CANNES - The Hollywood Reporter

Q&A
DIRECTOR
PROLIFIC,” “CONTROVERSIAL” AND “BAD
boy of Japanese cinema” are some of the
tags often attached to Takashi Miike.
With more than 70 productions to his
credit, there’s no doubting his work ethic, but
categorizing a director who has made horror,
gangster flicks, fantasy, action, comedies and
a 3D samurai drama is not quite so simple. His
2003 Gozu, a yakuza-horror movie, was the
first straight-to-video production selected for
Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section, while
in 2011 Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai became
the first 3D film in the main competition. This
year, Shield of Straw (based on the book Wara
no Tate by Kazuhiro Kiuchi) sees Miike back in
contention for the Palme d’Or. The film follows
a special police unit’s 750-mile trek across
Japan protecting a suspect with a 1 billion yen
($10 million) bounty on his head offered by the
wealthy grandfather of the 7-year-old girl he
murdered. The single Miike, 52, spoke to THR
in Tokyo about the film, his unrelenting schedule,
why making comedies is even tougher
than making horror and how Japanese cinema
has become too safe.
Shield of Straw is an action-thriller and quite
different from a lot of the films usually found in
competition at Cannes. Were you surprised when it
was announced?
Yeah, very surprised. And not just me. I think
everyone was like, “Really, in competition?”
And it’s a Japanese action film, which is a genre
that has been largely forgotten. Now, if you
think of action, it’s Hollywood or Korean films.
But Cannes selects a wide range of films: That
is one of the great things about the festival. But
even an action film, it’s not just about showing
action, it’s the characters involved and the
sequence of events that leads to those happenings.
The thousands of people that come to the
theater have a lot of different reasons to watch a
movie, so if I can hold their attention and keep
them all entertained, then I’m satisfied.
How did the idea for Shield of Straw come about?
The producers at Warner asked me about it,
but I looked at it and thought it was full of
parts that were impossible to film in Japan.
You basically can’t get permission to film on
the bullet train or the highways. We looked
into building a full set for the bullet train, but
that was too expensive. So we decided to try
and go to Taiwan and shoot on the high-speed
trains there, but they hadn’t let anyone film
on those before either. But after a lot of hard
negotiations, the authorities in Taiwan gave us
permission. When I was making straight-tovideo
yakuza gangster films at the beginning
of my career, I shot a few of them in Taiwan.
I got back in touch with some of the producers
I’d worked with back then, and they really
helped us out.
Takashi Miike
The bad boy of Japanese
cinema discusses his
unexpected return to Cannes
and why he thinks restrictions
on violence in movies ‘is
good for business, but not
filmmaking’ By Gavin J. Blair
When you were doing those straight-to-video
movies, you naturally made a lot of films every year.
Most directors slow down after they move out of
that world, but you’ve pretty much kept going at
the same rate. Why?
If there’s an opportunity to make a film and
my schedule allows it, I don’t see a reason
not to do it. Of course there are directors
who choose not to make so many films, and
that may be right for them, and stops them
from making mistakes. But for me, being on
set and solving problems of how to shoot a
scene, that’s everyday life and what I need to
be doing. Even when there
seems to be things that can’t
be done — like with Shield of
Straw — until you try, you
don’t know.
You’ve said that you don’t think
about how a film will be seen by
audiences when you’re making
it. Is that really the case?
Even if you think about
how people will see a film,
VITAL STATS
Nationality Japanese
Born Aug. 24, 1960
Festival Entry Shield of Straw
(Wara no Tate)
Selected Filmography
Audition (1999), Ichi the Killer (2001),
Gozu (2003), Sukiyaki Western
Django (2007), 13 Assassins (2010),
Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011)
Notable awards KNF award, 2000
Rotterdam International Film Festival
(Audition); jury prize, 2004 Sitges
International Film Festival (Gozu)
I don’t think that’s possible. For example, if
you think this is the kind of film that will go
down well with salarymen [Japanese office
workers], there are a hundred different types
of salarymen working for a hundred different
companies and with a hundred different personalities.
So I think it’s rude to think that “an
audience” that comes to the theater whom I’ve
never met and don’t know will like this part
or this film. I can only concentrate on getting
the best performances and shooting the best
scenes possible.
You’ve made films across such a wide range of
genres. Do you have a favorite?
Firstly I made horror, and that’s tough. Always
thinking how to scare and shock people,
it’s almost like bringing a curse on yourself.
Though there’s a strange kind of pleasure in
that too. Actually the hardest films to make
are comedies. In normal life, funny things happen
by accident; to re-create those by design
in a film takes real technique. If you take
those two out, then for me, it’s gangster films.
I don’t want to be involved with the yakuza in
real life, but they can do in an evening what
politicians take 10 years to do. The yakuza are
straight-up beings, they want what they want;
if they betray people — it’s absolute betrayal.
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.
Talking of horror and yakuza films, you’re famous
for shockingly violent and grotesque scenes.
Do you ever worry about the effect it might have
on people?
Regarding the responsibility that a director
has to society, first of all, there are ratings.
There’s freedom to make films, and freedom
to watch them or not. It’s not like I take those
films to a school and force kids to watch them.
In Japan now, films are very safe. When I was
young and went to old cinemas, they had a
distinctive feel, an adult smell about them.
As you got in your seat and the lights went
down, there was a feeling of excitement: What
if the film is scarier than I thought it’s going
to be? You’re taken into that
world. Nowadays, you can
sit in the theater and know
it’s going to be safe. That’s
good for business, but not
for filmmaking. I have lines
in my mind about what is
too violent or shocking to
show. It’s a difficult issue. I
don’t think a film that has no
effect on people or society is
a good film.
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