From Script to Screen: Michiyo Sato

When Michiyo Sato entered the entertainment industry fresh out of university, she never imagined she would one day shape the fate of Oscar-winning movies or become a curator of Japanese cinema. Now, decades later, Sato’s name is a force to be reckoned with. She single-handedly plays the role of the invisible yet powerful hand behind successful international blockbusters like The Father and The Farewell. As a producer at Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, Sato brings the most compelling of stories to life for all to enjoy.

Sato is a true Tokyo native, born and raised in Japan’s capital city. Nevertheless, Sato has an extensive multicultural background, having gained international experience throughout her university years in England, her higher education in France, her language studies in South Korea, and her early work experience in Texas. Sato’s comprehensive knowledge and understanding of many diverse cultures would later go on to play an important role in her career as a major figure in the entertainment industry.

Currently, Sato holds the impressive role of content producer at Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, an entertainment subsidiary company of Hakuhodo DY Holdings, the second largest advertising company in Japan. Sato is of absolutely monumental importance in the film industry, with just some of her many accomplishments being managing the production of legendary films like The Father and The Farewell. Sato began her job at Hakuhodo in 2018, but she is no stranger to entertainment—in fact, she has been making her mark in entertainment ever since graduating from university. Before stepping into her role at Hakuhodo, Sato blazed an extraordinary path through the entertainment world, taking on a variety of roles that reflected her vision, ambition, and curiosity. Following her university graduation in England, Sato returned to Japan where she began her career in entertainment as part of a music company. A few years later, Sato pivoted into the movie department, marking the start of her celebrated film career with international acquisitions and overseas Japanese films sales. Gaining a steady understanding and experience of the film industry, Sato later joined one of Japan’s largest talent agencies, utilizing her skillset to masterfully manage Korean film acquisitions. Intrigued by her job in Korean film and craving something new, Sato’s ambition brought her to South Korea, where she studied the language and culture for nine months. Upon returning to Japan, Sato received an offer from Hakuhodo Casting, where her new role entailed casting foreign actors and actresses for Japanese advertisements. During her time as a casting agent, Sato fully immersed herself into the realm of acting, meeting entertainers from across Asia, Europe, and the United States. Sato was so well-known in her field that one of her former clients, a Korean actor, expressed a desire to launch his own company alongside Sato. Sato would eventually run the company successfully for four years, until moving into her current position. When a new opportunity came for Sato to return to the movie business, Sato took her chance, and hasn’t looked back since. Now, six years into her time at Hakuhodo DY Music & Pictures, Sato continues to innovate as a producer, playing the crucial role of keeping Japan’s cinema alive.

Decades into her career, it is uncontested that Sato has left a huge mark on the film industry. However, there was indeed a time where she was actually unsure of what career she wanted to pursue. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Sato admitted. “So that’s why it was kind of hard for me to decide which university I should go to.” As Sato faced uncertainty about her future career, a conversation with her father, a former executive in the entertainment business, was transformatively eye-opening. What made him so successful, Sato explains, was his surprising disinterest in celebrity culture. Despite his close proximity to famous actors or singers, he never idolized them, and that was exactly why he believed his daughter, too, would thrive in the industry. “He told me in that way, I can always offer a third eye,” Sato says. “So I thought huh… maybe that’s a good idea.”

Taking her father’s advice and hoping to pursue a role where she could offer her entire objectivity, Sato began her first professional experience in a field that she was completely uninterested in: music. “I thought since I wasn’t really into music, it would be even better for me to join the music business,” Sato recalls. “BUT, it turns out that you actually have to have some kind of interest in music if you’re working in music,” she follows with a hearty laugh.

Realizing that she needed to possess at least a slight bit of interest in the industry where she would work, Sato searched for another opportunity. It was near perfect timing when Sato’s company made an internal announcement notifying employees of a brand new department concentrated in the movie business. Her company was seeking a young candidate who could speak music and, of course, had an interest in the film industry. “Since I prefer movies to music,” Sato says, laughing, “I applied for the job, I got the position, and I moved to the movie department!”

Sato is an incredibly skilled figure in the entertainment industry, possessing talents—not the least of which include distributing, producing, and casting. But, she holds the power of one other crucial asset in the entertainment business: people management. “I think I’m good at taking care of people,” Sato describes. “And solving their problems.” Sato details one of her earliest jobs in the industry, serving as the assistant to Japanese producers from her very first company. Sato’s role entailed overseeing the management of a now-acclaimed Taiwanese film directed by a very famous Taiwanese director and produced by Japanese producers. “At the time, it was my first job and I didn’t know anything,” Sato shares. “But, all of a sudden, the director and producers had a huge fight and stopped talking to each other.” Due to the conflict, Sato had suddenly become the only bridge of communication between the film executives, severely hindering the process of production. Knowing that this problem quickly had to be solved, Sato utilized her skillset to restore progress—even as a young employee with no experience. “I had to take care of everything and find a way to push them to get back on track in time,” she chuckles. “So that was an interesting experience.” Thanks to Sato’s communication skills, the film was a smash success, receiving critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.

Sato elaborates that the situation she faced is just the norm in show-biz—and it had nothing to do with the people, just the culture. “They both work very hard and are nice people,” she explains. “It’s just a different culture.” Despite being a Taiwanese film, the project had significant Japanese influence, as much of it was filmed in Japan. A large percentage of the film staff were Japanese and could not speak English or Taiwanese. The other half of the staff were Taiwanese and could not speak English or Japanese. The difference in culture paired alongside the language barrier inevitably led to clashes, despite the good intentions of everybody involved. While Sato’s extensive language palate does not yet include Taiwanese, her role as a mediator was indispensable. “I couldn’t be a language translator, but I could translate the culture,” she says.

Navigating cultural differences, Sato explains, is just as crucial as navigating language barriers. Her ability to mediate and adapt across divides is what makes her such an important figure in international productions. The most important trait to have in the industry, she says, is flexibility. “I see a lot of people get upset or raise their voice,” Sato describes. “And that really doesn’t help.” Throughout her decades of experience in entertainment, Sato has faced many challenges, whether it be uncooperative agents or overpriced films. “I can’t always be upset and tell someone to do something, because they won’t do it then,” she admits. “Somehow I have to get them to cooperate.” She emphasizes the importance of strategy and maturity as opposed to being argumentative. “You can’t be a pushover, of course, but at the same time, you can’t push people.”

In an industry where no two days look the same, Sato has learned to expect the unexpected. Sato’s job is full of surprises both big and small, but she embraces every moment of it. “I feel like you cannot always be surprised in this job,” she explains. “You just have to approach it with ‘Okay, this is happening, now what do I do?’” Sato shares that she always tries to be one step ahead, but at the same time, has accepted that she will not always be able to accurately predict her future. “Right now I’m working with a very famous Japanese producer on a Japanese drama series,” she describes. “When I first started to work with him, I always tried to read his mind, because, of course, I wanted to please him. But then I realized that I can’t really read his mind, so I decided to just be myself and be honest.” Sato adds with a laugh, “Also, he’s very sharp, so if I try to please him he will know it.” It is her remarkable combination of adaptability and authenticity that has helped Sato not only navigate her daily surprises, but thrive in her environment.

As a major entertainment executive and someone who plays a critical role in deciding Japan’s cinema, Sato lives in the face of unpredictability every single day. Involved in both acquisition and production, Sato must decide which films are purchased and broadcasted all across Japan. Japan is the third largest film market in the world, only after the United States and China, so it is subsequently an incredibly competitive film market. The key to deciding whether a film will be successful, Sato says, is mainly the script. Sato outlines the process of choosing a film, beginning with sales agents sending lineups of 200 to 300 scripts for executives like herself. Inevitably, Sato can not read all 300 scripts, so she must factor in numerous components when deciding which project to pursue. “When I choose, I first think of the sales agents. There are some huge ones and some small ones. The huge ones are usually really good, but also super expensive. Then, I think about the genre, the director, the cast,” she describes. “And of course the script. The script is very, very important.” The script is ultimately what makes or breaks a film’s potential success, as stated by Sato.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise—some of the most recognizable names in Hollywood can draw people into a movie theater, right? According to Sato, not always. “These days, I think the context of the film is more important than the cast,” she says. “Cast is still very important, but if the film is crap, even if it has really huge stars, nobody cares.” It is incredibly difficult to predict success in Japan compared to even 20 years ago. For example, Sato elaborates that Dune was a complete disaster in Japan despite Timothée Chalamet being a huge star in the United States. “That star power doesn’t translate to Japan,” she says. “Japan is a very peculiar market.” The reality of Japan is that Hollywood star power is not what it was in the 1990s, the 2000s, or even the early 2010s—that is just one reason why Sato’s decision-making is such a critical factor in upholding the success and longevity of Japan’s film industry.

One of those decisions? The Father, an Oscar-winning film starring Anthoy Hopkins and Olivia Colman. The Father is the gem of Sato’s filmography, and just one of the most impressive films she purchased based on the script. “I read the script, and I just loved it so much,” she recalls. “Even though I read a lot of scripts, that was one of the best I’ve ever read.” But just because Sato liked the script doesn’t mean that it was a smooth and easy road to stardom. The Father was a project that she fought for. “When I tried to buy The Father, a lot of people at the company told me not to,” she says, describing the widespread pushback she faced from her colleagues. But Sato had a gut feeling. “I don’t insist on many things,” she explains. “So when our CEO heard me insisting on this, he was like ‘Well, maybe we should buy it.’” And that one decision ended up being one of the best Sato has ever made. The Father was nominated for a whopping six Oscars, including the major categories of Best Actor and Best Picture. “And I still remember who was against me for The Father,” Sato laughs.

The Father and many other films’ successes have been attributed to Sato, but in the entertainment industry, it is almost never smooth sailing. Even with The Father, her most celebrated acquisition, Sato faced obstacles. Sato had to fight fiercely for the film, having to raise her own company’s bid to outcompete other potential buyers for The Father under immense pressure. Sato acknowledges that not every single project will follow the same trajectory, or meet the same success as some of her Oscar-nominated films. “Each film has a different result,” she says. “It’s very unpredictable.” From the moment that she acquires a film, it can take up to two years before it hits theaters, and within that time, the market can shift entirely. “You really never know,” she reveals. “There are even some films I bought that were never made at all.”

Throughout her decades of experience and success in the film industry, Sato has learned to fully trust and rely on the most important person in her career: herself. Whether it be sending reminders to actors before their press conferences or ensuring to take time differences into account when scheduled, Sato has learned to thoroughly check to make sure that even the smallest matters are in line. “You can trust only yourself,” she says. “You are the one who everyone will blame if, say, an actor doesn’t show up to their meeting.”

Yet, while Sato is in control behind the scenes, most people have no idea just how much work happens off-camera. The shiny red carpets, the dazzling gowns, and the bright camera flashes seen in paparazzi photos may give the deceiving appearance of effortless perfection, but in fact, behind the glitz and glamor is hours of technical work that go unnoticed. “It looks so fabulous, but actually it’s a lot of hard work behind the camera,” Sato reveals. She laughs when she recalls how colleagues tell her to enjoy herself at the Cannes Film Festival. “They say, ‘Have fun!’ and I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m not going to be on the red carpet.’” No, Sato is not on the red carpet of the magnificent Cannes Film Festival, but she takes on an arguably more important role behind the event managing the future of cinema. Sato explains that at Cannes, and every other major film festival, there is a film market occurring behind the paparazzi photos where hundreds of people gather to talk about business. “Sales agents have their booths set up, and we (producers and acquisition managers) go and talk to them,” Sato outlines. “We try to buy their films as cheap as possible, and they try to sell them as expensive as possible,” she says, laughing. So while on the TV Cannes looks like a glamorous event, as Sato describes, if you aren’t a celebrity, chances are it won’t be as ornate as it looks.

Despite being surrounded by some of the biggest names in the industry, Sato approaches the world of fame with a very grounded perspective. She may not walk the red carpet, but she works closely with the people that do. Sato has worked with global superstars like Gong Yoo, but she never lets star power cloud her judgement. “You cannot be intimidated by those people,” she asserts. “They’re not higher than anyone, we just have different jobs.” To her, actors aren’t just icons, but human beings.

At the end of the day, whether she is negotiating at the Cannes Film Festival or pitching a TV show, Sato believes that the most powerful tool in the industry isn’t fame, but something else: language. “I think it’s important to read a lot of books because you need to know a lot of vocabulary,” she says. No matter how good a film or series is, if you can’t communicate its brilliance, it won’t get far. “If you don’t have a lot of vocabulary, you can’t really express yourself.” Sato’s words are a testament that behind every success story is a foundation of hard work and the power of expression—what the film industry is made up of.

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