Seafood Girl Maiko

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Movie: Seafood Girl Maiko
Romaji: Gyokairui Yamaoka Maiko
Japanese: 魚介類山岡マイコ
Director: Ryutaro Kajino
Writer: Ryutaro Kajino
Producer:
Cinematographer:
World Premiere: February, 2011 (Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival)
Release Date: October 22, 2011
Runtime: 80 min.
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Kamoka and Inuo are at the beach picking up seashells. Suddenly, Kamoka spots a girl sprouting out of the water dressed like a high school student. The girl's nam is Maiko and although she looks human, she is actually a fish! Kamoka ends up taking Maiko back to her apartment.

Kamoka and Maiko eventually strike up a close friendship. One day, Kamoka, Maiko and Inuo go to Inuo's friend Mochiro's house for dinner. Kamoka mistakenly construes Mochiro having feelings for cute Maiko. What they don't know is that Mochiro has other plans, specifically to cook up Maiko as a fine cuisine dish! A sudden transformation also starts to take place within Maiko ...

Cast

Trailer

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Film Festivals

2011 (21st) Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival - February 24-28, 2011 - Yubari Choice: Japan Film *World Premiere
2011 (15th) Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival - July 14-24, 2011 - World Fantastic Cinema *International Premiere

Q&A (PiFan 2011)

Q&A took place after a screening of "Seafood Girl Maiko" at the 2011 Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival on July 17, 2011. Appearing on stage is director Ryutaro Kajino, actress Miho Matsushita, and a person dressed in a red suit. AsianWiki editor Ki Mun was there and transcribed/translated the session.

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - Thank you for watching the movie. I am Ryutaro Kajino, screen writer and director for "Seafood Girl Maiko." Even though the movie is strange, I hope you liked it.

Miho Matsushita (actress) - (speaks Korean) Hello, I am Miho Matsushita who played Maiko. Thank you for your support for during the earthquake & tsunami disaster in Japan. I hope you will remember me.

Moderator - The red suited person keeps waving hands, how about a word from him?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - I think he is pretty stuffy in that red suit and he can't speak through it. Actually, he's not human, so we can dismiss him from the stage. There is a reason for the mental man's existance in the movie. He only appears in the movie two times. If you think carefully, you can figure out why he comes out 2 times.

Audience Question - Why does the mental man come out only 2 times?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - I can't answer that so directly. The movie is scheduled to be shown two times more at this festival and I would prefer not to reveal that now.

Audience Question - I have two questions. Firstly, why does Maiko appear as a human? Secondly, I liked the movie, but felt the running time was too long. If the movie was a 30 minute short-film then it would be more fun and have more impact.

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - That's also a secret, but I'll reveal it because today is a special moment. If you think back to the lines spoken by Teacher Billy, you will know why Maiko comes into the world and also why Mental Man comes into the world. Basically, this is kind of like a project in which Doctor Billy intends to conquer the world. To have the actors and actresses portray their characters in a more vivid manner I kept them in the dark about Doctor Billy's plot. Answer to your second question, 30 minutes would be too short to contain the changes that occurred to the fish.

Audience Question - In the movie, Maiko is shown soaked in water a lot. Do you have a fetish with that? Also, is the actress OK with that?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - I decided to make this movie, becaues I wanted to shoot a female idol soaked in water for 80 minutes. Don't you think a wet idol is cute?

Miho Matsushita (actress) - I didn't have any problems being soaked in water. I was cold though when we were shooting and the days being cloudy didn't help.

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - I appreciated that Miho worked hard under that situation.

Audience Question - Early in the movie there is a scene where the fish girl's existance is known to the public, shown in a magazine. I think that was intentional. Why was that put in the film? Also, most of the humans in the movie are pretty abnormal. Any reasons why you depicted humans that way?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - For the first two minutes in the movie, there isn't any images and only sound. That's the story that takes place after the end of the film when the world is full of fish girls. Listen carefully and you can hear sounds the overlapping sounds of water and the human world. I intentionally did place that magazine in the movie. The emergence of the fish girls became a media sensation, but people got bored with story and soon forgot aobut it. Answer to your second questioni. I think people in general are somehow abnormal and are like the exaggerated characters. Also, if there was no abnormal people in the movie I don't think it would have been as fun or fantasy like.

Audience Question- Generally, the movie contains music and vocabulary which come from subcultures. Was that intentional? I think this movie shows a fantasy world with exaggerated actions by the characters. Was that also done on purpose?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - What parts of movie do you think came from subcultures?

Audience Member - The close up scene with the the 3 chefs and ending theme - also I heard that from somewhere but I can't recall where.

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - Since I was a kid I watched lot of movies. I didn't plan to place subculture elements into the movie, but maybe unconsciously that might be reflective of my odd tastes. The movie also contained references to a lot of old horror movies I enjoyed. I also enjoy placing fantasy elements in the real world. I would like to make a full length film where the audience constantly asks "does the happen in real life?"

Moderator - We have run out of time for this Q&A session. Could our guest speakers have one last word?

Ryutaro Kajino (director) - This is my first time in Bucheon. I was told that Bucheon is far away from Seoul, so I assumed Bucheon was in the countryside or rural. I'm surprised to find that Bucheon is a big city. I am staying here for 5 days and during my stay I will enjoy the city. Thank you for watching the movie.

Miho Matsushita (actress) - Thank you for watching the movie. Even though I acted in the movie, I still laugh when watching the movie over again. There are hidden parts and if you watch the film one more time you'll find those parts. Also, I hope you will remember my performance.