Interview 060801RKMY

Aya Ueto was the only one

Critics and Japanese fans have raised the question about the casting of Aya Ueto, with no previous action experience, as the invincible female assassin. What actually was going on behind the scenes in casting?

K: Now the cast look all-star, but back when we started, all the young cast members were under the radar. Even the main actress Ueto was still less-known, and many people opposed to the choice, telling us to use a then-bigger name girl. But all three of us, Mr. Yamamoto, the original comic writer Yu Koyama and myself, believed in her.

Y: There were two more final candidates, but they were too much idol-like, not like the assassin who kills 200 people at once. Then one day, president of the production company recommended Ueto and told us that she is on that night's TV drama. In the middle of watching it, I called him right back to set up an audition on the next day. It was a big gamble for me. Director was a near-rookie, and heroin was a sixteen-year old new face without a single feature-movie experience in the past. To make a major film to be released in Toho's main theaters with such a team, people could not believe me. But both Director and the original writer supported me.

K: I was looking for the cast that match the image of the original comic characters, and supporting roles went quite well. But the main role was a huge problem. I met 140 girls between 14 and 22 from all over Japan. There were girls with pure and natural look, and there were others who can act bloody and devilish role, but no one had both sides. Ueto was the only choice.

Real-world survival game for the assassin team

The lack of experience was not only about Ueto or Kitamura. Samurai period films have long dead for the past 20-30 years, so the young actors in Japan don't normally train the swords play like the older generation used to do. Actresses are even further away from any action opportunity. In case of "Azumi", Kitamura did not have the luxury of keeping actors for a long time for training either. So what did he do?

K: I wish I had 1 year, but the budget and schedule only allowed me 2-3 months. On the first day of the training, I took all the young assassin team actors, except for Ueto, to the action coordinator. I told them to go out running a little bit, then they came back and did other things like swinging wooden swords or front rolls. These recent Japanese young men were too thin and weak, and I was so discouraged. I even went to Mr. Yamamoto and complained, 'I can't do it!' But the action coordinator told me they were all within the range and I don't have to worry.

These young people actually toughed it out. I told all of them, 'Your roles are the assassins who trained for ten-something years only to kill people, quite unordinary guys. So this training will be rigorous, but can you do it? I cannot make the casting decision right now. If you drop out of the training, you cannot get the role. Half of you will die early in the story, but everyone will go through the same training and you have to compete one another. If you don't like to play a small part after all, you can leave right now.' But nobody left, and nobody gave up during the training. So even the guys who die early on acted well, and I tried to film their short appearances carefully. The filming of that scene to kill each other was a dark day for me. Everyone stayed and trained together for 3 months, yet half of them had be gone that day.

Ueto had to be trained separately, as she was working on a TV drama at that time. I sent the action coordinator to the studio and she swung the sword when she had time. But she has to be the strongest assassin, so even when the filming had started, we had special trainings for her. I almost felt sorry for her. We would start filming at dawn, and after sunset, she went back to the hotel, took a shower, ate and then trained outside. We shot almost all the scenes sequencially, so she became more skilled towards the end of the film. We did not enough time and that was the only way. She took some weight trainings also, but that was still not enough. We asked her to do the image training, so she could act like she was cutting the bone, with devilish emotions.

Going to Disneyland for the "Mad Max" ninja version

Besides the casting, what was the most difficult thing?

K: The original comic is so huge and harsh that the movie did not complete telling the whole story. The first thing we struggled was how to shrink the long and complicated story down to 2 hour movie. But once the story and casting were done and the filming started, everything was so much fun. It was my first big budget movie, and the team let me film as I wanted. When Mr. Yamamoto asked me 'so what kind of movie do you want to make this one?', I told him I wanted to do a 'Mad Max' ninja version. I wanted to have Azumi kill 200 super villains like from 'Water World' or "Thunderdome". It was an insane idea for a major film, but the producers thought it was fun and let me do it. In that sense, the movie is a little bit different from the original comic. So they agreed to build a Thunderdome-like set for the villains' village. When I first walked into that set, I felt like I was in Disneyland. Someone made my selfish dream into drawings and actually built it, and then I could go in and break it. That is the fun part of this job. I blew it up with a bunch of explosives, and used a helicopter to tear down that tower. It was so much fun.

Y: Selfishness, or imagination, is a very important thing. I like it, and I don't want to fight it. There are lots of other things to fight. Once the filming starts, director has to do whatever he wants, and it is my job to make it happen. When the director tells me his selfish dream, I listen, and try to accommodate it by shrinking other places. Director Kitamura is probably one of the most difficult director to work with, because his background is very different from mine. But usually those with less experience come up with fresh ideas. You cannot do anything new unless you cherish the ideas that are difficult to do. Director Kitamura inspired my creativeness a lot. I have made many movies before, so I don't take it as difficulties, but rather it is my pleasure. Through discussions like this, I trusted him and we had a good communication. We needed to crash each other from time to time, but that is a part of collaboration. Most of the work is done by the director, but I believe making people excited is my job. So I get along with most of the directors I work with.

Ambition to compete with Hollywood and Hong Kong

It is difficult to make action movies in Japan in general, because the budget is usually limited and there aren't many action-trained actors. So what was your motivation to do this film?

K: That is exactly the purpose of this movie. When I made my first film "Versus", I did not know Mr. Yamamoto and nobody else in Japan agreed with me. They all said 'such a theme has to be animation, because we don't have a huge CG or explosives like Hollywood, or kung-fu stars like Hong Kong.' But if we keep avoiding this genre, we will not catch up with them forever. I felt that the important thing is how you fight. Azumi's budget is considered very low in Hollywood level, but that is not the point. I have a pride on my way of directing. I have my own style. So I made 'Versus", very edgy film, and brought it to international film festivals. International industry people and press told me it was a great Japanese action, the first one they saw since 'Lone Wolf'. I was happy, but at the same time, I was sad to realize nobody tried to make this type of film for 30 years. Because it is too risky. For actors, it is much more secure to do TV dramas, so the feature films have become TV-like, and lose the scale and entertainment factors. I wanted to do differently, and got the chance to direct 'Azumi', so I felt destined to do it. For example, people were surprised to see the 360-degree rotation scene. I saw it in U2 music video 15 years ago, but nobody in Hollywood would do it. They would not try. I have always thinking how to do it, and this time we developed the method to do it with our staff members.

I was not trying to revive the old style. I wanted to make the film which can be enjoyed 10, 20 years later. Now it is released in the U.S. 3 years later than Japan, but I don't think it got outdated. I wanted to make the mainstream entertainment film like Japan used to make, with a little edginess here and there.

Next stop: Hollywood?

Now that they have made the first step, what do they want to do next?

K: I want to make a film in Hollywood, so I am talking to different studios and producers. It is nice to see this type of Japanese entertainment film to be shown here after a long time, and this time, I want to do it in Hollywood with the same team.

Y: I am thinking about building a new system. In Japan, production and distribution are separate, but I would like to do everything for one film, and I will raise money for it. I would like to establish a new style together with distributors. If possible, I want Mr. Kitamura to keep making the mainstream movies, and I am always his supporter. That probably means I will do it with him.