When I tried to remember exactly when my first short film project started, I had to go back to all my old notebooks and writings to retrieve some memories.
First of all, SPIRIT MOVES was meant to be a feature length script I worked on for several years. The original title was THE WAY and it was meant to be a biopic film with a male protagonist based on the life story of my spiritual superhero and martial artist from Hawaii. His name is Rod Omoto. (Kendo people call him Omoto sensei because he was a well known kendo teacher in the Pacific Northwest.) Unfortunately, I never met him in person.
I started screenwriting more seriously during the Covid pandemic. I participated in a writing workshop group, Screenwriting Tribe by John Carey, a screenwriter and author of several books. The group was based in Santa Monica, but due to the pandemic, they had to change to virtual, which worked for me, joining in from Oregon.
I completed a 100+ page script, THE WAY, depicting how young Omoto grew up in Hawaii in 1920’s with his first generation Japanese immigrant family, how he ended up training in kendo at the most well known martial art school in Kyoto, Japan, and while in training, Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japan and he ended up having to join the Japanese Imperial Army. I had all pages workshopped by John and other writers. John suggested all writers should check out some industry marketing events. So I participated in a virtual event and posted my script description and its background. Unexpectedly, a female producer in the LA area noticed my post. Her production company helped and produced mostly documentary films in and about Asian countries/cultures. She was personally intrigued by my story and said that one of her producer friends might be interested in my script and could introduce my project to him. Oh, wow, right? She went on to say that the producer was one of the actors in Last Samurai. You can imagine how excited I was when I read the sentence! The actor was NOT Tom Cruise or Ken Watanabe, or my other hero, Hiroyuki Sanada, but it was Shin Koyamada who played Nobutada, the son of Lord Katsumoto. My correspondence with Mr. Koyamada was only through the female producer, but he did read the treatment of my script and gave me some feedback. He suggested I put more focus on the Hawaiian part of the history, not the Pacific War where the Japanese were not seen as positive people during that time. At the time, one of the historic episodes I found very interesting in the story was the fact that Rod Omoto, who was Japanese American got stuck in Japan and was forced to participate in the war as a Japanese soldier. The protagonist being a Japanese Hawaiian American was a big part of his life and my script, but not the main part for the concept back then. After that, I wrote a few different versions, but eventually, I put away all of them in the drawer. I remember at some point between these versions, I changed the title from THE WAY to SPIRIT MOVES. I never communicated with Mr. Koyamada again, but this was a very cool experience for me as you can imagine. I’ve watched Last Samurai many times and I always thought he was such a great actor and his role was so memorable with deep sentiment and emotions.
The feature length script I worked on was based on the autobiography of Rod Omoto published as a-book by his daughter, Charlotte Omoto. She agreed to give me the option right that was initially signed by both of us for four years. At the end of the four years, I didn’t have a good enough script completed. We both agreed that the contract didn’t need an extension at this time. I felt sad because I felt like I lost the only connection I had with my superhero, Omoto. So, I decided to write a short “kendo movie” and this time, not only writing, but I would produce it myself, because I knew otherwise, no one else would for me. I told Charlotte that my short film would not be based on, but still deeply inspired by Omoto’s life story and spirit. She gave me permission to use his old family photos for my movie.
I completed my first draft for the short film, SPIRIT MOVES in October 2024 while I took several online courses and read books on “how to direct and produce a short film.”
The photos of Rod Omoto and his family and friends.
Omoto was featured in the book, The Warrior’s Path, Wisdom from Contemporary Martial Arts Masters by James Sidney