Episode 74 – Mark Yoshikawa / 'After Life' - a podcast by Phi Phenonenon

The kindest, humblest, most talented, best-combo film editor I’ve ever worked with was Mark Yoshikawa. From his humble beginnings assistant-editing for Richard Chew (Star Wars, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), to his rise through the ranks to co-picture editor for Terrence Malick (The New World, Knight of Cups), Yoshikawa’s ascendancy was always measured and earned, learning through the process as he made his way to large studio blockbusters. On this episode, we talk half Mark’s career, half one of his formative films, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life, and Kore-eda’s career. And:

- Mark’s most recent work, Reminiscence, how it called on skills he loved such. as non-linearity, that he developed for Lisa Joy on HBO’s Westworld;
- how that AE ascendancy, from That Thing you Do! to Best In Show taught him the skills to “run the room” and be a calming presence in multiple editing rooms;
- and why his work knowing the footage on Malick’s The New World led to a picture editor promotion.

Also:

- Mark’s formative viewing of After Life at a Los Angeles Little Tokyo festival screening;
- that docu-sensibility of “movies as memory” application of both After Life and Reminiscence, and cinema as a memory as a “story that you tell yourself”;
- and the true work of We-Wei and “avoiding the filmmaker’s hand” in regards to finding pristine performers’s genuine behavior.

Mark Yoshikawa is a film editor best known for his work on The Tree of Life, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and 2, HBO’s Westworld and the pilot to Succession. His most recently work, Reminiscence, starring Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson, is available in theaters and on HBO Max.

Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life is available on VOD and on physical media from Criterion.

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