The unique circumstances of the 2020 Games may, in fact, transform the lens through which Kawase captures the events altogether. Because Covid-19 means that audience numbers are restricted, “she may actually take it as a kind of record of what happened in 2021,” says Takekawa. “[And] it might not even have that personal touch [for which she is usually known].”
Kawase agrees with this sentiment. “This is an unprecedented time within history,” she tells BBC Culture. “It’s Japan’s responsibility to make this Olympics work and to take these measures against what’s happening in the world… and to reinterpret that idea of the essence and ethos and spirit with which the Olympics began.”
The torch relay has already passed through Fukushima; the television footage received praise and criticism for highlighting the recovery of the areas over those corners still reeling from the destruction. But, “the Olympics refocuses what happened in Fukushima or Tōhoku,” says Kawase. “Maybe at least [it can] make people rethink about what happened.”
Either way, these diverse perspectives are ultimately at the heart of what Kawase wants to capture in 2021: “I don’t just want to convey the beauty of the Olympics or the athletes. I want to see it from right in the middle as a spectator and see it objectively, more than subjectively. To show both sides of the event is my mission… both the beauty and the catastrophic side of Japan together.”
It’s a philosophy that seems to echo that of Ichikawa’s film. And while Kawase relays admiration for Tokyo Olympiad, she also cites a crucial difference in approach. “[Tokyo Olympiad] is not just a documentary. There is a taste of fiction imbued in the film as well,” she says, pointing to the deep stylistic traits Ichikawa enveloped into his film. The importance of an objective stance is, to Kawase, of greater significance in capturing an event taking place during such an unprecedented time. “I hope I can show what happened this year in Japan to people in 100 years’ time”, she says. “[Because] I really want to show how the pandemic changed the world.”
Tokyo Olympiad is available to stream on the Criterion Collection.
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