ODDTAXI's Baku Kinoshita Wants to Take His Time in The Last Blossom
by Rafael Motamayor,
For his follow-up, The Last Blossom, Baku Kinoshita has crafted a feature film that's both strikingly different than ODDTAXI while being recognizably from the same creative mind. The film follows an aging stoic yakuza named Akutsu, who is on the verge of death in a prison cell. He remembers his past while chatting with a talking touch-me-not balsam flower with a big personality. It is a compelling, tear-jerker of a drama full of laughs and a moving story of found family. Kinoshita was present at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival for the international premiere of The Last Blossom. He took the time to answer ANN's questions about the making of the film and why he's drawn to magical realism.
What inspired the story of this old yakuza and his talking plant?
Baku Kinoshita: I started with the idea of a person talking to something that wasn't a person, and that this conversation would move the story forward. The main character is very quiet; he is not good with words, and he is serious. I wanted to create a character in the flower that contrasts with that. He is the opposite. He is very unique, flexible, and uninhibited. I wanted to have that contrast, that gap between the two of them would add more depth in the film.
Both this film and ODDTAXI use a lot of dialogue to drive the story and develop the characters. How do you use the visuals to keep the talking scenes fresh and interesting?
KINOSHITA: That was something I was very intentional about. Some of the dialogue is quite long. To stop the audience getting fed up, I moved to change the balsam's position, or Akuta's position, or the camera angle. That's something I did throughout.
You take inspiration from a large variety of sources, not just animation. What were some of the influences for The Last Blossom?
KINOSHITA: This film was inspired by Kitano Takeshi's films. In particular, there's a film called A Scene at the Sea about a young couple in love, who have this lovely, pure love, and it ends in an unfortunate way.
I tend to use very long shots. I think it's quite live-action-like. Normally, in animation, people don't like long shots for production reasons, but for me, there is a meaning in taking that time. At that time, it had power, so I tried to do that in my work.
Why was it important for you to set the film in the 1980s, and how did you capture the look and feel of that period?
KINOSHITA: One of the themes in the film is bursting. In the '80s, it was a time of a very strong Japanese economy we referred to in Japan as the bubble era. In the late '80s, the bubble suddenly burst; that's how we refer to it. You have the seeds, the flower seeds bursting, you have the fireworks bursting, and then you have the bubble bursting in the film. That was the period this needed to be set for that reason. In terms of the period, the 1980s, the clothes, the streetscapes, I did a lot of research, books, and online. We all tried to absorb that atmosphere to recreate it in the film.
The Last Blossom has great vocal performances, and I've read that you record the voices before you start animating. Why is that?
KINOSHITA:We did record the voices before beginning to animate, which is the same as with ODDTAXI. It feels more real that way. The characters can be shown as if they were sticking to their voices as you animate them to fit the voice. It makes them feel like real characters.
What was the process of creating the characters in the film and their relationships? You have less time here to develop them compared to a TV anime.
KINOSHITA: With the TV series ODDTAXI, I had 20 characters, which was fun, but I couldn't go very deep with them. This time, we had three main characters. I put some analytics. I wanted to go deeper with the characters, focus on the main themes, and take it down into their psychology and motivations.
There are things I did throughout the film, casual things that I tried to use to build the relationship between the characters. In the first half of the film, you have a scene where Akutsu goes out for a cigarette, and NANA lights it up for him. That one shot shows you that they have a long, trusting relationship, and there is also a hierarchy between them, the master and servant. Other similar scenes try to establish the relationships scattered throughout the film. I don't want to give too much of a hint, but there are details, the way they look at each other, the way someone's expression clouds over for a second, and the movement of their hands.
There is a great scene in which the characters start humming along to a song, and it's both moving and visually impressive, with the editing following along to the rhythm. Can you talk a bit about crafting that scene?
KINOSHITA: The screenwriter chose the song, but it was really hard. It was so complicated to do the storyboard for that scene that I couldn't get it right. I remember finishing the storyboard and then going back to do that scene. It was that complicated.
I'm from Latin America, where magical realism is a big part of the stories we tell, realistic, grounded human stories with a touch of whimsical and fantasy. Between The Last Blossom and ODDTAXI, you tell very human stories, but with a touch of fantasy to them. What appeals to you about this kind of storytelling?
KINOSHITA: I think human society is quite unaffected and uneventful. I wanted to work with that basic assumption to show the possibility of animation. The protagonist isn't a superhero; he's a normal guy, but I wanted to show that you can still make that into an attractive, appealing animation.
The Last Blossom is coming to Anime Expo! Director Baku Kinoshita and producers Ryoichiro Matsuo and Hirofumi Itō will be present at the "The Last Blossom (HOUSENKA) — Special Panel for An Original Animated Film Premiering in Japan Fall 2025" on July 4 at 4:15PM in Room 404AB.
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