TAKASHI MIIKE

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.

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.

I believe that the difference in genre of movies is a small thing.

Personally, it all feels like I've been filming just one long film the whole time and I have no personal like or dislike for any of the films that I've done. I feel like all of the all of them are important to me, all of the cast and all the staff that I've worked with have also been very important to me.

My style is that I have no style.

I admire Akira Kurosawa. I have a deep admiration for him and I would love to make films like that.

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.

You could not imitate Fellini. His beauty was above anything else, but that intelligence was typically Italian. This helped me to realise that I had to create something that was distinctively Japanese.

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.

One Missed Call' was one of many J-horror films at that time.

For me, no matter what movie I make, no matter what the genre or the budget, they all have the same theme at their core: fear of death and happiness about living.

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.

The people who like my work, I know that I can't trick them into laughing someplace where there is not a genuine reason to laugh.

I am discovering myself as a director all the time.

For a long time I was free. I didn't belong to any type of studio, or any company. I kept a sort of freedom and a light touch.

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.

I'm just trying to make movies simply about life. Naturally, when I'm doing that, horror, violence, and all those kinds of things get mixed in. All those things happen in reality.

Gozu' was influenced by American cinema.

I just feel my body clock is different when it comes to making films than other directors. Being on set, and sweating, that feeling eases me more than actually when the movie's over; being on set, moving around, to me feels more relaxing than being done with the movie.

Some people have iconic directors in their mind, or they want to make particular styles of films they have seen before. I think this is a waste of time and energy.

I think I'm a director that is very easily misunderstood.

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.

Normally sports day is once a year for kids, where you have fun, and everybody is jostling. For us, making movies is like having sports day everyday: competing with each other, doing your best. It's like that except we don't get awards every day in our sports day.

I actually think women are stronger and more capable than men, that men are actually dancing in the palms of women, who are running the show.

Live life before making movies, because you cannot make films about life, without having lived one.