Du Jie, a seasoned Chinese cinematographer who has shot more than 20 films for directors including Chen Sicheng, Guan Ha, Ning Hao and Pema Tseden, has turned his hand to directing.
Japanese drama The Height Of The Coconut Trees marks his feature directorial debut and is premiering in Busan’s New Currents competition
You’ve been living in Japan since early 2020 and chose to direct a Japanese film there with a local cast and crew. How did it come about?
As a DoP, I got to travel to visit New York, Thailand and Japan to shoot the three Detective Chinatown films [all directed by Chen Sicheng], giving me the opportunities to see the outside world. The majority of the third film was shot in Tokyo where I spent three to four months.
It’s a coincidence that when the Covid pandemic broke out, my family and I were on holiday in Japan in early 2020. We stayed behind and I started to write short stories, which have a common theme about the living and the dead. I made one of them into a short film, which later became my first feature.
You were working with a local Japanese cast and crew. How did you overcome the language barrier and adapt to working in a new culture that you might not be familiar with?
It’s a low budget independent film without any stars. Many of the key production crew worked with me on Detective Chinatown 3. That helped a lot. I am also the scriptwriter, DoP, art director and editor of the film.
Even if it’s low budget, how did you get the financing for the film?
After self-funding the short film, a high school friend of mine, Wang Guangle – now one of the most influential artists in contemporary Chinese art – liked it and wanted to support me. With more funding from him together with personal friend Lili Chen, I extended the short film into a feature-length film.
The nationality of the film is Japan. Why did you choose to make a film outside China?
After working on many commercial films as a cinematographer, I have written a couple of scripts with China in mind and have had the opportunity to direct in China, but I let them go as I have a strong desire to express myself freely.
But the film is about love and loss, based on the misunderstanding that a solo woman traveller is mistaken for making a suicide trip. This is hardly sensitive subject matter.
The world depicted in commercial films is not real. Characters are stereotyped, like the good guys will always turn out well and the bad guys will be caught. It’s not possible to have complex character development.
My film is not political or confrontational, but I have the liberty to tell the story the way I wanted it to be.
While living in Japan, do you still go back to China to work as a DoP?
I went back to shoot Moon Man and I’m shooting Detective Chinatown 4, taking leave from the production team to attend the Busan festival.
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