Kan Eguchi

Rare is the condom commercial that makes you cry. But in Japan, where broadcast regulators prohibit the kind of risqué humor western audiences have come to expect from the category, agencies can’t be so crass.

Not that director Kan Eguchi would mind. The 42-year-old director has a distinctive wry-and-dry visual approach to directing comedy, but it was that instinct for restraint that turned “Love Distance” for Sagami and GT, Tokyo into the sleeper spot of the year. The ad follows a real-life long-distance couple as they sprint across the country toward each other. As they close in on one another, the distance between becomes a metaphor for Sagami’s product: “the world’s thinnest condom”.

In 1997, Eguchi co-founded Fukuoka-based prodco Koo-Ki. Though he’s directed innumerable ads, shorts, theatrical productions and TV shows in Japan, he’s yet to direct for an agency outside the country. 

“Love Distance” made a completely different impression on the international award scene – one of the year’s best, it deservedly picked up a Gold Lion in Cannes.

How did you approach the Sagami campaign?
I was careful about the balance of fiction and non-fiction. I meant it as entertainment but on the other hand, I was loathe to be criticized for prearranged performances. I direct, but I don’t lie.

In the middle of the film, we used a home video, aiming for a documentary touch. The two main characters were prohibited from talking to the staff running along with them and [from] having good meals while they were running. We needed to make them absolutely lonely. They complained bitterly. For the last scene, we irritated the couple to draw out an emotional expression when they actually met. Just before they embraced each other, I said, “Wait!”

Do you think advertising can become a personal expression for a director?
I believe the best result is when a personal expression can contain a social aspect – not only in advertising, but also in film and art. So I can’t just say ‘yes’ to the question, but I think there is a possibility for advertising to become more than a personal expression. Q

www.koo-ki.co.jp

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