UCLA alumna makes picture-perfect ‘Bride’
Award-winning director Hatta to speak at Melnitz tonight after
film screening
By Lael Loewenstein
Daily Bruin Staff
Whenever she has been faced with failure, filmmaker Kayo Hatta
has managed to turn her luck around.
Whether it was her father’s disappointment at not having a son,
her suddenly bankrupt film project or her near blacklisting by the
Sundance Film Festival, Hatta has somehow persevered.
That perseverance paid off when, after five years of toil
Hatta’s first film, Picture Bride, won the Sundance Festival’s
Audience Award.
"There were times during those years that I never thought it
would get made," says Hatta, a UCLA film school graduate.
The story of a Japanese woman’s immigration to Hawaii for an
arranged marriage, Picture Bride screens tonight at Melnitz. Hatta
will be on hand after the screening to reflect on her experiences.
The Hawaii shooting location and international cast made it a
particularly challenging first film.
"Often I thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew, and I
berated myself for being too ambitious. A lot of doubts creep in
from your initial can-do, cavalier, energetic attitude at the start
to later when the money isn’t coming in and the script isn’t
developing the way you thought."
But whenever her morale was low, something would happen to keep
the project moving. Another grant would come through or another
supportive voice would encourage the project. "It was like a
marathon," she says. "You have to pace yourself or you can peter
out early."
Hatta’s previous work on two documentaries prepared her for the
long road ahead. "Luckily, I didn’t have any illusions that the
film was going to happen overnight. I had seen how people scrape
together funding and I knew it would have a long gestation
period."
Along with her producer, fellow UCLA alumna Lisa Onodera, Hatta
managed to raise $500,000 from various arts organizations.
But the money ran out midway through the shoot.
Undeterred, the film’s star Youki Kudoh, a Japanese singing
sensation, called a clothing firm in Japan she knew and persuaded
its owners to put up another $500,000.
Hatta recalls Kudoh standing in the sugar cane fields in full
costume and makeup with a cellular phone in her hand. "She was
incredible. She wouldn’t hang up the phone until she knew they were
going to give us the money."
The problems didn’t end there. Last year Hatta put her
reputation on the line when she pulled her film out of competition
in the Sundance Festival because it wasn’t ready.
Festival programmer Geoffrey Gilmore was furious at the late
withdrawal as the film was already in the festival catalogue. But
the decision proved fortuitous, because Sundance re-accepted the
film this year, and it went on to capture the audience prize.
With interest in Asian-American films at a new high in the wake
of the successful Joy Luck Club, Miramax bought the distribution
rights, and Picture Bride screened to a positive reception at
Cannes.
It was a long way from the dark editing rooms of Melnitz to the
Miramax yacht on the Côte d’Azur, but the themes of family and
tradition had been germinating in Hatta’s mind ever since she made
Otemba (Tomboy), her first film at UCLA. Based on her father’s
obsessive desire to have a son, that award-winning film impelled
her to examine her Japanese heritage in greater depth.
It wasn’t just her heritage that Hatta called upon to make her
film, it was also her technical expertise. But she was in for a
surprise when she saw the differences between film school and the
real world.
"You realize that shooting in school is such a luxury. At school
you have all day to shoot a scene and it’s a relaxed environment;
it’s not like the clock is ticking and every minute is hundreds of
dollars because you have the unions and the crew to worry about. On
the set, the time-is-money equation is so intense that it’s
unnerving because you have to work so damn quickly. You constantly
have to improvise and compromise."
But Hatta doesn’t completely idealize her UCLA days. She also
remembers competing for equipment, vying to get in to overcrowded
classes, and suffering through bureaucratic headaches and sleepless
nights.
"I have a lot nightmares of going down to the vending machines
at 3 a.m. and looking at a frozen burrito and thinking this is
going to be my dinner," she groans.
"But in spite of all the shortcomings and the departmental
problems, I had a great experience there. The excitement of working
24 hours a day in a building where other people are hard at work as
well was stimulating. There was really a sense of community and
camaraderie," Hatta recalls wistfully.
"You look back on your days as a student and think, those were
the best years of your life as a filmmaker."
FILM: Picture Bride. Directed by Kayo Hatta, written by Kayo and
Mari Hatta. Tonight, Melnitz Hall, at 7:30. Admission is free. For
information call 825-2345.