Director Yuta Shimotsu Stirs Up Scares in Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights
Master of horror Junji Ito creates works that are hard to adapt. Relying on elements of terror, horror, and absurdity, effective adaptations require care and a full understanding of what makes Ito's stories work. Yūta Shimotsu, the man behind the live-action anthology Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights, sat down with ANN to discuss his influences, favorite Ito stories, and what it takes to bring Ito's world to horrifying life.
Jacki Jing (ANN): I wanted to start with the opening. Can you explain what's happening in it? We loved it. It was so artistic, and the music was great.
Yūta Shimotsu: First, the opening song was performed by the K-POP idol group IVE, and I think it turned out wonderfully. The animation is also excellent and very high quality. I think we created a very good opening that sets the stage before the story based on Junji Ito's work begins.
Were you involved in developing the opening? Did you have any input into how you wanted it to look artistically?
SHIMOTSU: I wasn't involved in making it. Another creator and the producers made it. But if you look closely at the lettering, you can see the characters from the Junji Ito manga stories we adapted. I thought it was absolutely wonderful. It establishes that unsettling atmosphere, which makes it very easy to enter the story. It has also been very well received.
Watching your show last night, I was as terrified as I was as a kid. What horror shows or films influenced you and the show?
SHIMOTSU: I like Jordan Peele. M. Night Shyamalan. Actually, two days ago, we met M. Night Shyamalan! He's so great! And kind!
What did you say to him?
SHIMOTSU: Actually, he watched my movie—
[Accompanying staff]: He invited him to his production house.
What did you think of that?
SHIMOTSU: Actually, I've signed with a Hollywood-based management company, and I'm developing a Hollywood project. My manager pitched my movies to Shyamalan. It was an amazing experience.
What's your favorite M. Night Shyamalan movie?
SHIMOTSU: Oh, that's difficult! [Laughs] The Sixth Sense, Old, Trap, or the new movie, Remain? I haven't watched it yet. But all of them. [Laughs]
Are there any other movies or films that really stuck out to you and influenced the show?
SHIMOTSU: Stranger Things. I feel that show helped establish a direction for horror television.
We saw episodes 1 and 2, "Lovesickness" and "The Bully." There were so many close-up shots, and they were terrifying. In episode 2, the boiling pot and the cabbage chopping created a lot of tension. What cinematography tactics did you use to make the episodes scarier?
SHIMOTSU: I felt that creating Junji Ito's world was the most important thing. So I focused on building that world while using as few jump scares as possible.
Could you talk about the importance of music, silence, and natural sound in horror? I noticed how you used them in the two episodes we saw, especially "The Bully". There were a lot of awkward silences and that creepy piano music.
SHIMOTSU: Music is very important in horror, and we had some wonderful creators working with us. "The Bully" is the story of someone who grew older without really growing up, remaining a child inside. So we used the sound of a toy piano to express that.
I also wanted to ask about the slow-motion blood splatter in episode 1. Why did you decide to do that?
SHIMOTSU: Because this was made for broadcast television, I wasn't sure how far we could go with the horror imagery. I think that scene was pretty close to the limit, but we pushed it a little. I think it became a very emblematic scene.
What did you want people to take away from that?
SHIMOTSU: "Lovesickness" is the story of a girl who falls in love, is cursed by a boy, and takes her own life. For the protagonist, it is the first time someone close to him becomes a victim because of him. So I made it a scene that would leave a very powerful impression.
"The Bully" was really hard to watch at some points. What did you want people to take away from the ending? It's such a cliffhanger.
SHIMOTSU: In "The Bully", we added a little detail that wasn't in the original manga: the protagonist, Kuriko, has problems at home as well. She grows into adulthood without overcoming the wounds she carries. On the other side, the boy who was bullied has thought through and planned everything on a very grand scale. I wanted to express that within the episode's runtime and world. It is a major act of revenge, but I think it also portrays the contrast between someone who has grown and someone who hasn't. It's a little difficult to explain.
Who do you think is worse: the bully traumatizing this boy and ruining his childhood, or the man taking revenge and, in a sense, ruining her adulthood?
SHIMOTSU: Maybe nobody. Each of them has their own problems, and childhood wounds can stay with you for a very long time. Kuriko did bad things, but there were reasons behind them.
How do you condense these manga stories into episodes? How do you decide what stays, what goes, and what you create outside of the manga?
SHIMOTSU: I think every director who adapts manga or comics into live action, including Marvel and DC, has a very difficult time. It's hard to make it work well. I think it is very important to reinterpret the source material and rebuild it. For this project, Junji Ito was very open to us introducing and creating new ideas, which made the work much easier. I think we were able to make something good.
Were you nervous about meeting Junji Ito? What was that like?
SHIMOTSU: It was a great honor, but there was definitely pressure as well. When I met Junji Ito in person, he was such a gentleman and such a calm person. I was a little surprised to think that this man had created such a world of madness.
What are your top 3 Junji Ito stories?
SHIMOTSU: Tough question! I like Uzumaki. Gyo—it's a strange story. A shark attacks you, and it has legs. Crazy. "The Hanging Balloons," maybe. That one has a tremendous impact too. Junji Ito's work combines striking visuals with themes that make you think. I think that is one of its wonderful qualities and one of the reasons it is so popular.
My boyfriend and I love the visuals in the Lovesickness manga. The beautiful cursed boy is so pretty but also so scary. Were you trying to mirror some of the images from the manga? Some shots looked very similar to what we saw on the page.
SHIMOTSU: The casting team found actors who could look the part. They brought us about three candidates, and the three directors made the choice together. I did want to make the characters resemble them in the manga, especially the beautiful boy. In my episode, I didn't let him blink at all, so his eyes were watering. It looked very difficult for him.
Did you ever look at a panel from the manga and say, “I want my shot to look exactly like this?”
SHIMOTSU: Yes. We actually filmed while looking at the manga on an iPad on set.
Were there any particular images you wanted to mirror exactly?
SHIMOTSU: The final shot in "The Bully"
Any other shots, or is that the only one that comes to mind?
SHIMOTSU: This one in The Rib Woman [he makes a motion, as though opening a shirt to reveal a bunch of ribs], maybe. Strangely.
In old horror movies and shows, they wouldn't show the ending, and they would leave it up to your imagination, which in many ways can be more horrifying. Do you think this was an important tactic to leave a cliffhanger?
SHIMOTSU: Most of the stories were standalone episodes, so I built a narrative flow within 30 minutes and approached each standalone story as if I were making a whole film. For "Lovesickness", it has three parts, and I directed part one. So I set up the story in a way that would make viewers want to know what happens next. But you mean the other stories, right? Most of those were standalone, so I tried to give each one something interesting in a different direction, so there would be different ways to enjoy them.
"The Bully" has such an open-ended ending. What do you think happened in the end? Does she torture her son, does she unalive him, or is there hope? What was your interpretation of the ending?
SHIMOTSU: He might be happily playing with his mother in the park.
In some ways, "The Bully" is more frightening than the other episodes because there's no supernatural element. Do you personally prefer supernatural stories or stories without that element?
SHIMOTSU: Supernatural horror might be my favorite. I also think that aspect has been getting a lot of attention in recent horror. In the past, it was about characters like Dracula and other figures. But take Backrooms, for example—the movie produced by A24. Would that count as supernatural too? I find it very interesting when the boundary between reality and fiction starts to disappear. Also, horror is a genre with so much freedom. It offers an enormous range of expression and allows creators to expand their imaginations. I think it is a wonderful genre.
What do you think is important to make a good adaptation from a manga? How do you properly honor the source material? What's your process?
SHIMOTSU: First, the original work has fans, so it is important not to let them down and to satisfy them. But even as you bring the source material into live action, I think it is also important to find a way to take it a little further.
What are your top three favorite horror movies?
SHIMOTSU: Get Out. It begins as a story about a couple visiting a house, but then it develops in an extraordinary direction. On top of that, it incorporates strong themes into the horror, which I thought was wonderful. Horror gives you a great deal of freedom, but it also allows you to incorporate social criticism and themes. I think that is one of its very appealing qualities.
I met Shyamalan two days ago, so Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. It has a good twist and a love story. Love between a couple and family love. So sad. Two days ago, I felt Shyamalan's love [Laughs].
Poor Things. Yorgos Lanthimos isn't exactly a horror director, but he balances art, entertainment, and horror while showing us a world that is uniquely his own. He is a director I really love.
Is there anything you want to say to fans of the show?
SHIMOTSU: First, I'm very happy to have had the opportunity to adapt Junji Ito's original work into live action. There are twelve episodes, so I think there are many different ways to enjoy it.
Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights is streaming on HBO Max.
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