PODCAST | Laura Della Corte interviews Matsunaga Daishi, director of the film Egoist.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

In the interview with Matsunaga Daishi, the director of Egoist, we talked about about the key points that were at the center of the original novel and how he encountered it.

Egoist: There was a period, not so long ago, in which homosexual characters in Hollywood films were painted with different shades of evil (if you google “queer-coded Disney villains” you will see long lists of famous titles). In the Japanese film industry in recent years, LGBTQ characters have moved ever closer to the mainstream, albeit rarely as moral exemplars. The title of Matsunaga Daishi’s groundbreaking new film Egoist, based on Takayama Makoto’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, suggests much the same thing when the gay editor of a fashion magazine (Suzuki Ryohei) makes his hot personal trainer (Miyazawa Hio) a well-rewarded lover. The meaning of the title, however, is more elusive than it appears at first glance.