“In the neighborhood around Waseda, there were all these movie theaters, so every morning I left the house and watched movies instead of going to class. The experience of encountering films then is one of my greatest memories. Before that I'd never paid any attention to directors, but there I was taking a crash course in Ozu, Kurosawa, Naruse, Truffaut, Renoir, Fellini. Because I've always been naturally a more introspective person, I was more interested in becoming a screenwriter than a director.” PersonsFilmCoursesHouseLeftMemoriesAttentionClassMorningBecomingDirectorsPaidTheaterNeighborhoodEvery MorningCrashIntrospectiveScreenwritersMovie TheaterKurosawaRenoir Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“But then foreign critics right away made sweeping comparisons to haiku, noh theater, and directors like Ozu, as if the movie were somehow representative of Japan - which was, well, not what I was after. Similarly, with After Life, I deliberately set out to make a movie that was unlike what I imagined the foreign conception of Japan to be, and I figured non-Japanese wouldn't find it interesting at all.” IfsWellsMadeInterestingDirectorsTheaterCriticsJapanComparisonConceptionRepresentativesHaikuSweepingNoh Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
“The contemporary Japanese directors who are well-known in the West - say, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takeshi Kitano, Naomi Kawase - are mostly unknown to Japanese, particularly of the younger generation.” WellsKnownGenerationsDirectorsWestContemporaryWell KnownYounger GenerationKurosawa Author:Hirokazu Koreeda
