Morty
INTERVIEW - Horror godfather is fed up with scary movies
By Lisa Jucca
TURIN, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, dubbed the godfather of Japanese horror, wants to move away from the hallucinatory fright films that have made him an icon of the genre and concentrate on family drama.
Kurosawa, a prolific filmmaker and screenwriter who won international acclaim for his 1997 thriller "Cure", has done everything from gangster films about Japanese yakuza to "pinku eiga" (soft porn). But he is best known for exotic scary films.
Critics say his films reveal a dreamlike and dysfunctional Japanese society haunted by loneliness and fear.
But the time has come to turn the page in his career, he told Reuters on the sidelines of a retrospective of his films held in Italy.
Born in Kobe in 1955, Kurosawa is one of the most prominent representatives of Japan's new wave of independent directors, but is no relation to fellow filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
Q: Why do you make horror movies?
A: I always liked these movies and, with the horror boom, requests from producers kept pouring in. But it was never my intention to make so many. Right now, I am really fed up. I want to do something completely different.
Q: Which new film genre would you consider for your next movie?
A: I am working on a new screenplay. It's about a family who lives in Tokyo. I am not 100 percent sure that it will be a drama but this is my aim although I can't rule out that the movie may end up looking a bit horror-like.
Q: Your most recent film, "Retribution", is a ghost story. Do you believe in ghosts?
A: I have never met a ghost, but contrary to many people I do not think that everything ends after life. I don't know what happens after death but I think the human being continues to live in some form or another.
Q: You say you never watch your films once they are done: Why is that?
A: I think a director can have two attitudes towards his movie: either he likes it and says, 'Oh my God, what have I done!'; or he likes it very much and says, 'Oh my God! I will never be able to do such a great film!'. I can't watch my films in an objective way so I'd rather not do it.
Q: If you don't watch your movies, why should we?
A: It's difficult to give a unequivocal answer. I mostly make fiction but you can also say that a movie is in itself also like a documentary. It registers the act of film-making. I would very much like it if viewers could appreciate both aspects.
Q: What's the main difference between horror movies in Japan and those in Europe and the United States?
A: The main difference, in particular when it comes to ghost movies, is that in the United States the ghost is an enemy to fight and defeat, to send back from where he came from. In my movies, the protagonist and the ghost do not fight. All ghosts bring death and one cannot fight with death.
Q: Do you consider yourself a mainstream or an art house director?
A: I don't consider myself a mainstream director. In Japan, I am a normal film director, but at world level my films are tagged as independent movies.
Q: Who is your source of inspiration and whom do you most admire?
A: Among the great traditional Japanese directors I have always admired Yasujiro Ozu. But I am also a great fan of Clint Eastwood, although I don't draw my inspiration from him.
Quelle: KFCC
Sehr schade. Ich bin schon sehr gespannt auf "Retribution", der wohl sein letzter Horrorfilm nach "Loft" ist. Aber selbst wenn er keine Horrorfilme mehr dreht, sollte es in anderen Bereichen ebenso interessant werden.
By Lisa Jucca
TURIN, Italy (Reuters Life!) - Film director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, dubbed the godfather of Japanese horror, wants to move away from the hallucinatory fright films that have made him an icon of the genre and concentrate on family drama.
Kurosawa, a prolific filmmaker and screenwriter who won international acclaim for his 1997 thriller "Cure", has done everything from gangster films about Japanese yakuza to "pinku eiga" (soft porn). But he is best known for exotic scary films.
Critics say his films reveal a dreamlike and dysfunctional Japanese society haunted by loneliness and fear.
But the time has come to turn the page in his career, he told Reuters on the sidelines of a retrospective of his films held in Italy.
Born in Kobe in 1955, Kurosawa is one of the most prominent representatives of Japan's new wave of independent directors, but is no relation to fellow filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.
Q: Why do you make horror movies?
A: I always liked these movies and, with the horror boom, requests from producers kept pouring in. But it was never my intention to make so many. Right now, I am really fed up. I want to do something completely different.
Q: Which new film genre would you consider for your next movie?
A: I am working on a new screenplay. It's about a family who lives in Tokyo. I am not 100 percent sure that it will be a drama but this is my aim although I can't rule out that the movie may end up looking a bit horror-like.
Q: Your most recent film, "Retribution", is a ghost story. Do you believe in ghosts?
A: I have never met a ghost, but contrary to many people I do not think that everything ends after life. I don't know what happens after death but I think the human being continues to live in some form or another.
Q: You say you never watch your films once they are done: Why is that?
A: I think a director can have two attitudes towards his movie: either he likes it and says, 'Oh my God, what have I done!'; or he likes it very much and says, 'Oh my God! I will never be able to do such a great film!'. I can't watch my films in an objective way so I'd rather not do it.
Q: If you don't watch your movies, why should we?
A: It's difficult to give a unequivocal answer. I mostly make fiction but you can also say that a movie is in itself also like a documentary. It registers the act of film-making. I would very much like it if viewers could appreciate both aspects.
Q: What's the main difference between horror movies in Japan and those in Europe and the United States?
A: The main difference, in particular when it comes to ghost movies, is that in the United States the ghost is an enemy to fight and defeat, to send back from where he came from. In my movies, the protagonist and the ghost do not fight. All ghosts bring death and one cannot fight with death.
Q: Do you consider yourself a mainstream or an art house director?
A: I don't consider myself a mainstream director. In Japan, I am a normal film director, but at world level my films are tagged as independent movies.
Q: Who is your source of inspiration and whom do you most admire?
A: Among the great traditional Japanese directors I have always admired Yasujiro Ozu. But I am also a great fan of Clint Eastwood, although I don't draw my inspiration from him.
Quelle: KFCC
Sehr schade. Ich bin schon sehr gespannt auf "Retribution", der wohl sein letzter Horrorfilm nach "Loft" ist. Aber selbst wenn er keine Horrorfilme mehr dreht, sollte es in anderen Bereichen ebenso interessant werden.