Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 57 Authors' Note: The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Akihiko's colleagues and family for letting us highlight his work, to share it with the wider sound community, and to honour his memory. JW Note: My personal thanks to Kazuhiko Tomita for co-ordinating and translating these contributions from Akihiko's colleagues. Without his collaboration, this article would not have been possible. This article was compiled on the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation (Sydney, Australia). This author wishes to pay her respects to Elders past, present, and emerging and acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. together at GreenBird Studio in Shinjuku was officially recognized by Audio Ease, making it the first Japanese IR to be included in Altiverb.] During the sound editing phase, I handed Akihiko a collection of wild tracks I had recorded on set throughout the seasons. (He joined the project for sound post-production.) Looking at all the sound files laid out in Pro Tools, he smiled and said, "Well, it looks like there's hardly any work left for me to do." In reality, he carefully listened to every file recorded on set and in Suwa and built the film's sonic world around them. One of the film's key themes is that 'changing perspectives reveals different truths'. Akihiko expressed this brilliantly in sound: Foley reflected the characters' subjective point of view, while the sound effects conveyed the world with calm objectivity. Example 1: In the opening scene, the mysterious boy lighting a cigarette lighter is accompanied by a sequence of sounds that gradually emerge, pulling the audience into the world of Suwa. Example 2: A nighttime lake scene is repeated three times in the film. Each time, Akihiko placed a fire truck siren in the background, accompanying Ryuichi Sakamoto's soundtrack. This recurring sound unified the timeline and the world the film portrays. At the official screening at the Cannes Film Festival, our names— Akihiko Okase and Kazuhiko Tomita— appeared together in the end credits. It felt like all of our hard work had been recognised. Akihiko was always looking out for his juniors, offering kind and encouraging words to nurture those just entering the world of film sound. I believe this was because he had an unshakable belief in the beauty and potential of this profession more than anyone else. I may not be able to achieve the kind of greatness he did, but I can carry forward his convictions. "In Japanese, we have the word ikeru, a colloquial form of iku. It has two meanings. One is 'to place Kazuhiko Tomita with Akihiko Okase on the left at the 41st Japan Academy Prize Ceremony (2017) flowers in a vase to revive them.' The other is 'to bury a corpse.' Isn't there something basic in this word? Isn't this combination of life and death a measure of the world?" Tōru Takemitsu, Composer