Boxing fascinates me.

Kurosawa was truly inventive.

I go to the dentist, not a shrink.

Gozu' was influenced by American cinema.

Sometimes it's good to know there are limits.

There are fragments of me in all my characters.

I am discovering myself as a director all the time.

I don't set out to make a film for festivals abroad.

In general, I'm probably seen as an unusual director.

People say that my movies are violent. I do not think so.

I am attracted to bad people because they are very human.

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

I believe that every director's films reflect their lifestyle.

I am like any other human being; I am full of different sides.

In Japan, violence isn't as controversial as it is in the West.

I personally wouldn't pay money to go watch a really scary movie!

Imprint' was definitely the scariest project that I've worked on.

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

Boxing is a metaphor for hitting back and showing you can win in life.

I don't think a film that has no effect on people or society is a good film.

I don't mind ratings boards. As a viewer, you have the right not to see a film.

I use depth in my visuals even in 2-D, and found that 3-D is actually liberating.

As a film-maker, it's only natural to feel happy about new possibilities opening up.

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

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

Pleasure can also be a mirror of the anxiety we feel in everyday life, it can have a message inside.

People tell all sorts of lies in order to live. That enables friendships to form and love to blossom.

In film, in general, you have just so many cliche themes or stories that are told over and over again.

My influences happen at more of a subconscious level, I don't dig too deep into that or analyze it myself.

I loved spaghetti westerns but besides these pure entertainment movies, there was also something different.

I feel that the smallness of the filmmaking environment is somehow connected to the freedom of creating film.

My films are like drinking a good beer, but pleasure doesn't mean that it cannot change someone's point of view.

The hero has to be an archetype; they have to be like a dream; they have to be perfect. The evil is closer to us.

At some moments, you feel attracted to someone of the same sex, even if it's not sexual. You just want to be like him.

I'm not good at anything else. I just don't have a talent for anything other than filmmaking. Luckily, it's worked out.

More than my films being influenced by manga I was indelibly impressed by Manga, and that definitely comes out in the films.

Maybe '13 Assassins' is the mortal agony and death rattle of a Japanese film industry that has abandoned its creative talent.

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.

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.

Where there is love, there is a possibility of violence but it's not that love is connected to violence but there's a possibility.

I can't single out one thing that influenced me. My generation was influenced greatly by the manga that came out during our childhood.

Once I started working as an assistant director, I just realized very quickly that working on a film set was just a perfect fit for me.

I'm just curious how it'd look like if someone tried to remake my work. But I really believe that it's hard to remake of any of my work.

You can't really make something or make a movie and feel all through the process that it's a painful thing. It's not possible to do that.

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 directors whose films scare me the most, are the ones who carefully hide the aggression in the background, and don't show it directly.

For me, trying to expand the energy to make one movie in Hollywood would be the equivalent in terms of energy to making 10 movies in Japan.

For the birth of one champion, there are many young boxers behind them who had setbacks. In terms of that, I think boxing is very dramatic.

When I'm facing an issue or a challenge sometimes, it's easier for me to avoid really facing that or dealing with it, and just go make films.

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.

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