Original subtitles

I know an energetic and outrageous producer, Toshiki Kimura.

We decided to work together to make something interesting,

that would eventually lead us to 'Dead or Alive'

I thought doing something about the Yakuza with him would be interesting.

Daiei, literally meaning 'Big Movie', used to be a large film company,

although now they have no theatres or studios.

Only a creative group is left.

At that time I was working with the video team.

These producers, descendants of the old Japanese film industry, were in mid air.

Daiei made movies such as 'Zatoichi' and 'Nemuri Kyoshiro' which were all unique.

There was also the 'Gamera' series about a giant turtle. A change from 'Godzilla'.

And 'Daimajin' about a giant Haniwa - an ancient terracotta figurine.

Making yakuza films with the survivors of such a company was very enjoyable.

The work didn't need to be especially commercial or have great general appeal.

We could make our own decisions, like casting Kippei Shina,

as we didn't need to worry too much about the sales.

The minimum target that their sales team would accept was 3000-4000.

Daiei basically had the same kind of mentality as me.

I think they took pride in their films, not just for their own success or for promotion

but because they really wanted to make movies.

Now they've merged with Kadokawa, to become Kadokawa Daiei,

and I've made the first movie for them, a horror to be released next year.

I didn't consciously do that, but I had to express things in my own way.

You can't shoot a car-chase in Shinjuku by the script.

Even if you could it would look phoney.

Like in 'Seibu Keisatsu', an urban car chase

suddenly switches to a car crash in the middle of a field, where a car explodes.

The cars look similar but not the same.

We could've done that, but I would use bicycles.

Do it on a mid-town pavement and film it with a hidden camera. Nobody gets hurt.

But use 10 bikes instead of 5 cars.

There wasn't any such scene but that illustrates how we think.

In a script I can read certain intentions, but that won't create a Mad Max.

I don't want to have to fight a losing battle.

You have to do what you can, you work out in the given conditions.

For instance, you use an actor and give him a line from the script,

he does it well but it doesn't sound as it was intended.

You can't blame the actor, and it's too late to change when you see the rushes.

But you can improve things by omitting that line or changing it.

You might move him to a different position as he talks and add a word at the end.

You can achieve what you want without necessariliy changing the script.

I read scripts like that and that's the way I have to do things.

Kippei Shina has a warped nature. He's an edgy actor which is unusual in Japan.

Here, nice and easy-to-handle actors become popular.

It wasn't like this before though.

The film world used to be capable of utilising difficult actors, but not now.

They can't afford it any more,

and actors who follow orders and learn their lines are the ones chosen.

Stars are now managed by agencies.

There are still real actors outside, but they're too much hassle to handle.

Shina stands somewhere in between.

He's of a similar age to me and has foreign blood;

he's 'Zainichi' or Japanese Korean, of which he's strongly conscious.

Zainichi people try to push their way to the top of the ladder by becoming famous.

Or by passing the national exam to become lawyers or doctors.

From childhood they try to overcome their circumstances,

so they're in a position to express something different.

They even have a particular kind of facial expression.

The main character in the film is the son of a couple,

who were Japanese children left behind in China at the end of World War ll.

This man who doesn't know where he belongs lets off steam in Shinjuku,

looking for justice for himself.

We thought this had to be Shina Kippei, although we'd never worked together.

We made two more 'Kuroshakai' titles, but this one was the hardest.

That wasn't because of me,

but because of his strength, toughness and sharpness which comes across in the film.

The kind of life actors have lived is very important in a movie.

As for the themes, they were the same as before.

On location, I thought how and by whom I wanted to be recognised with this work.

I was frustrated with the passing of time, wondering if I was doing the right thing.

The same feeling that I have everyday.

But instead of doing something in particular, or expanding the breadth of my work,

I pared things down, to do only what I could do.

My own individuality shows through,

and it's something that other directors cannot develop.

This work made me realize this.

To think of doing something relevant at a global level and receiving a positive response,

means delving into the inner self and expressing something profound.

For other responses, there's Hollywood, the ultimate entertainment machine.

Japan has no way of taking on Hollywood.

Who thinks of ultimate entertainment in terms of oriental actors?

The Japanese audience doesn't seem keen on watching Japanese actors in the movies.

If there are two similar stories, they pick the foreign one.

In arthouse movies, the story can be the same,

but they consider a setting in London is more fashionable than somewhere in Japan;

they like stories about girls in paris or Germany.

Japanese people have a complex and admire foreign things - I don't know where it started.

I think the Japanese as a whole are hidden under a thin film of material or something.

So by observing this, you can create something uniquely Japanese.

Some people can't accept this and go to America to try to learn the American method,

and copy it in Japan or somewhere else.

But you should let the Americans do it.

Sometimes Europeans make strange films in Hollywood;

they're flops, but are interesting.

It's because they can't stop being themselves.

If you scale things down, you can obtain the freedom to make your own sort of movies.

For example, imagine a script where a series of incidents happen to a college girl,

living in a small flat in downtown Tokyo, and that her room is the only set.

Just with people going in and out,

you can still express something equivalent to 'Star Wars' in terms of theme,

although each of these films occupies a different world.

The less the budget, the more the possibilities.

Maybe you can manage to create a world inside a teacup.

It's true that I yearn to be famous and to have large budgets to give me greater freedom,

but at the same time I yearn for the complete opposite,

and I actually believe there are more possibilities for me

at the end of the financial spectrum.

However, I won't find the answer by thinking and discussing these things,

but by being involved in a wide range of productions.

What amazes me is that when my work is shown abroad,

it receives a good reaction,

although it's only from the minority of people who like Asian movies.

But there's still enough of them to fill up a theatre.

Once the work has left my hands and goes abroad,

it seems to me to become more interesting than it was in Japan,

and I can experience it myself as a movie.

Even in a small work there is something of myself,

but when you simply try to express yourself, you lose your touch.

You have to forget all that.

If you think, “Last time this sort of thing was well received, so my work should be like this,“

then it's the beginning of failure.

When you're not consciously asserting yourself, your true individuality appears.

This work gave me the chance to think about all these sorts of things.

If you overspend and the production company goes bankrupt,

you won't ever get a call again.

When I work with a company for the first time, I work out how sustainable they are.

They may be hoping to pay off debts from a previous movie,

with the revenue from my budget,

and it can happen that they don't have any money when the project starts.

This is important for me as a film-maker and director because I'm a worker,

and although it may not sound artistic, it's very important.

Perhaps some directors don't care about the finances, claiming it isn't their role,

but someone has to do it.

If the president of the production company treats me with affection,

maybe as an interesting but dubious character,

that gives me a rush and I'll go, “OK, lets finish this in 5 days.“

Then again, even if I spend more than the budget,

if the work leads to another project for the company,

it's a kind of PR for them, so ideally I like them to see things that way.

But sometimes they're annoyed with me though.

Working in Japan, I wonder why we remain uncommitted.

We go for safe stories despite the fact that there are many exciting topics.

Just by looking at the casting you can imagine the plot, yet people put up with this.

In Shinjuku, more than half of those who invested in the area are Chinese, not Japanese.

It's also the place where all the yakuza groups from all over Japan gather,

and the Taiwanese and Koreans are becoming involved.

It's felt that movies shouldn't refer to and should avoid anything that might cause

the Japanese censors to raise their eyebrows.

Japanese films are turned out to be like TV dramas.

In fact, TV dramas made into movies do well at the box office.

It's good to make hits, but the money made from those should be used to make

films that you really want to make.

But they've become incapable of doing this sort of thing.

In this film, people of various ethnic groups appear,

and although the main character has Japanese blood, he's confused about his identity.

Most Japanese films are based around the Japanese mentality, it's way of thinking,

because their preoccupation is, “We're Japanese.“

To raise a question, to deal with minorities and make it.

There is a Zainichi yakuza,

he insists he's a patriot not a yakuza, that's where his heart lies, he claims.

This is reality, the real face of the nationalists.

The real world of Japan isn't as simple as the picture you see on the TV news.

People make a fuss about kid's crimes, but to me they're not surprising.

L'm not impressed with current cinema so I worked with the maverick producer, Kimura.

He's part of the company that make the TV programme 'Night Head',

which the censors don't like.

'Shinjuku Triad Society' was fun to make with a variety of people in it,

but we pursued the reality of what we were doing,

and didn't go into those places without careful research.

If you make a school drama with disabled people in, producers tend to avoid them.

Even though they exist and should be allowed to act if that's what they want to do.

I want to break these boundaries with sensitivity but ignoring taboos.

If they're not conscious of morals or taboos, I think films can become pure and simple.

If you deliberately try to go beyond boundaries, and keep thinking about these things,

the work becomes awful.

If you are sincere and honest the work becomes clean,

and it gives the audience something fresh.

When people see an actor with only one arm

they can be made to think that nobody can beat him,

if he's genuine and not acting.

I also like to cast martial artists, as that definitely changes the feel of the film.

Not just their scenes but other actors make changes in the following scenes.

Many male actors want to play strong men like martial artists,

who train themselves stoically and become rich.

But their lives turn against them and they end up as drunks in small towns.

Actors like to portray this type of man.

When they meet a genuine one,

he may not be a good actor, but he has special eyes.

He may not know that he looks real,

but the other actors admire him, and they feel the need to make changes.

And they come to realise that being an actor is also a genuine way of life.

Caesar Takeshi was in 'Full Metal Yakuza' and 'Shinjuku Triad Society'.

His acting isn't great, but he has a special presence.

The audience only see him in the film,

but co-actors see him during the shooting and are influenced by him.

These stimulants are everywhere,

and if you avoid them and do everything by the book,

the experience becomes fake and unexciting.

When Yuya Uchida comes to a shoot, it's a serious business.

The shoot may not work out,

but the staff that experience this will start to change.

This is one of the good things about movies.