Acclaimed director Naoko Yamada has returned to the big screen with her next feature anime film The Colors Within! The film centers on high school student Totsuko, who can see the “colors” of the people around her. While she isn’t adept in an instrument, she decides to form a band with fellow high schoolers Kimi and Rui. practicing diligently at an old church on a remote island. What follows is an encapsulating coming-of-age story, that depicts the intertwined relationship between emotions and music, as well as the pursuit of one’s own passion. It’s everything that you’d love to expect from a Naoko Yamada film and a must-watch for anime fans of all kinds.
The Colors Within had its North American premiere last month at the Animation Is Film festival in Los Angeles. GKIDS will be holding an Academy-qualifying run for the film in Los Angeles starting December 13th at the Laemmle Royal, followed by a nationwide theatrical release on January 24th.
We had the huge honor to speak with director Naoko Yamada about The Colors Within and the effort it took to make this project come to life. Read the our full conversation with the famed director below:
How was The Colors Within conceived and what drew you to the project?
Naoko Yamada: So, The Colors Within is an original, and I was thinking, “What kind of original story can I tell through film? What will I make?” I came to this conclusion that I love movies myself, so then I started to think about, “What do I get when I watch movies myself? What is important to me when I’m watching movies?” These are the questions I was asking myself, and the conclusion was that it’s really the atmosphere of the movie that I like. So, it’s not like I follow the story or the plot and then be like, “Oh, there’s so much excitement! What is going to happen?” Then there’s a climax and an ending. That’s not why I watch movies, you know? That’s why I wanted to make a movie that has what I like in movies, something with a good atmosphere that I love, and put that into the film.
In the film, we see one of the primary instruments that Rui plays is the theremin, which surprised me, since I’ve never seen a theremin depicted in anime before. Was there a specific decision behind giving this instrument to Rui?
Yamada: Yeah, maybe this is the first time a theremin was depicted in anime. Well, maybe not never. I don’t know, I’ve never seen it myself either. I think the elements of what a theremin represent really matches this film and its animation. First of all, there’s the hand movement when you’re playing. It’s very beautiful and that’s something that I wanted to depict in this film. But also, I think it relates to colors and sound, but it’s something that you can’t really see. It’s more like something you feel or experience. That’s represented by the theremin, through the electro waves that create the sound. It also has to do with Rui’s character and his secret. The fact that he likes music is something that he keeps secret from his mom. The theremin is not an instrument that makes a physical sound. As long as he puts on headphones, even if he’s practicing it at home, no one else could hear it. So, it sort of represents him keeping a secret. So yeah, there are various reasons.
I loved it. Immediately after watching the film, I started looking up theremins online to try to buy one!
Yamada: Unfortunately, it’s very expensive I think.
Yeah, it was near like 1000 US dollars.
Yamada: Okay, yeah. [laughs]
You’ve worked on multiple projects where music is a central element. What attracts you to music as a narrative theme?
Yamada: I like how cool music sounds, and I think music is beautiful. I really think music is borderless. It transcends words and languages. For example, like I personally could only speak Japanese, but then I could share my love for music with someone else who likes music without it. Music is basically a shared language. So, I think that’s why I keep coming back to this beautiful language of music.
So you’ve collaborated with writer Reiko Yoshida and composer Kensuke Ushio on multiple occasions, including A Silent Voice and Liz and the Blue Bird. What do you think are the best qualities they have as creatives and was your collaboration with them any different for The Colors Within?
Yamada: I think their best qualities are that they’re logical, but they also use their senses. So then, what they choose to bring into the film is very dynamic, but also elegant and quiet. I think the contrasting elements makes them really interesting, and it’s the reason why I want to keep working with them. With The Colors Within, what was different in the collaboration with them was that it’s an original story. We had to create everything from scratch and we had to discuss, “What do we want to do?” I think that was different but also fun.
Colors are kind of a big central theme of The Colors Within. So, what color would you associate yourself with?
Yamada: That is the most difficult question that I get! [laughs] I think I don’t know myself, or I don’t know how I look to the others in the world. So, it’s a hard question to answer, but if I can choose a color for myself, I think I would choose lemon yellow. I think it’s a color that could match well with other colors. So yeah, lemon yellow would be nice.
What do you think was the biggest challenge on this film as a director?
Yamada: The biggest challenge in this movie was that it’s an original story. A lot of staff were attached to this film, and to present to them why this movie was going to be great took a lot of effort. If I had any self-doubt in my idea and what I had planned for this movie: I’d fail. So, I put in a lot of effort to like this idea that came from within myself. I think that was the biggest challenge.
Thank you again to Naoko Yamada for making this interview possible, and check out The Colors Within when it debuts in theaters across the US!
