Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu has detailed the guiding principles behind his celebrated work with young actors, revealing that he makes a deliberate point never to depict children crying on screen. Speaking during an In Conversation session at the Singapore International Film Festival, where he was honored with the festival's Cinema Honorary Award, the director explained that keeping real tears away from the camera is an intentional artistic boundary.
Kore-eda stated that his refusal to film children crying does not stem from technical difficulty, but from how he wants audiences to experience emotion. He noted that his ideal outcome is for viewers to finish a film remembering a young character's smile and weeping themselves, rather than watching genuine distress engineered on a movie set.
Adapting Directing Methods for Young Performers
Over the course of his career, Kore-eda's strategies for working with young casts have evolved. On celebrated titles like "Shoplifters," as well as his international productions "The Truth" and "Broker," he avoided handing scripts to children. Instead, he preferred learning their natural vocabulary during auditions, adjusting dialogue so they only delivered words they believed, and either describing situations or feeding lines directly while cameras were set to roll.
However, that rule is not rigid. When directing "Monster," Kore-eda opted to provide the young actors with full scripts, concluding that the story's sensitive subject matter made emotional separation between the performers and their fictional roles a safer choice. He also recounted how an uncooperative audition for "Like Father, Like Son"—where an auditioning child answered every question with "Why?"—inspired him to write that exact trait directly into the character rather than forcing the child to conform.
Formative Influences From Ken Loach and Hou Hsiao-hsien
Kore-eda credited two fellow directors with shaping his ethical and technical sensibilities. Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien demonstrated the trick of participating in play with children on set before quietly stepping away once filming begins. Decades earlier, Hou also delivered a tough critique of Kore-eda’s 1995 debut "Maborosi," calling out his rigid adherence to pre-drawn storyboards. Hou emphasized that a director must first observe the natural environment, light, and actor movement before placing the camera—a conversation that led Kore-eda to abandon storyboarding altogether.
British director Ken Loach also made a lasting impression during a meeting roughly two decades ago, around the production of Kore-eda's "Nobody Knows." Kore-eda asked Loach about the raw grief seen in "Kes," where a young boy finds his pet bird dead. Loach revealed he simply directed the actor to search for the bird, relying on their close relationship to heal any brief emotional pain caused by the shock. Kore-eda noted that Loach weighed the ethics of every single shot rather than relying on standard formulas, teaching him that assuming a method will automatically work across different projects is the most dangerous trap when directing children.
Career Milestones, AI Skepticism, and Future Plans
Reflecting on his recent work, Kore-eda identified his two 2026 films as returns to his documentary origins. "Sheep in the Box," which screened in competition at Cannes, centers on grieving parents who receive an artificial intelligence-driven humanoid replica of their deceased child. Kore-eda characterized the project as an exploration of grief rather than technology, noting he has little personal interest in AI after a test script review with generative software felt hollow. Meanwhile, his Venice-competing live-action adaptation of Fujimoto Tatsuki's manga "Look Back" adopted a minimalist observational camera style ahead of its Singapore release.
Despite receiving the Cinema Honorary Award—joining previous recipients such as Jafar Panahi, Deepa Mehta, Im Kwon-taek, and Garin Nugroho—Kore-eda admitted that lifetime honors make him slightly uneasy, remarking that he feels he still has the second half of his career ahead of him.
The filmmaker shared that he has been drafting new material during recent travels across London, Thailand, and Singapore, with hopes of beginning production on a new feature project within the next year or two.
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Source: Variety
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