Robert Edwards on Film - Interview

Robert Edwards has been a long time supporter of Terracotta and has even created a video essay for our release Meatball Machine. So, its great to see his journey and hard work pay off. With Shinya Tsukamoto's Shadow of Fire, due for release, Rob had the pleasure of working with Third Window Films and writing the video essay for this forthcoming release. We had a little chit-chat with him to tell us more. 

Terracotta - How did you get involved with Third Window Films? 

Rob Edwards - A very long time ago I reached out to Adam over at Third Window when I was doing my dissertation at University. I was writing about Sogo Ishii and the cyberpunk movement in Japan during the 80s and 90s, and I had a good back and forth with him about Ishii and we spoke about how amazing it would be to see some of those films released… Which is why it's so crazy now to see films like Crazy Thunder Road released by Adam. I know how long it took him to make that happen. 

A while went by and out of nowhere Adam emailed me to ask if I wanted to do a video essay on his Obayashi 80’s Kadokawa Years Box Set… I was shocked. I of course accepted. Eventually I did one on the Katsuhito Ishii boxset and then now this release of Shadow of Fire. 

Out of all the essays I have done for Third Window, this one meant the most. To produce something on a Shinya Tsukmaoto film (my favorite director) was a dream come true. I can’t believe my name is on one of his films. A crazy world. 

 

When you got the green light for a project like this, does it dawn on you what you had committed to? What are the challenges? 

Whenever I get the green light it never gets any easier. This time I really felt the pressure, Shinya Tsukamoto is such an important filmmaker and really a flagship director for the Third Window brand, so I felt a lot more riding on this piece. 

It can always be challenging as well to commit to a video essay on a film you have not seen. With the other works I have done for Third Window, it was older films that I was familiar with. This release is a brand new film from Tsukamoto, so once I committed to it I got sent the screener copy to actually view the film for the first time. Of course your mind then gets anxious that you might not have something to say, what if I don’t like the film, etc. Luckily, it’s Shinya Tsukmaoto we are talking about here and he always leaves you with something to say and think about so those fears quickly disappeared but, yeah, I was nervous. 

Where does your love of Japanese cinema come from? And how have you seen it change either in your time watching or throughout J-film history

I studied cinema for a long time. From college to a masters degree. One thing I learnt from all that is people like to talk a lot about the same films. It became tiring to analyse the same American directors and the same touchstone films over and over again. I’m not saying that those films are bad but I just started to want more. During my undergraduate degree I started to explore a lot of East Asian cinema and it was like a breath of fresh air. From that point on I have been exploring everything Japanese cinema has to offer and I love it! 

What has been amazing to see as well, is how a lot more of this cinema has become accessible for viewers. When I started my channel, and when I first chatted to Adam at Third Window, a lot of films like Crazy Thunder Road were just hard to find. Now we have access to them on Blu Ray. Some of the streaming platforms are also giving amazing access to world cinema in a way we never have before. 

How does those writing your video essay for a film differ from your Youtube channel?

The big difference between a video essay for a release and my channel is the editing. With Youtube, I can use things that are essentially copyright. For example, my latest video compared The Taste of Tea to Marvel… yes I know that’s a weird comparison. With Youtube I am able to explore topics like that and use a lot of footage of other films. For a physical release I can’t use footage of films like that as it is copyright. I know you can argue fair use, etc. but it’s not worth the risk. So you have to limit yourself to keeping the analysis of the film centered on the release. 

Do you have anything else in the pipeline we can look forward to?

Well, I am really putting in work on my YouTube channel again. So, expect a lot more videos coming. 

Top 3 directors and Top 3 films

Shinya Tsukamoto
David Cronenberg
Sogo Ishii 

Tetsuo the Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989),
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Leone, 1966),
Hakuchi: The Innocent (Tezuka, 1999)

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Follow Rob on YouTube channel: RobertedwardsFilm
and twitter @thisisrobedward