Keanu Reeves sent a video message announcing his participation in the samurai stop-motion project “Hidari”, exciting Annecy fans.
“I think the stop-motion and what they did, their hopes and ambitions, is very cinematic. I think the scale could be so big and it could be so intimate, and with the script that they developed, it was extraordinary. I want to see that movie and I want to be in that movie,” he said.
“I’m so excited to have the opportunity to move forward and play this role and be a part of it. It’s going to be something very special to bring to the world.”
Director Masashi Kawamura added, “Imagine “John Wick” set in feudal Japan and played by wooden puppets on steroids.”
This story is inspired by the work of Hidari Jingoro, a Japanese artist and legendary carpenter who is said to have lived in the 17th century.
“No one knows if he really existed. He’s shrouded in a lot of mystery, but we felt he was a very interesting character to use as the center of a story. People even said he could bring trees to life.”
“When I heard that, I thought, ‘That’s exactly what we’re doing in stop motion. We’re moving inanimate objects and trying to create life.’
Mr. Kawamura decided to use wood carving, saying, “It’s exactly the same as what Jingoro Hidari actually made.The material and technique become part of the story.”
Kawamura, who also announced the project at Cannes’ Annecy Animation Showcase, spoke at the Annecy panel “Finding a Common Vision: Co-production with Japan,” where he also spotlighted Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s “A New Dawn” and Tomofumi Inoue’s “On the Killing Road.”
All frames are made by hand, he emphasized.
“That’s the kind of movie we want to make. ‘Hidari’ is a samurai action movie that combines the explosive energy of anime with the hand-crafted aesthetic of stop-motion.”
A revenge drama about a young master carpenter working to rebuild Edo Castle. However, he gets caught up in a ruthless conspiracy and loses his mentor, fiancée, and right-hand man.
“He survives, reinvents himself, and turns all his carpentry skills and tools into weapons.”
He carves himself a deadly prosthetic arm and confronts an army of mechanical soldiers and eventually robots that begin to destroy the city of Edo.
“Guys, we’re going to do this all in stop motion. It’s going to be crazy,” Kawamura said, adding, “We’re weaving together elements of real history and fantasy to create an entertaining story for all ages.”
“In that scene, it’s actually a story about this one man who’s trying to rediscover himself after heading toward destruction.”
Giving the audience an impressive teaser that has already reached 5 million views on YouTube, he stressed that the team wanted to focus on “the material itself.”
“Every grain of wood, every trace of a hand-carved chisel. That’s what we really want to emphasize in this film. We coined the term ‘woodpunk’ to describe the world we want to create.”
“A question we often get is, ‘Why are you doing this in stop motion?’ Because we love it! It’s a great technique, but unfortunately it’s considered nostalgic for a small audience. As a team, we wanted to break that perception and create something completely different.”
“In a world where you can use AI to generate a movie in almost three seconds, and you don’t care about quality, we’re doing the exact opposite. This is a whole movie about craftsmanship.”
After a brief flirtation with Hollywood, “we received the offer, but the situation at the studio changed dramatically and suddenly we were unable to move forward with the project,” said producer Noriko Matsumoto (Nori Co., Ltd.). Currently, they are partnering with Questly.
She said adding Reeves was a “dream come true.”
“Our character was actually designed as a hybrid between Keanu Reeves and Toshiro Mifune. He embodies exactly the character we’re looking for.”
