Takashi Miike

“I don't think a film that has no effect on people or society is a good film.”

“I don't set out to make a film for festivals abroad.”

“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.”

“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.”

“One Missed Call' was one of many J-horror films at that time.”

“I use depth in my visuals even in 2-D, and found that 3-D is actually liberating.”

“I am attracted to bad people because they are very human.”

“In '13 Assassins' the biggest challenge was that action period films, for budget reasons and because of the age of the actors involved, are not considered to be a good business decision by some companies.”

“People say that my movies are violent. I do not think so.”

“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.”

“Originally, I was an assistant director. For many people in that role, becoming a director is the ultimate goal. But, in my case, that wasn't my goal at all. I just had fun doing it. The schedule was hard, but I enjoyed it greatly so I just kept at it.”

“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.”

“I personally wouldn't pay money to go watch a really scary movie!”

“I'm just trying to make movies simply about life. Naturally, when I'm doing that, horror, violence, and all those kinds of things get mixed in. All those things happen in reality.”

“One Missed Call,' it was regarded as a mainstream film for my career because it was big budget and filmed in Japan and it really opened wide in Japan, it did really well commercially. So I was really surprised.”

“Sometimes it's good to know there are limits.”

“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.”

“For me, no matter what movie I make, no matter what the genre or the budget, they all have the same theme at their core: fear of death and happiness about living.”

“I don't think I'll ever get tired of making films. I wish I could make so many that it would make me get tired, but I don't.”

“I'm not good at anything else. I just don't have a talent for anything other than filmmaking. Luckily, it's worked out.”