Top 129 Quotes & Sayings by Takashi Miike
Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Japanese director Takashi Miike.
Last updated on November 21, 2024.
Even if I were to try to imitate Kurosawa I know that it's absolutely impossible. That era of film was just something else, including the actors. Everything about that era was on a completely different level.
Bigger-budgeted films have more restrictions and less freedom to create. Because of this, I try to find freedom in the people I work with. I often work in ways I don't want to. It's more about controlling the situation. Lower-budget films are freer.
Boxing fascinates me.
Visually, I want to try everything. But I believe that every shot of my films really expresses what I think about the story and the character. The most important thing is the story, not the images.
Filmmaking is not a balancing act, although some directors think it is. I don't believe in it. I like ups and downs. They're the best way to translate my feelings to the screen.
In Japan, violence isn't as controversial as it is in the West.
I wanted to make '13 Assassins' in the old manner, to use old techniques and not to rely on modern-day ones such as CGI, or editing that changes the speed.
First Love' is one of my most hopeful movies. It's about love and relationships, so in that way it's different from my other films. That's why it's special for me.
Some people have iconic directors in their mind, or they want to make particular styles of films they have seen before. I think this is a waste of time and energy.
My style is that I have no style.
I personally wouldn't pay money to go watch a really scary movie!
You hide your instinctive self and instead create a social self with lies. That's how people are able to get along with each other. What's scary is when you strip all the lies away to get at the essential you. What if it's pure evil? You don't want to face that. So lies aren't all bad - we need them to live.
You could not imitate Fellini. His beauty was above anything else, but that intelligence was typically Italian. This helped me to realise that I had to create something that was distinctively Japanese.
My influences happen at more of a subconscious level, I don't dig too deep into that or analyze it myself.
I think what people think about my films depends on the film they see. It's all different and opinions are all different.
When you see the violence of Hollywood movies, there is a tendency that the hero is combating and confronting many people, without much harm to himself. But in my films, the hero takes a lot of hits so the very act of the hero being the one on the receiving end, makes the audience cheer and connect with him.
Manga, as a medium, is very different from cinema. Its creators are free to express themselves with harsh, cruel stories, and they enjoy vast distribution throughout Japan.
I honestly do feel like the Yakuza film genre is going away. And I don't personally feel like there's any meaning in trying to artificially extend the life of the Yakuza film genre.
I think I'm a director that is very easily misunderstood.
I would recommend 'Lesson Of The Evil' to be given as a DVD gift on a child's 15th birthday. In Japan, children under 15 are not allowed to watch it. Plus, 'Lesson Of The Evil' is one film where the older you get, the more you will be able to understand and enjoy the film.
Maybe '13 Assassins' is the mortal agony and death rattle of a Japanese film industry that has abandoned its creative talent.
I think everyone really wants to just be happy and live the life that they want to live. But they come up against all of these obstacles and sometimes the way that react we react to that can be very hilarious. To me. It's hilarious and laughable.
People tell all sorts of lies in order to live. That enables friendships to form and love to blossom.
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.
That's a very Japanese idea - that children are an extension of their parents. And that when you're reborn, your new form reflects the sins of your previous life - you can't escape.
People say that my movies are violent. I do not think so.
As a film-maker, it's only natural to feel happy about new possibilities opening up.
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.
Sometimes it's good to know there are limits.
I see myself as having this innate weakness that a lot of times will get confused with kindness, but I know that it's often more weakness than kindness.
Live life before making movies, because you cannot make films about life, without having lived one.
I am attracted to bad people because they are very human.
In film, in general, you have just so many cliche themes or stories that are told over and over again.
Pleasure can also be a mirror of the anxiety we feel in everyday life, it can have a message inside.
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.
When I'm watching one of my movies in a festival with fans who are just into it and they love it? I end up feeling like my film is more interesting, it becomes more fun to watch and I get a special energy that feeds back into my process.
I admire Akira Kurosawa. I have a deep admiration for him and I would love to make films like that.
One Missed Call' was one of many J-horror films at that time.
Regarding the responsibility that a director has to society, first of all, there are ratings. There's freedom to make films, and freedom to watch them or not. It's not like I take those films to a school and force kids to watch them.
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.
My generation was a special generation. I was born in 1960 and in my childhood we were all big manga consumers that was the culture. We were brought up in manga. Manga evolved around what was being made to cater to kids. All children at that time read ridiculously thick manga books every week.
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.
More than my films being influenced by manga I was indelibly impressed by Manga, and that definitely comes out in the films.
I felt that all of us working on our remake of '13 Assassins' had to honour the original director, Eiichi Kudo, and everyone else who created the original.
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.
It's not my goal to make so many movies. It's just sort of a natural process, and I'm just doing my job. And I'm not tied to any genre; I'm willing to do anything. I just keep going.
It wasn't really my intention to make movies quickly - it's more to do with the reality of the Japanese film industry. That's been the only way for me to change my situation; to prove how little time you need to make a good film.
We have this desire for that balance between death and life or death and joy. We want to believe that something we can also have.
Japanese of my generation try to get through life without stepping on anyone's toes; in some ways that's unnatural and stressful. The yakuza are different: They live short lives but live and die on their own terms - it's exciting to portray that.
I'm not good at anything else. I just don't have a talent for anything other than filmmaking. Luckily, it's worked out.
I don't think a film that has no effect on people or society is a good film.
I loved spaghetti westerns but besides these pure entertainment movies, there was also something different.
I am discovering myself as a director all the time.
My films are like drinking a good beer, but pleasure doesn't mean that it cannot change someone's point of view.
Actually the hardest films to make are comedies. In normal life, funny things happen by accident; to re-create those by design in a film takes real technique.
For better or worse, I refuse to live my life with regret. Sometimes, I'll look back on my past mistakes with fondness. But I never wished I wouldn't have made them. That's why I don't like re-takes.
Boxing is a metaphor for hitting back and showing you can win in life.
Personally, I enjoy being able to see something that you haven't seen before.
Every medium has its own kind of freedom. I don't want to just cross from one to the next. I want to enjoy the freedom each one has. Sometimes, you can do something for TV that you can't do in the cinema.
You know when I was a high school student I wasn't a very good student. Upon graduation we were asked if we would become a full working adult or go to university. I decided to go to film school and still to this day I try to avoid being a full working adult.
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