With a career in film as long and prolific as Hiroshi Kashiwabara’s, it’s not hard to believe that has a lot to say about how things are done in the world of directing. And now with the New York - Tokyo Film Grand Prix 2008 Festival approaching soon, we’d like to show an insight into what’s beein going on in the past 30 years of filmmaking in Japan.

Follow the jump below for a mind-blowing didactic and exclusive lecture.

NYT: Tell me about yourself. How long have you been in the film industry and how did you get involved? Also, tell us a little about your filmography.
HK: I wanted to be a director and started writing scripts. I’ve always loved American films with genres like westerns, war, and space being some of my favorite. John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah, Robert Aldridge and Don Seagel were my favorite directors. I would say that the work of John Ford and Robert Aldridge were especially part of the base of my work.

When discussing Japanese directors, Akira Kurosawa and Kihachi Okamoto have huge influence on my work. In short, I would say I have been influenced by the manly movies.

In my sophomore and junior years in college, I wrote scripts and was an assistant director of “Kurekure Takora” (Toho, shown in the five-minute TV program on Fuji Television), which used special effects and was a kids’ TV program. The producer of the program started producing “Kizu Darake no Tenshi” and I got the chance to write a scene. This was the first work in which my name appeared.  I wrote a script about the detective action drama “Oretachi no Kunsho” which starred Yusaku Matsuda in my senior year as well. I still had hoped to become a director after graduation and was helping Director Okamoto’s TC commercials, but soon I became a writer.
 
I wrote a number of scripts that were about action and hard-boiled stories such as “Taiyo ni Hoero”, “Daitokai”, “Daitsuiseki”, “Tantei Monogatari”, “Seibu Keisatsu”, “Pro Hunter”, “Keishi-K”, “Tofuya Naojiro no Ura no Kao”, “Hungman series” and “Abunai deka” and so on (I’ve also written quite a lot of adolescent stories and studio dramas, but i’ll omit them here,  haha) . I often worked with actors such as Kenichi Hagiwara, Yusaku Matsuda, Hiroshi Tachi, Kyohei Shibata, Masatoshi Nakamura and Tatsuya Fuji. It seems actors who had been arrested by drugs and violence have favored me. I have written for animations too, such as “Lupin the Third”, “Cats Eye”, “Detective Conan” and “Golgo 13.”

I’ve written for movies such as “Abunai Deka”, “Lupin the Third”, “Godzilla vs Space Godzilla”. “Godzilla 2000 Millenium”, “Godzilla vs Mega Kirasu G Shometsu Sakusen”, “Ikidomari no Banka Break Out”, “Beppin no Machi”, “Roppongi Banana Boys” and “Detective Conan.” I’ve directed “Neko no Musuko”, “Gun Breath – Shinu niwa mottekoi no Yoru”, “Renkan Brothers Getta money!” and “S.T.H” (Straight to Heaven). 

NYT: Your work, especially the early ones (late 70’s – 80’s), would definitely attract those who are young and don’t know the era of those times. Even today, projects like “Tantei Monogatari” and “Kizu dareke no Tenshi” are still very cool and interesting. Tell us how these works had an impact on youth culture and film creators at the time.
HK: These two works highly influenced young people, with fashion and lifestyle being the easiest aspects to see the influence which these two works had. For example, everybody wanted to live in a penthouse like Shoken (Kenichi Hagiwara’s) - the protagonist of “Kizu darake no Tenshi” Also, the apparel maker whose made the clothes Shoken wore became very popular, and Bespa, the brand of scooter Yusaku rode in “Tantei monogatari” also got very popular. Also, attitudes shown in these works -such as dandyism, anti-authority, a refusal to lose and finding an appealing hipness in something not traditional seen as cool - were also favored by people. 

Two actors, Kenichi Hagiwara and Yusaku Matsuda, were the biggest factors in these two films. Thanks to those two actors, these two works gained the popularity they had.

We tried many things to break the rules that were prevailing in TV drama production at the time with “Kizu darake-“ That led to hiring directors like Director Fukasaku and Director Kumashiro who produced the pieces however they wanted, and in turn created such high quality work.

Also, with stories like the Toei Gang movies, Nikkatsu Roman porno, and Toho’s adolescences, we produced them as making films, not dramas. I think that’s what made those projects so successful.

Yusaku paid attention to what Hagiwara did in “Kizudarake.” It influenced him so much that you could say “Tantei Monogatari” was Yusaku’s version of “Kizudarake-.”

Many young people were fascinated by a detective who had freedom. “Kizudarake-“ and “Tantei monogatari” influenced the next generation’s film and comic creators. Like Comic artists such as Shotaro Ishinomori, Fujio Fujiko and Fuijo Akatsuka are highly influenced by Kurosawa’s movies, today’s creators are influenced by “Kizudarake” and “Tantei monogatari” at least to some degree, such as “Hama Mike”, which one of works influenced by “Tantei monogagtari.”

NYT: Yutaka Mizutani co-starred in “Kizu darake no Tenshi.” He also starred in “Aibou,” this year’s most profitable film. How much money does that translate to when talking about topping the box office in Japan?
HK: “Aibo” achieved 4.42 billion yen (as of July 21st )  and was the top grossing film for the first half of this year. The record is “Spirited Away” which achieved 30.4 billion yen.

NYT: As of this year, there were about three hundred films produced in Japan. It’s said that we are having a Japanese film boom. Tell us briefly the history of Japanese films from the late 70’s to now and current trends.
HK: In the 70’s the Japanese film industry was desperate. Each production lost their hit series. Shochiku only survived with the “Otoko wa Tsurai yo” series. Toho lost their hit series after Crazy Cats’ comedy and “Wakadaisho” series and let other some other production’s director (Director Kumashiro at Nikkatsu) make films, which were appreciated by critics but not profitable.
 
Toei lost popularity with its yakuza films such as “Jingi naki Tatakai,” which had been popular after following suit of other gang films such as “Showa Zankyo-den” and “Abashiri Bangaichi.” Daiei bankrupted and Nikkatsu started producing porno movies.

I wanted to be a director and looked for a position as an assistant director in a film production company. However, Toho, Toei and Shochiku were shrinking the size of their production studios and weren’t hiring new assistant directors anymore. Nikkatsu was the only who was hired as an assistant director. They didn’t hire every year, either. That’s why I ended up becoming a scenario writer.

After that, Toho decreased the number of productions and focused on its role as a film distributor, which brought them profit. Shochiku sold its studio in Ofuna and retreated from production. They focused on distributing films and showing plays like Kabuki. Toei has produced pretty decent amount of films since they started their relationship with the television broadcasting company TV Asashi, and thus were able to keep their studio in Oizumi. Nikkatsu has shrunk its size of production but rents its studio to others. Although Nikkatsu has produced some films, everything is low-budgeted. Toho, who makes profit from film distribution, has renewed its studio in Kinuta and made it a modern one. TV broadcasting companies have used this new studio and it has since become popular. 

Japanese films have changed since TV stations came into this industry. There were some hit movies produced by TV stations such as “Nankyoku Monogatari” (Fuji TV), but it was when TV stations actively started producing films that TV dramas started to be made into films. The “Abunai Deka” series (Toei and Nihon TV) must have been the pioneer project with which I was involved. After the big hit of “Abunai Deka” people started following and began to make TV dramas into films, which were generally successful. Audiences knew the stories from the dramas, so they could kind of see how the films were going to look like. If they liked the dramas, they would probably like the movies too which is what made those films such as “Otoko wa tsuraiyo” (which was also a TV drama series at first) successful. It is easier to bring people to a movie whose story they knew already than the one which they don’t know the story of.

In America the same can be seen in Hollywood’s recent trend to remake old films that the audience already knows. Also, if a TV station gets involved in production, the size of public relation and advertisement gets big, which contributes to increase the box office sales. Thus, movie productions want to work with TV stations too.
 
Also, TV stations realized that successful films are profitable. So, TV stations are getting interested in not only making TV dramas into films, but also producing original pieces.

Behind that, due to availability of different forms of media lately, they can make profit from secondary and third uses of the films. Thus, producing films for TV stations is very important in media strategies.

Films produced by companies tend to lose their originality. However, we see some works that are not in the case. For example, works by Hayao Miyazaki and Takeshi Kitano are the ones that come to mind. Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinji Aoyama, not as well-known as Miyazaki or Kitano, also produce pieces that are highly original. Other young film creators are producing many original pieces, too. So, the current Japanese film industry consists of majors and minors and both of them are original. I think we are managing a good balance.  If we can pave the path where independent directors can pursue their careers in the majors, that would be awesome.

NYT: You are writing for both TV dramas and films. Among the three hundred movies shown in Japan in a year, there are many films adopted from TV drama series and comics. And, those are very successful. What do you think about that? 
HK: We finished talking about filmization of TV dramas, so let’s talk about comics and animation. Let’s talk about why Japanese comics and animation are popular. Comic and animation creators are all fond of movies. Veteran creators like Fujio Akatsuka, Shotaro Ishinomori and Fujio Fujiko are huge fans of Akira Kurosawa. It is well known that their works are highly influenced by Kurosawa’s movies. Creators in younger generations have watched films. They used to want to make films however the Japanese film industry used to be closed and people in the industry thought that they were special. Assistant directors used to have to spend over ten years to become a director.   That was a bad custom. Today, however, there are many film directors born from other industries, such as manga creators who produce films by themselves. Drawing comics is like being a director, cameraman, art and editor at one time. People who couldn’t come to the film industry due to its closed nature are now drawing comics.

Anime creators are the same. That’s why Japanese comics and animations are excellent. We also do animations because it’s more cost efficient than live action.

NYT: You were involved in animation too. Concerning both Japan and the rest of the world, what’s the difference between animation and live action?
HK: As I have told you this, Japanese films tend to have limited budgets due to a small market. So, there many stories that have been made into animations due to limited budgets that otherwise may have been made into live action. Also, Japanese adults are used to watching animation since they have watched them since childhood; it is completely normal to go to see animation movies. Thus, Japanese animation films will keep being produced and continue being popular. I am writing “Lupin the Third” as though I am writing an American movie. I do that because it makes it easy for me to come up with ideas and I can write hard-boiled adventure stories. I am now writing “Golgo 13”. It is things like this that make me realize how much fun animation is.

NYT: Those three hundred films annually, we can distinguish them into two, majors and subculture/artistic ones. How do they co-exist? Is the way business is done in these two markets is completely different? Are the creators (directors) different?
HK: As I told you before, producers are different in the majors and independents. Thus, I would say that producers in these two categories are completely different. I am kind of in the major one, but I still have some connection with those who are in independent. Japan is a corporate society. So, those who are in majors do not want to work with those who are in independents. It’s like big companies do not want to make contracts with some small firms downtown. Well, we have at least some communication, but those who are in majors want to keep their territories. They do not give independent creators many opportunities. It is going to be different in the future, though.
 
Actors’ offices now hire directors and writers and do businesses. They realized that directors and writers make a lot of money including secondary use royalties. Thus, as though selling actors they have in the office, they sell directors and writers. They may be interested in independent creators and hire them in their offices

Having a committee has been the popular method in the Japanese film industry lately. Risk diversification is the primal role for this method. This method got popular since banks and advertising agencies started getting involved in the film business at some point back. Banks actively have collected investors since the industry has been lucrative. My friend, an entrepreneur, often gets calls from banks. ;) The Japanese film bubble stems from this, but I believe it will soon shrink because they are becoming aware that investing in Japanese films is not so profitable. The bubble will soon be over.

NYT: Today, many Japanese movies are nominated in film festivals abroad. Among the films participating NYTFG2008, there are many small budgeted films which have prepared English subtitles. Does it mean that they are interested in distributing films abroad? How do you think about Japanese films going abroad?
HK: I bet they are interested in distributing their films abroad. Especially, the films in the middle of majors and independents, I would say petite-majors, need to go abroad because otherwise they cannot make profits. :D They want profit somehow, so they distribute them abroad. Thus, those films always have factors that might be welcome in foreign countries, such as girls’ actions, Ninja and Yakuza. Independent films go abroad to win in international film festivals. The film business is becoming a worldwide thing. There is a film like “The Machine Girl” produced in Japan but whose budget came from America and released in both countries.

NYT: Becoming a director used to take very long time. However, there is a short cut in that creators producing TV programs now produce films. Generally speaking, how do young Japanese people get involved in the film industry? Is there any school for that?
HK: When TV stations first started producing films, they asked famous movie directors to shoot a film for them. However, soon TV stations gained power over film production and tried to manipulate directors however way they wanted. So, they started using TV directors to make films. An assistant director is the one who has been involved in the TV program production. In sum, there is the trend that producers gain huge power over directors. Producers are introducing the Hollywood way of producing films. Producers even have a right to edit films. Directors must have a tough time today.

There are many schools that have recently opened for film production. Nihon University and Imamura’s school are famous for their film production study, but there are tons of others. Most faculty members are veterans of the industry or those who don’t work as much as they have before, so they have connections with industry and they introduce positions for students. They may start their career as an assistant director and if they have luck, a producer gives them an opportunity to direct a film. Of course, they have to bring their own projects and sell them to producers. Due to improvement of editing equipment, risk of having new directors produce films is being decreased. So, producers are letting new directors produce ones since they don’t cost a lot and are obedient to producers. Also, if they can find talented new directors, it’s going to make profit. That’s why they are active about finding new directors.

NYT: Japan is a digital country. It seems digital film productions and digital screenings (DLP etc) are being prevailed. Watching movies on your cell phone will be soon a common activity. What do you think about digitalization in film?
HK: Films are going to be digitized actively. Last year, a cinema complex, “Ward 9” was opened in Shinjuku and every screening here is digital. Good or bad, nobody can stop the trend. Shooting has become digital too. My work “Straight to Heaven” is also digital. Not only independents, but also majors are going to be digital. Personally though, I still like traditional film.

NYT: Let’s talk about you. You have been in the history of Japanese industry as you just described. Why do you keep producing action and hard-boiled dramas?
HK: I like action dramas. I used be a fan of Westerns - John Ford, Howard Hawks, Sam Pekinpah, Robert Aldridge and Don Seagel were my favorites. However, things have changed: Western sheriff’s stories are today’s detective stories, Western outlaw stories are now gang stories. Westerns were the origin of today’s action dramas. My favorite Japanese directors, Akira Kurosawa and Kihachi Okamoto, are also a huge fun of the Western genre. Also, actors/actresses must be attractive, so I try to emphasize on the personality of the main characters. Basically, everything comes from American movies. I am a fun of John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood. I’m sort of making American films through producting Japanese films. :)  

NYT: The film, “STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN”, which is participating in NYTFGP, looks a 70’s American hard-boiled action movie. The main characters are strong guys, there is a Camaro, the music sounds like something out of the Blues Brothers and guns are fired everywhere in the film.  Tell us about the energy in your work.
HK: Well, it’s like how Clint Eastwood produced “True Crime” before making “Space Cowboys.” This is the film for me to practice making films since I haven’t made one for long time. I’m doing this for future works. Of course, a motif used was an old 70’s action movie because American action films in 70’s were so entertaining. Since this film is very low budgeted – I won’t tell the amount because you’ll be surprised - , you can see both the good and bad sides of low budget films in “STH”. Anyway, I want you guys to watch the film while drinking some beer and being relaxed.

By NYT