Quotes

I just make any picture I like or any that the company tells me to do.

[If he has advice for young directors] No, no advice. The film industry has changed tremendously. The movies they are making now are very different from the ones I made when I was young. I can't say whether people in the industry are happier or unhappier as a result. Everything has changed so much.

I've made various types of films: period dramas, modern dramas, films set in the Meiji period. But I don't make any distinctions between them - they're all films. True, with a period drama, there are certain conventions. With a modern drama, there is a different style of shooting. So you have to make changes according to the genre, but I never think, "This is a period drama, so I have to shoot it in such and such a way." Films are films. If you don't understand that, then you start filming lies.