In “Jellyfish Eyes,” the first film from artist Takashi Murakami that arrived in theaters earlier this week, the children in a Japanese town develop special relationships with small, animated creatures. Each one, we later find out, is called a F.R.I.E.N.D. and is controlled by an iPhone-like device. But the creation of these creatures might not have been done with the best of intentions. As the children play with them, and sometimes pit them in fights against one another, a cloaked group locked away in a nearby nuclear facility has plans to use them for a sinister plot to destroy the town. There is also a religious cult, giant monsters, high-flying kicks, and a love story.Did you get all that? “Jellyfish Eyes” is maybe the headiest children’s movie ever made. Imagine “Spy Kids” crossed with “Godzilla,” with a heaping of Spielbergian sweetness, and you’ll have a sense of what goes down.While in New York, Murakami sat down with ARTINFO to answer some questions via a translator about video games, where “Jellyfish Eyes” fits in with the rest of his work, and why he likes films with crazy endings.Why did you want to make a film?So I’ve always wanted to make a film, especially animation or a film for children. I was trying to make small, short films, and I’ve made short animations, but my problem was I couldn’t come up with a narrative. The reality was I was resistant to creating narratives. But after the great earthquake and tsunami disasters in 2011, I realized that people need narrative — a story is something that is necessary for people — and that it was OK to make stories, that I could make stories. I started watching documentaries following children who lost families, and adults around them were telling them, oh, your parents are still up there watching you, you’re not alone — that’s a story that they’re creating. I was able to then create a narrative that became the film.In “Jellyfish Eyes,” the children control their F.R.I.E.N.D.s with controllers, as if they’re playing a video game. Do you play video games?No, not at all.Is there something about the idea of playing video games that you enjoy?I actually enjoy watching the live recaps of games on YouTube — it’s like watching sports. When Super Mario Brothers came out I tried to play, but I was so bad I quit. If I were any good, maybe I would enjoy it more today. I’m actually very envious of people who can play video games, because I just can’t figure out the controls.Many artists have made narrative films, but few as boldly influenced by Hollywood as “Jellyfish Eyes.” Do you see this film as separate from your artistic practice?The reason I was accepted as a contemporary artist was because I was an exotic Japanese artist, at least initially. And through various collaborations, such as with Louis Vuitton, I began doing a lot of things that could seem taboo to many artists in the West. But that wasn’t strategic. It just happened. My career as an artist is important to me, but Japanese subculture has influenced me so much more than contemporary art. So for me, making films like this one, or television movies, seems more honest. In that sense, as a Japanese creator, it’s a natural continuation. But standing here as a contemporary artist in the West, it seems like a separate thing.I wanted to ask about the list of films you provided that have influenced you, especially “Thief” by Michael Mann, which I think many would be surprised to find on the list. I have a very long answer. When I first started working, I always asked myself, what is contemporary art? As a student I was taught that it’s something where you have to develop the concept out of what is real to you, and that originality was very important. But when I had the chance to study in New York for a year, and I visited galleries and museums, I thought, well, that’s true to an extent, but contemporary art has a function in a society, or at least an American society. Within the social hierarchy maybe people higher up, when they try to think about things, sometimes they need to go through the structure of art in order to do so. That was my discovery. In my question to myself — what is contemporary art? — I thought porn could be a genre of art. So I decided to go forward with the theme of porn in my pursuit of art in the United States.To come back to the influence of “Thief,” what was most important to me was that these types of robberies were actually happening in the United States, which left a big impression on me. I feel that what a film can do is to know different cultures through a fictional story. And how “Thief” influenced “Jellyfish Eyes” is that, by watching my film, people might be able to get a glimpse of contemporary Japanese culture, post-Fukashima nuclear disaster. I’m trying to depict a very complicated Japanese society and I hope people can get a sense of what the culture is like right now. But also, the end of my film is pretty out there, it’s not very cleanly concluded, but I like that type of film. I think the crazy ending is actually a great thing. I really love the films from the ’80s like “Thief,” where people go crazy and it ends in a mess. I wanted to cherish that mood.
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