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With Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete (FFVIIACC) finally launched, Famitsu interviews the core members of the production team. They are director Tetsuya Nomura, co-director Takeshi Nozue and scenario writer Kazushige Nojima. I’m a big fan of the original movie and despite what some have said, I think FFVIIACC is more than just a simple BD conversion. And as the interview would tell you, there are a lot of efforts going into it. Check out my complete translation of the interview based on the Taiwan version of Weekly Famitsu below, Japanese readers should just check out the Japanese version here because my translation skill still has a long long way to go
Famitsu heard that Nozue started works on FFVIIACC immediately after the original version came out. Nozue explains that he was actually removing noises and made lighting correction as part of his post-launched task and to prepare for possible uses in future. Nojima adds that Nomura actually suggested a few new scenarios to him after the film was done but nothing came out of it for quite a while. Nomura says that’s because he was working on something else and the idea was “put to sleep in his computer” (laugh).
Just when Nojima thought it will never happens, Nomura suddenly came to him and said “about that new scenario I told you before…“. Nozue said the decision to produce FFVIIACC was made when they are working on Dissidia Final Fantasy and trailer for Final Fantasy Versus XIII (FF Versus XIII). With Blu-ray Disc market expanding, Nomura says he thought it was time to start works on FFVIIACC but the original idea was to just add a few new scenes and he never thought it’d take such a long time.
Realism of Geostigma
The interview then move on to the new scenarios, where Famitsu asks Nomura if he had a clear idea of what he wanted to add when he first told Nojima about the project. Nomura says although he had some specific ideas but most of them are pretty general like “add more scenes with children”, the result of which is the final scene with the kids running.
Nojima says he wanted a good contrast between Cloud and kids like Denzel and Marlene because this will also shows how Cloud has grown up as well. When he was writing for Final Fantasy VII (FFVII), he thought that kids and older people are closer to “The Flow of Life”. The former was in it not long ago while the latter is returning to it soon. He find it easier to develop the story of the kids this way and FFVIIACC gives him the chance to properly present this.
Famitsu noted that compare to adult, Geostigma appears to have greater effect on children and asks if this is due to the fact that they were once very close to the meteors. Nojima agrees and says that just like children are easier to be affected by happiness or fears, those who have seen the meteor fall in FFVII will be the easy target of the disease. Geostigma is also more clearly presented in FFVIIACC and Nojima says they didn’t do so in the original film because it might be too powerful for the audience. Nozue says he also had his doubts over the presentation of Geostigma but Nomura says that after Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, he realized people are actually quite acceptable to this kind of realism.
Creativity of the Production Team
Famitsu asks if there are extra scenes Nojima added for visual purposes. Nojima says no because the only thing in his head was how the characters react in the film. As a result, he has to constantly tell Nozue “It’s time to trouble you again” (laugh). Once he received the scenarios, Nozue would discuss with the team at Visual Works and consult Nomura if there are parts that he wasn’t comfortable with. Nomura says he mainly take care of the overall balance of the film, hoping to present his vision for the film to the audience.
Commenting on the battle scenes, which Nozue says are a mix of Nomura and Visual Works’ ideas. Nomura says the highway chase with helicopter scene was Nozue’s idea, to which Nozue says it was Nomura who said he wanted more variety in the helicopter scene and he has to think really hard to come up with a solution. Nomura then says “Oh is it?” (laugh). Cloud has a new Limit Break in one of the fight scenes, Famitsu asks if this is Nozue’s idea too. Nozue says that’s because he wanted to see Cloud performing moves from FFVII in the movie.
Since they have a lot more time for the production this time, some of the musics have been re-arranged based on the visuals. Nomura says it was the other way around in the original film, where visuals are being created based on the music. Reno and Rude, the two members of Turks, also enjoy a lot more screen time in FFVIIACC, Nojima says although he feels both are well-explored in FFVII, Nomura wanted more scenes with them and he himself also think they are useful to provide laughter to the otherwise very serious story. Famitsu mentions the scene with Reno’s nose bleeding and Nozue says that’s Nomura’s idea, but Nomura quickly says that he only wanted some blood on Reno but not nose bleeding. Nozue adds that his nose should still bleeds in the next scene but it was cut because they are worried that it might get too comical.
Inspired by Final Mix
Famitsu asks where did the idea for the sword battles came from. Nozue says it was inspired by the secret movie in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. Besides, he always wanted to create a battle that’s humanly impossible. Nojima then talk about the original idea behind the film, which Yoshinori Kitase (FFVII director) proposed that it should be a compilation of all the movies in FFVII or FFX, but Nojima says that it probably won’t work. Nozue says he also know about plans to make a movie based on FFVII but didn’t hear anything about it for a long time. Nomura says that’s because nobody really want to touch FFVII. Nojima says that’s because a sequel to FFVII is always challenging and no matter what it turn out to be, they will become the villains. As a result, Nomura says he offer himself for the project and thought “Let me be the villain” (laugh).
So is Nomura a very tough director? Does he always want the production crews to redo their stuff? Nozue says that’s never the case and think Nomura will still approve things even if he don’t quite like them. But normally in these situation, the staff will realized that they have to redo stuff. When the team was on location at Hawaii, Nomura even packed food for them. Something Nomura quickly says that’s because he just happened to be with the food caterers.
more here
I hope this makes it's way to the USA.