How Keanu Reeves Landed in Stop-Motion Samurai Epic ‘Hidari’ – and Why S.S. Rajamouli Wanted to Know How It Was Made

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Keanu Reeves joined Japanese stop-motion feature “Hidari” after watching the project’s pilot film, with his team getting back to the filmmakers about a week after the screening was arranged to set up a Zoom call, director Kawamura Masashi said at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where he also updated the film’s fundraising push.

Kawamura, who created, wrote and is directing “Hidari,” appeared with co-director Ogawa Iku at a session reporting on Film Frontier, a talent development program backed by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and run by festival organizer UniJapan. The program has paid for the team’s travel to markets and industry events.

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Reeves’ casting as the lead voice was announced at Cannes in May, but Kawamura said the actor had seen the pilot before the festival.

“We were heavily influenced by Kurosawa’s films, so when the puppet was being made, I asked for Mifune Toshiro and Keanu Reeves added together, divided by two and then aged,” Kawamura said.

From then on, Kawamura kept Reeves at the top of his list for the lead voice. The film’s producers took that seriously, found a way to reach the actor and arranged for him to watch the pilot.

“About a week later we heard back, and it was, ‘OK, let’s do a Zoom,’” Kawamura said. “I was thinking, so this is how fast things move these days. Then we got on the call and Keanu was there on the other side.”

“Hidari” has also caught the eye of “RRR” director S.S. Rajamouli. Kawamura said he met the Indian filmmaker at Annecy, showed him “Hidari” and ended up in a standing conversation of about 30 minutes about how the film was made.

“He said, ‘You’re amazing. How did you make this?’” Kawamura said.

Kawamura said an encounter like that, with a director he would rarely cross paths with otherwise, could only happen at a festival. “There’s the surprise inside the theater, and there are the connections after you walk out,” he said.

The team shot the proof-of-concept short around three years ago, paying for it themselves with help from crowdfunding, and posted it on YouTube. It has since drawn about 5.3 million views and roughly 120,000 followers, many of them overseas, according to Kawamura.

“Wood carving, stop-motion and a period drama – it’s a very austere project,” he said. “If we’d pitched it with just a written proposal, I don’t think anyone would have understood it.”

With Film Frontier support, the filmmakers pitched “Hidari” at the Annecy Animation Showcase, part of the Cannes Film Market, carrying one of the hand-carved puppets with them. Kawamura said the puppet drew bigger crowds than its makers, and the Cannes platform put the film in front of live-action and action fans as well as distributors and agents.

“Stop-motion is a really small world, and people tend to assume it’s a narrow market,” Kawamura said. “But even though it’s stop-motion, we think of it as an action film.”

The budget is large, and the team is still out selling the project, seeking grants and partnerships with overseas distributors, Kawamura said. “In terms of speed, we’re making it the indie way,” he added. “Thanks to being light on our feet, I think the project has managed to make it across thin ice.”

Earlier this month in Busan, Dwarf Studios producer Matsumoto Noriko said talks with a U.S. company that had offered to fund the entire budget, in exchange for all the rights, had stalled.

Ogawa, who works at stop-motion house Dwarf Studios, attended Annecy this year. He said the technique remains niche in commercial film and TV animation, but festival shorts and student sections are full of it, and studios from Europe, North America and beyond converge on Annecy. “When I took the puppet along, it was hugely popular,” he said. “It was fun.”

Film Frontier, now in its third year, is part of the Agency for Cultural Affairs’ Creator Support Fund, which backs creators for around three years, from project development through to overseas rollout.