“Look Back” is Kore-eda Hirokazu’s third time working from manga source material, but never before has the arthouse filmmaker drawn from such a commercially popular and internationally beloved work.A one-volume story from “Chainsaw Man” mangaka Fujimoto Tatsuki, “Look Back” follows the converging, then diverging, fates of two classmates, Fujino and Kyomoto, who achieve their professional manga-making dreams while still in school.
The film premieres in Venice competiton.“I was drawn to the image on the cover — the back of a child who’s sitting drawing manga” reflects Kore-eda. “I read it all that evening. It’s an incredible manga which I was very moved by.”
The book provided a light in the midst of a pandemic-necessitated slump. “Movie theaters had closed,” says Kore-eda. “It was as if the work that I loved doing was being negated by the world. Encountering this manga encouraged me to confront why I do what I do. To convey my gratitude towards the person that wrote it, as an answer of sorts, I decided to make a film — because I am a filmmaker.”
The result is a fascinating fusion of Kore-eda’s stylistic trademarks — working naturalistically with child actors — and the heightened panel-to-panel tempo of the original manga.“I don’t think I’d be able to adapt Fujimoto’s action works, but I felt I could attempt this one,” says Kore-eda. “When I met Fujimoto, he mentioned how, when you work with a veteran manga assistant, you can tell just from hearing how they draw a single line that they are highly capable in that medium. I realized that manga doesn’t have sound. I carefully recorded first the sound of a single pen, then two pens, still hesitant — then going from pen to paper to a digital process. I knew depicting those changes would translate into a rich film.”
