Interview: Yuriyan Retriever

She’s been crowned Japan’s greatest solo comic, won the country’s ‘W’ contest for best comedienne and wreaked havoc on America’s Got Talent twice. So after scaling the Olympus of comedy, where does Yuriyan Retriever go next? To the movies, of course. After an off-the-cuff remark on TV about pursuing directing led to a call from an unnamed producer, things escalated quickly: The Nara native’s debut film, romance-horror odyssey Mag Mag, premiered at Beyond Fest in LA – where she’s been based since 2024 – last September.

Heartbreak to haunting

‘Mag Mag draws on my own romantic experiences. When I shared the agony of unrequited love, my feelings of longing and a one-time obsession with someone who wouldn’t look my way with my producer, I was told my experience would make perfect horror fodder [laughs].

‘This is a film made to be seen at the cinema. I still carry the trauma of a certain Japanese film I saw in a theatre when I was five years old, and I want to treat the next generation to that same sense of terror and excitement. That’s why my team worked so hard to ensure that [Mag Mag] wouldn’t be hit with an age rating; we pushed the boundaries of expression right up to the limit to make the movie accessible to as broad an audience as possible.

‘I also put a lot of thought into the film’s Japanese elements like the sake, the shots of old-fashioned Japanese houses and the nursery rhyme-esque theme song.’

Stuck in love

‘There was something I realised only once we had almost finished the film. You could well call Mag Mag a story about personal growth. Sanae (Sara Minami), the protagonist, is selfish and childish – like me.

‘Until recently, romance for me meant telling someone how much I love them – I just thought that was the right thing to do. No matter how many times they turned me down, I kept thinking that if I just kept going, they might eventually relent. That’s how I ended up dealing with unrequited love for years and years, just like Sanae.

’Now I see that a relationship isn’t just a matter of how much you love someone. It’s about considering their circumstances, being thoughtful. So Sanae’s story really resonated with me. People might think it’s something obvious, but it was a huge step for me.

‘I do think I’ve grown, but to be honest, I’m still worried I might go insane when the next person I fall for doesn’t reply to my texts [laughs]. Even if I understand that isn’t rational, I can’t just alter the way I function overnight. People don’t change that easily, do they? That’s probably true for Sanae, too – and I think it’s OK.’

Finding her voice

‘Being in charge of a production has changed me. As director, I had to constantly articulate my thoughts unambiguously. It’s made me more selfish [laughs], but also forced me to realise I often didn’t really know what I like. So I turned making myself clear into a daily habit.

I’ve overcome my hesitancy and am now more likely to communicate what I really want – even if it’s just something like what I’m going to have for lunch.’

‘Mag Mag’ is set for a February 6 release in Japan.