The ultimate Renaissance man

Interview, March, 1998 by J. Hoberman

TK: I expected that Japanese people who grew up in the modernized philosophy after World War II might regard Nishi as a totally selfish fool. But I had feared that Nishi might be misunderstood as a kind of kamikaze by Western audiences. His behavior is deeply rooted in a very old-fashioned way of thinking.

JH: Your heroes are very tough, but they can also be very childish.

TK: Like them, I like to do childlike tricks. After my accident, I was hospitalized for half a year. I used to tease the nurses by putting orange juice in my urine sample, or having my assistant, who is totally bald, take my place in the bed.

JH: The kind of thing you do on TV?

TK: Oh, TV is much worse! I had one half-hour comedy program where I dressed up as a magician. I showed the audience a wooden box and told them, "I'm gonna put one of you in here and, in one second, make you disappear." I picked this yakuza type out of the audience and got him into the box. Then I closed the cover and nailed it shut. I pretended 1 was doing a trick, but there was no trick at all. While he was in the box, I did my thirty minutes of stand-up comedy. As soon as the show ended, I ran away from the studio. [laughs] The assistant director opened the box and got punched out.

JH: Public opinion polls show you to be the most admired man in Japan.

TK: I don't say things to be admired. I consider myself to be the kid in the story "The Emperor's New Clothes." For example, after I recently made a comment that we do not need the upper house of the Japanese parliament, I nearly got called before parliament to explain what I meant.

JH: Are there any filmmakers you particularly admire?

TK: I'm not so much influenced by Stanley Kubrick as impressed. I respect his versatility.

JH: Like his, your films seem very precisely worked out. Do you storyboard your scenes?

TK: I start with a basic image, which is like a four-panel manga [comic strip]. Then I fill in the space between those pictures.

JH: Your nonmoving camera reminds some people of Ozu's films. You make a unique kind of static action film.

TK: I don't move the camera, because Japanese cities do not make for a good background. A Japanese film critic once criticized me for that. He apparently thought that I was not able to move the camera at all! That is another reason why I persist in using the fixed angle. In the future, I will make a film about a blind man in which his point of view is a black screen.

JH: How did you find working in Hollywood? Did you get any offers after Johnny Mnemonic?

TK: Johnny Mnemonic was a nightmare. I felt like a child invited to Disneyland. I was pleased that I got the chance to visit the real Disneyland. But I returned to Japan without being able to ride on any of the attractions.

JH: Are there any stars you'd like to work with?

TK: It's hard to name my favorite actors. As a director, I consider all actors to be some sort of cat or dog or other animal - including myself.