I would recommend 'Lesson Of The Evil' to be given as a DVD gift on a child's 15th birthday. In Japan, children under 15 are not allowed to watch it. Plus, 'Lesson Of The Evil' is one film where the older you get, the more you will be able to understand and enjoy the film.
Takashi Miike
In general, I'm probably seen as an unusual director.
I wanted to make '13 Assassins' in the old manner, to use old techniques and not to rely on modern-day ones such as CGI, or editing that changes the speed.
I do not proactively approach Hollywood, but also I do not always turn down offers. But since I'm living as a movie director, I have a desire to shoot something like 'This is a Hollywood movie!' at least once in my lifetime.
I believe that when people try to live their life at the fullest, there's a certain laughter that comes out of it. The more they try to live their life seriously, the funnier it is.
The hero has to be an archetype; they have to be like a dream; they have to be perfect. The evil is closer to us.
Manga, as a medium, is very different from cinema. Its creators are free to express themselves with harsh, cruel stories, and they enjoy vast distribution throughout Japan.
I don't choose to make low-budget films. But that is the reality of surviving in the Japanese film industry. However, the trade off is, since we're working on small budgets, we have freedom. You can't buy this freedom with money. With this freedom, I think there are an infinite number of possibilities.
My generation was a special generation. I was born in 1960 and in my childhood we were all big manga consumers that was the culture. We were brought up in manga. Manga evolved around what was being made to cater to kids. All children at that time read ridiculously thick manga books every week.
I guess, in a sense, 'Audition' was a film that gave me an opportunity that I hadn't had up until that point. So that's definitely one that is important to me. Then there's 'Visitor Q' that kind of taught me that there are some kinds of films that can only be made as low-budget films that really wouldn't work as anything else.
I am attracted to bad people because they are very human.
Maybe '13 Assassins' is the mortal agony and death rattle of a Japanese film industry that has abandoned its creative talent.
People tell all sorts of lies in order to live. That enables friendships to form and love to blossom.
I'm even a little afraid of the dark. If I'm alone in the dark I'll sometimes feel that there's a presence behind me and I'll even be afraid to turn around, but then if I do get the courage to turn around, I'll just be scared that whatever was there has just jumped over to the other side of me.
Japanese of my generation try to get through life without stepping on anyone's toes; in some ways that's unnatural and stressful. The yakuza are different: They live short lives but live and die on their own terms - it's exciting to portray that.
I am like any other human being; I am full of different sides.
Every medium has its own kind of freedom. I don't want to just cross from one to the next. I want to enjoy the freedom each one has. Sometimes, you can do something for TV that you can't do in the cinema.
My style is that I have no style.
I think that every character, no matter how different they may be perceived, they all have their beautiful moments. All humans do. All people do.
For the birth of one champion, there are many young boxers behind them who had setbacks. In terms of that, I think boxing is very dramatic.
Pleasure can also be a mirror of the anxiety we feel in everyday life, it can have a message inside.
First Love' is one of my most hopeful movies. It's about love and relationships, so in that way it's different from my other films. That's why it's special for me.
I don't slot actors into the image of a character that's already built. I build characters by listening to the voice and the story inside the heart of each actor. Art and life are linked, and expressed through my actors.
Bigger-budgeted films have more restrictions and less freedom to create. Because of this, I try to find freedom in the people I work with. I often work in ways I don't want to. It's more about controlling the situation. Lower-budget films are freer.
Gozu' was influenced by American cinema.
Audiences are an unknown mystery to me, so I can't really predict anything. For me, the best audience is myself, my crew, and the actors.
Sometimes it's good to know there are limits.
My films are like drinking a good beer, but pleasure doesn't mean that it cannot change someone's point of view.
I'm actually quite a scaredy cat, myself.
It wasn't really my intention to make movies quickly - it's more to do with the reality of the Japanese film industry. That's been the only way for me to change my situation; to prove how little time you need to make a good film.
Live life before making movies, because you cannot make films about life, without having lived one.
It's not my goal to make so many movies. It's just sort of a natural process, and I'm just doing my job. And I'm not tied to any genre; I'm willing to do anything. I just keep going.
That's a very Japanese idea - that children are an extension of their parents. And that when you're reborn, your new form reflects the sins of your previous life - you can't escape.
You hide your instinctive self and instead create a social self with lies. That's how people are able to get along with each other. What's scary is when you strip all the lies away to get at the essential you. What if it's pure evil? You don't want to face that. So lies aren't all bad - we need them to live.
Boxing fascinates me.
Boxing is a metaphor for hitting back and showing you can win in life.
I'm not good at anything else. I just don't have a talent for anything other than filmmaking. Luckily, it's worked out.
Where there is love, there is a possibility of violence but it's not that love is connected to violence but there's a possibility.
When you see the violence of Hollywood movies, there is a tendency that the hero is combating and confronting many people, without much harm to himself. But in my films, the hero takes a lot of hits so the very act of the hero being the one on the receiving end, makes the audience cheer and connect with him.
Filmmaking is not a balancing act, although some directors think it is. I don't believe in it. I like ups and downs. They're the best way to translate my feelings to the screen.
In Japan, violence isn't as controversial as it is in the West.
People say that my movies are violent. I do not think so.
Visually, I want to try everything. But I believe that every shot of my films really expresses what I think about the story and the character. The most important thing is the story, not the images.
I am discovering myself as a director all the time.
As a film-maker, it's only natural to feel happy about new possibilities opening up.
I felt that all of us working on our remake of '13 Assassins' had to honour the original director, Eiichi Kudo, and everyone else who created the original.
Even if I were to try to imitate Kurosawa I know that it's absolutely impossible. That era of film was just something else, including the actors. Everything about that era was on a completely different level.
I admire Akira Kurosawa. I have a deep admiration for him and I would love to make films like that.
I personally wouldn't pay money to go watch a really scary movie!
One Missed Call' was one of many J-horror films at that time.
