‘Inu-Oh’ Director Masaaki Yuasa On Exploring Undocumented Possibilities For A “Modern Interpretation Of Old Tales”

10.01.2023 - 21:07 / deadline.com

For Inu-Oh, director Masaaki Yuasa’s main goal was not to accurately depict the past as it is written, but to depict what could have happened. Based on the novel Tales of the Heike: Inu-Oh by Hideo Furukawa, the film follows two outcasts in 14th-century Japan: Tomona (Mirai Moriyama), a blind Biwa player, and Inu-Oh (Avu-chan), a deformed Noh dancer born with a curse. The two discover they have the ability to hear the spirits of the Heike, a clan of warriors whose stories are lost to time, and the pair begin to perform their stories in a new style resembling modern hair metal, which starts to cure Inu-Oh of his curse. The idea of a curse being cured resulting in the main character becoming human again is popular in Japanese folklore, but Yuasa wanted to have a more modern take. Rather than seeking revenge against his father for cursing him, Inu-Oh is performing simply because that’s what he wants to do, which gave birth to a more carefree character.

DEADLINE: What inspired you to make Inu-Oh?

MASAAKI YUASA: It’s a story from history, but I feel like the people back then maybe had a similar idea to how we’ve been thinking more lately. If we just create stories from whatever documentation we have, then maybe that would be a little too orthodox. So I used my artistic freedom to convey how they used to be. If we create a story from what we know from reading historical books, then it wouldn’t be this way. So I did research a lot, but then I explored a lot of possibilities.

So, for example, there used to be only be like two or three ways to dress, but I felt like maybe there were more. Also how they used to act back then, it could be different from what we have read, like dancing and music. I used a wide variety of