My style's a 'Hollywood maverick' style, reveals Japanese film maker Masato Harada

You missed the Tokyo International film festival (TIFF) to be here at the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF)?
Well, I know I’m not missing much. Compared to TIFF what is happening here in MFF holds a lot of promise. I saw what the line-up was and had to come here. And just being in a place like Mumbai... so full of life... can feel so good.

What did you think of the Indian films both at the festival and outside?
The Indian films showcased at the festival are first rate. I particularly liked Fandry which was in the international competition. As far as mainstream cinema goes, I think the song and dance can feel so good. I have a problem when that grammar is borrowed by every film maker and it all looks the same. There is so much that Mumbai or India has going on. So we need different kinds of cinemas to reflect that.

Film-makers like Akira Kurosawa are worshipped by followers of serious cinema. Are there many contemporary film-makers to look out for?
Of course, if you look around you will find a few names trying to do good work but largely Japanese cinema is caught in a rut.

Though a Japanese cinema staple, you’ve often made your distaste for the sentimental known quite vocally and to prove your point you even left it out of your family drama Chronicle of My Mother.
From early on, I hate anything overly sentimental. The audience too is tired and many sentimental Japanese films – haven’t done well in the box office overseas. I've lived in London and Los Angeles, so I know the western moviegoer's response to Japanese films. In my first meeting with my producer, I made it clear I didn't want even one sentimental theme song.

I’ve seen my father losing memory to Alzheimer's and my mother struggling to cope with that. But when she called me once a month, despite the brutal reality of the situation she’d recount funny things and we’d laugh. Those once-a-month calls and laughing kept her going. That's the kind of spirit I want in my movies. Because life is like that.

Between making meaningful cinema and box office success most film makers are choosing the latter.
I can quite understand the pressures being brought on them to make that choice. Whether its the big studios in Hollywood, Japan and I’m sure here too, not so many people are taking risks, particularly investors and producers. Earlier it was the three strikes law: in Hollywood if you had three flops in a row then you’d be written off, but today it's just one film. And even if that one film gets made, you should count yourself lucky.

You're, in many ways, the most Hollywood-profiled director in Japan. Why this attraction for American cinema?
My style’s a ‘Hollywood maverick’ style. It's not plain Hollywood, because I don't respect that kind of filmmaking. So, of course, unlike most Japanese directors, I use lots of coverage shots. But it's always a combination of a John Cassavetes-style of acting and a Ken Loach-style spontaneous, naturalistic type of performance, so using the term "Hollywood" alone would be totally wrong.

Howard Hawks has had a significant influence on your filmmaking.
Yes, Howard Hawks was my mentor. Originally, when I wanted to become a filmmaker at the age of 17 or 18, in the late 60s, it was really difficult until you got hired by a major company and spent years as an assistant director. So I opted to study film overseas in 1972 in London. And then I sort of rediscovered Howard Hawks by seeing his Only Angels Have Wings (1939). The film is a relationship drama of professional flyers traveling over the Andes, but the way Hawks showed his characters was an extension of his relationship with his crew. I wanted to meet him and become like him.

A couple of years later at a film festival in San Sebastian in Spain I met Hawks for the first time. This association grew when I moved to Los Angeles and visited his Palm Springs home. My six-hour recorded interview of him is still with me. And gradually I understood Howard Hawks was really a father figure for me. And I just love his Red River. It will always be the best film for me.

Picking up real life subjects is also fraught with dangers of censorship and attack in India. Is this true of Japan?
No we don’t have censorship per se. It's different from say India or Iran maybe, but we still have all those taboos about what you can't do. I’ve come up with certain projects and told not to risk my career and theirs. (Laughs). I cannot for the life of me understand my it still such a taboo to show the royal family. What happened in Emperor Hirohito’s reign is a big chapter in our history so it does come up in the films. But all you will see is extreme close-ups of the hands or a really long-shot making it difficult to decipher the face. It is ludicrous.

Your film Inugami too was not very successful there?
The whole double-billed horror feature cycle which began with Ring and Spiral was finished when I wanted to make Inugami. For me, this was for the overseas audiences, to reach the Berlin Film Festival competition and maybe launch a more international career. I thought if it succeeded overseas I’d re-import it as a newly discovered Japanese film in Europe.

The most frustrating thing about Inugami was the R-15 rating because of the incestuous relationship. Normally, when incest is involved you get automatically X-rated. I mean, to show violent films to children is acceptable for Japanese society, and they can't even see a film like Inugami which deals with incest, though its there in Greek mythology! That's how weird Japan is now.

What do you make of the sway of Japanese cartoon characters like Doraemon across America, India and even China?
It baffles me too. I know that there is a big following for them across the world because when I’m surfing the TV in my travel I unfailingly come across them wherever I go. Though I’m personally not into animation it can feel proud to finally Japan hit back at the US after decades of a norm that everything cool had to be American. So its great!

Doesn't your constant to and fro between Japan and the West get schizophrenic?
No, it's not difficult at all. If I have to stay in Japan all the time, then it's difficult for me to adjust to the way of life in Japan, and then again, if I had to stay in the USA for the rest of my life, I'd be frustrated too. So for me the ideal thing is like spending ten months in the States and two months in Japan and keep on going like that. Now probably Korea, Honk Kong, Australia, and Europe could be involved in this kind of movement, so I'll become a world traveller and make films playing by geography (Laughs).

Directing filmography
Mōryō no Hako (2008), Bluestockings (2005), The Choice of Hercules (2002), Inugami (2001), Spellbound (1999), Bounce ko gals (1997), Rowing Through (1996), Kamikaze Taxi (1995) Painted Desert (1993) Tuff 5 (1992), Gunhed (1989), The Heartbreak Yakuza (1987), Paris/Dakar 1500 (1986), Uindii (1984), Farewell, Movie Friend: Indian Summer (1979)

Acting filmography
Fearless (2006) as Mr. Mita, The Last Samurai (2003) as Mr. Omura