On
July 18th, 2003 at the San Diego International Comic
Convention, Kung Fu Cult Cinema was able to catch
Shinsuke Sato at the ADV Films booth and sit down
with him to talk all things PRINCESS BLADE. Though
Mr. Sato seemed like a quiet individual at first,
when he started talking about his love for film and
his experience on PRINCESS BLADE, he radiated of energy
and warmth. Obviously, we were star struck and had
an exciting time with him as he shared stories about
Donnie Yen and the future of his own career. In celebration
of the PRINCESS BLADE DVD release this week, we present
to you our interview. Enjoy.
[KFCCinema]:
How did you get to become the director of PRINCESS
BLADE?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: I was making several independent
films at my university and I had made 3 films, all
dramas. I started to work in the movie industry as
a script writer because a famous director in Japan
saw my independent film and asked me to write a script
for him. And as I started to write scripts for him,
another producer offered me to write a script. There
was no director at the time and since the producer
saw my independent film, he offered me to direct the
film myself. It was called LOVE SONG, a love story.
After I finished that film, I told my producer that
I wanted to make an action film and I really wanted
to make a science fiction movie. The producer was
surprised at that because I hadn’t directed
any science fiction or even action movies before.
But I really wanted to do them because I was very
familiar with those films when I was a kid. I had
always wanted to make those types of films one day.
And the producer had a small idea of an action movie
based on this old comic called SHIRAYUKI HIME. I actually
had never read the comic and I didn’t know much
about it, but I really wanted to make a science fiction
action movie and really wanted to make a film using
swords. I thought that I could mix those ideas with
the story of SHIRAYUKI HIME. So I decided to make
an action film with that producer. At first, I made
an original story not dependent on SHIRAYUKI HIME,
but my producer said, “you don’t have
to care about the comic book, so you should go ahead,”
so I did. PRINCESS BLADE ended up becoming a science
fiction movie mixed with action and love. So that’s
the reason I had made that kind of film. I think I
mixed all that I wanted to do into PRINCESS BLADE.
[KFCCinema]:
LOVE SONG was the name of your first film? Is there
a DVD available with English subtitles?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: There is a DVD in Japan of
course, but not in America.
[KFCCinema]:
How much time transpired between the completion of
LOVE SONG and the beginning of PRINCESS BLADE?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: About 6 months or so, it is
very close. The producer told me about the new action
movie project when I was in post production with LOVE
SONG. I remember that when LOVE SONG was released
in Japan, I was in shooting PRINCESS BLADE.
[KFCCinema]:
Your movie has done really well and it’s about
to be released internationally, so you must be very
happy. Since you’re in America now and it’s
about to be released here, I was curious about your
plans and aspirations for the American market, possibly
American movies or something like that?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Future projects? Yes, I am
thinking about the audience of the world, not particularly
the audience in Japan because, generally, Japanese
people don’t like Japanese movies. Not everybody,
but most people, because they like movies from abroad,
like Hollywood or European movies. There are very
few Japanese science fiction or action movies in Japan
because no one wants to see them. I wanted to change
that situation, but now I know that more and more
people want to see good science fiction or action
movies even if it is a Japanese movie. So I am not
thinking about Japanese audience, I am thinking about
world audience, because they have the energy to want
to see that kind of movie. I am now planning to make
several pictures for the Japanese market and United
States market and other countries, so I am now making
a new film. It’s a ninja movie. I want to make
a more magical ninja movie. Not like… do you
know RED SHADOW?
[KFCCinema]:
Yeah.
[Shinsuke
Sato]: It’s not a magical ninja
movie, right? It’s more realistic. I want to
make a more magical one.
[KFCCinema]:
Are you familiar with the Hong Kong film, STORM RIDERS?
Is it more similar to that?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Oh yeah. I just made COSMIC
RESCUE, my new movie. It has already been released
in Japan now, just last week.
[KFCCinema]:
What’s COSMIC RESCUE about?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: It’s a story about a
rescue team in cosmic (laughs).
[KFCCinema]:
What type of genre?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: It is a space movie and it’s
a science fiction movie.
[KFCCinema]:
Is it action driven? Many America films that have
science fiction elements tend to be action driven,
fast paced.
[Shinsuke
Sato]: No not action movie.
[KFCCinema]:
Who is in COSMIC RESCUE, any well known actors?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: There is a pop group (COMING
CENTURY) in the film that are very well known in Japan.
[KFCCinema]:
Now considering COSMIC RESCUE has only been released
a week ago, is there any way to tell early on how
well it’s going to do? In America the opening
weekend is really important for the success of a movie.
Have you kept track of its initial success? Does that
sort of thing matter to you?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: No, because this picture has
only been released in one particular theater, an IMAX
theater. The company financing the film is directly
connected to the pop group. So it is kind of a special
movie, you have to have a pass, so you have to buy
a ticket in advance, like a concert or theater.
[KFCCinema]:
It sounds like it’s tough to gauge the potential
popularity of a movie like that when it’s only
released to a limited audience. Are there any plans
to releasing COSMIC RESCUE to the rest of Japan?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Just Osaka. We are planning
to sell the rights to over seas.
[KFCCinema]:
So have you already had western distributors interested
in the film?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: There are no subtitles right
now, but maybe in Toronto. The Toronto Film Festival
will be the first opportunity to show this film.
[KFCCinema]:
So there are plans to show it at the festival?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Yes. There is an anime convention
next month, Otakon 2003, and they are going to make
a booth for it.
[KFCCinema]:
Any plans of a DVD release for COSMIC RESCUE?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: No, not yet.
[KFCCinema]:
With everything you’ve done recently, it seems
that your favorite genre in film is science fiction?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Well yes, when I decided to
be a director, I was crazy about science fiction,
but not now. I thought at the time, someday I will
make a space movie like COSMIC RESCUE, so I did (laughs).
Maybe it is the first space movie in Japan? There
are very few science fiction space movies in Japan
and in this film there are no Earth locations. It
all takes place in space, very unusual. Many people
like this movie, even girls because they are fans
of the band.
[KFCCinema]:
If you do come to the United States and make movies
here in the future, are there any directors or actors
that you want to work with?
[Shinsuke
Sato]:
Any actor is good (laughs).
[KFCCinema]:
Any director that you like?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: Yes, Clint Eastwood, I love
his films.
[KFCCinema]:
Who would you say are your influences in Japan or
in Asia as a whole? Are you a fan of any particular
directors or actors?
[Shinsuke
Sato]:
Maybe you don’t know him, but Sadao Yamanaka.
He made 20 or 30 silent films, chambara films, the
old samurai dramas. He made very great films but most
of them were burnt up or destroyed in WWII. We can
only see 3 pictures now. He died when he was 28 years
old. Yamanaka made those films in his twenties, so
maybe he is a genius (laughs)!
[KFCCinema]:
Are there any contemporary film makers that you are
fond of?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: I like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. I’m
mostly influenced by classical film making but from
multiple genres.
[KFCCinema]:
Going back to PRINCESS BLADE, what was it like working
with Donnie Yen?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: He is a great action choreographer
and actor. When in shooting, he would do the action
to show everybody, to show how to do it. That is great,
because not everybody can do that. He would get angry
every time because nobody could do what he could do
(laughs). He was so great!
[KFCCinema]:
How about your lead actress, Yumiko Shaku?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: PRINCESS BLADE is her first
film and she had no experience in acting. So it was
a bad situation for me. But she did well. I was familiar
with that situation because have made a lot of independent
films and in those types of films, I had to use unknown
actors so I had some experience to make them look
good even if they were not skilled actors.
[KFCCinema]:
We heard rumors of a PRINCESS BLADE 2. Are you working
on that right now?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: No, actually, we changed the
project because, while PRINCESS BLADE was based on
the comic and the original author, Kazou Koike, loved
the film, we would have to make more changes to the
storyline in the sequel and the publisher does not
think that it would be a good idea.
[KFCCinema]:
PRINCESS BLADE 2 will not be made due to rights problems?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: The producer said that if she
had the energy to fight in the cold, then we can win
because we have a contract. But they don’t want
to do that because we have a good relationship with
the author. So the producer decided not to make PRINCESS
BLADE 2. Before that, myself and another screenwriter
were working on many drafts for PRINCESS BLADE 2.
But now we are going to use that for our next film,
that’s the ninja movie.
[KFCCinema]:
So what is next for you?
[Shinsuke
Sato]: The ninja movie and I’m
making a new videogame for the PS2 and Xbox with Universal
Pictures. They are making a new Japanese game. I wrote
the whole script and directed it.
RELATED
LINKS
ADV
Films
http://www.advfilms.com
The
Official Princess Blade Website
http://www.theprincessblade.com/
KFC Cinema Princess Blade Review
http://www.kfccinema.com/reviews/swordplay/princessblade/princessblade.html
Special
Thanks to ADV Films
Brandon
Fincher
J. D. Nguyen
Jason Rose
11/17/2003
