On Oct. 17, in the Community Foundation Theater, the Kenyon community got to hear Japanese theater and film producer Yu Miyake talk about her intriguing body of work and the inspiration behind it. At age 48, after 18 years of working in marketing and advertising, Miyake said to herself, “It’s okay, it’s really time to do something that I want to do.” From there, she dove headfirst into the media of Japanese subculture — the respective worlds of Japanese manga and film — and worked as both a writer and editor for Japan Press.
Around this time, Miyake met her creative inspiration, Assistant Professor of Film Hao Zhou, at the Hong Kong Film Festival after watching his 2014 film “The Night.” Accompanied by Zhou at conversation, Miyake explained the story behind the construction of her theatrical adaptation of “The Night.” After the festival, she was gripped by inspiration and found herself watching plays. Miyake described watching a production at a small theater in a pub: “Everybody cried, and I remember after watching — even 25 years later — how hard I cried.” After witnessing this performance, a friend of Miyake’s “told [her] they wanted to watch it too–that’s why [she] changed my career.” Encouraged to bring the emotional storytelling to Japanese filmmaking, Miyake tried her hand at producing.
Much of Miyake’s work in producing focuses on adapting films to the stage. In “The Night,” Miyake takes a movie initially set solely in an alleyway and transforms it into a stage production with greenery, ambient lighting and open space. Even with these changes, Miyake keeps the same themes of domestic violence and prostitution at the forefront of her script, paying homage to Zhou’s original film. Later, in 2017, Miyake also produced on the stage Rene-Daniel Dubois’ Being at Home with Claude. A testament to the talent on display in Miyake’s shows, two of her actors in the latter production went on to perform in Broadway’s ATTACK on TITAN: The Musical at the New York City Center, which recently ran from Oct. 11 to 13. While Miyake showed the audience images of her actors in her production and in the Broadway musical, she explained, “In Japan, two-dimensional actors can be in ordinary plays, and they need to fit the role.” Miyake believes strongly in her actors’ ability to encapsulate all kinds of characters effectively.
As audience members watched various trailers of both Zhou and Miyake’s work, including trailers for “The Night” and Miyake’s upcoming film, “REIREI,” there were recurrent themes on love and the LGBTQ+ community. I inquired about what inspired Miyake to include LGBTQ+ themes in her work. Miyake responded, “Nowadays, suddenly LGBTQ+ is being talked about, but in Japan, it stays common.” Transgender men would join the ranks of the samurai and kabuki, and no one would bat an eye. In a more modern context, Miyake works with transgender actors and LGTBQ+ themes regularly, noting that “it’s beautiful, and it’s art.”
At the end of the event, Miyake displayed the working trailer for her upcoming film, “REIREI,” which includes an openly gay relationship amid beautiful cinematography of Japanese gardens juxtaposed with the city streets of Tokyo. In the trailer, two young men struggle against homophobia from their families.
Her attitude of chasing one’s dreams and focusing on the friendships she has with her actors — by celebrating her 60th birthday with the lead of her production of “The Night” — serve as an inspiration to Kenyon’s budding creativity. Miyake continues to work to give spaces for producers of all backgrounds, while normalizing LGBTQ+ relationships in her films and discussions.