I Was, I Am, and I Will Be!

In Osaka’s Nishinari Ward, Kamagasaki remains a historic enclave of day labourers, though its name no longer appears on official maps. As public spaces disappear, the director and his friend wander its streets, listening to residents’ voices. Their stories reveal lives shaped by hardship, solidarity, and a neighbourhood that continues to shelter society’s most marginalised.

Itakura Yoshiyuki: ‘“The people of the town are disappearing. Soon, I won’t be able to film them any more.” Driven by this sense of anxiety, I began walking through Kamagasaki with Sato Leo, director of The Kamagasaki Cauldron War (2017). It took some courage to ask the people we met if we could film them. I thought they would hate being filmed, as they had long been subjected to discriminatory gazes. However, many accepted, and they spoke ceaselessly in front of the camera. They had so much they wanted to describe and express.

Since then, we have been showered with the words of the people we encountered. Those people — despite being buffeted by economic and political forces in their daily lives — never gave up their honesty with themselves. Before I knew it, my anxiety and tension began to ease, and I often found myself laughing with them. As I watched the footage we filmed, the fundamental principle for editing became clear: to preserve the power of their words and presence, which were about to be forced to change due to redevelopment. Instead of cutting and pasting their words and images to fit a theme, it was about discovering and carving the film out of their voices and existence. The kind of people we met during filming existed in the past, exist in the present, and will likely continue to exist in the future. They have no choice but to.’