing. Would love all this work to continue when I return to L.A. - must stay positive -Ya mon!

Best Wishes - little more than one week left.

Here I am as Col. Louis Rapp, president of the military commission. When I first arrived in Tokyo we traveled to Yokahama to see the real courtroom - the art department has expertly duplicated the original.

Things are going well. Yesterday was a very long day, an unusually long one. Took almost all day to shoot one scene, with some complicated choreography with all the various players.

Can't believe there's little more than 1 week left. I have 2 days off next week starting on Tuesday. Plan to go to Mt. Fuji for one of them. It'll be great to actually experience a bit of nature.

Japanese press about the film, Best Wishes For Tomorrow

Shohei, personal assistant to the Americans working on the film, was kind enough to e-mail this article my way.

http://www.cinemacafe.net/news/cgi/report/2007/06/1978/

Perhaps you can check out the full article and let me know what it says? Hope it's good.

Best Wishes For Tomorrow - Work and Play in Tokyo

Since my arrival on May 26th I have been having an incredible time. Right from the start, beginning with a Zazen 45 minute meditation at a temple with the cast, the experience has been unique and gratifying.

Early on the work schedule was pretty easy, 7:30 - 3 or 4, with lots of downtime. The director shoots very few takes, and he's using three 35mm cameras simultaneously for every scene.

I've been told that the Japanese actors are the cream of the crop and they're all super nice. The elders, Makota Fujita and Sumiko Fuji are practically National Treasures. One recent 4 page scene involved a young actress, Yu Aoi, who won the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award here last year. And another day we worked with Yoshiko Tanaka, who's quite well-known, and was part of a very successful girl group in the 70's, The Candies, so she was like the Japanese Posh Spice. She was very good.

And the director, Takashi Koisumi, couldn't be nicer.

It is a bit like working with a zen monk - he is such a peaceful, meditative fellow. He gave me a few of his previous films to watch. His first was an adaptation of a story by Kurosawa - a very beautiful little Samaurai story. He told me yesterday morning, that Kurosawa comes to visit him in his dreams alot, so in the middle of the night he often regresses back to being an A.D., running around like crazy, but that night he stayed a director without a visit from his old boss.

While things started out slow for me, recently my scenes have a bit more bite and I've felt more actively involved. That is really satisfying.

All in all I'm really enjoying the total work and play experience. I've met nothing but wonderful, wonderful people. Soooo gracious and friendly. Wish I could work on this film forever.

Here are a few photos of the people I'm working with -