As Japan Cuts Open, Programmer Jamier Talks Asian Film Trends, Fests & Stars

Details

Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Interviews

Published on Tuesday, 10 July 2012 23:52

Written by Renzo Adler

Q: What do you think about the movie Zombie Ass?

SJ: Oh my god, are we going to be talking about Zombie Ass? It’s a fun film, it’s pretty extreme. Who else is going to have the balls to show it? It raises curiosity.

Q: The studio that made it, Nikkatsu, has made exploitation films for a long time. Are they carrying on a proud tradition?

SJ: Well you’re not talking about the same company. You talk to some of the younger employees and they don’t know what came before. It’s a very, very old company. It’s changed a lot. But I’m interested in exploitation.

I don’t think Zombie Ass is exactly a masterpiece, but sometimes the grindhouse of today is the art-house of tomorrow. Who would have thought back in the day that spaghetti westerns like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly would be in the Criterion Collection and such? A lot of the Kurosawa stuff was meant to be popular but was never really considered by Japanese critics as refined art-house titles, per-se, they were seen as action stuff.

Zombie Ass is an extreme title and fun in its own right and I try to think of all types of audiences and there’s a place for everyone in there. It’s an extremely fringe film. I like fringe films. It’s an interesting piece in its own right.

Low brow, high brow, it doesn’t matter; there’s a time for everything. Sometimes on a Tuesday night you want to see a scat zombie movie and sometimes you want to see a much more serious title like Rebirth. You’d have a hard time finding a pattern in the films being shown at Japan Cuts this year.

Q: Do you have any personal projects you are working on like a book or lecture series?

SJ: I’ve thought of that. I often speak in public. A book is in the works, I just had a new idea for a book, but I have to finish what I’m working on right now. I’ve written a few screenplays that I’d like to see at some point.

Q: Can you say anything about them?

SJ: I’d rather keep it on the down-low. But it’s a genre movie, but it’s not like Zombie Ass and it doesn’t have scat. It’s similar to the kind of films I’ve programmed in the past.

Q: Where would you like to film -- China, Japan, Korea, US, Europe?

 SJ: All of the above. People travel these days. Your story can take place in several places, though that does make it complicated. I’m interested in all these places, but obviously my sensibility is closer to Asian style films, if there is such a thing.

Your idea of a Japanese film might be a samurai film or melodrama, but there’s more to it than one might think. I try to pull people’s attention to more things than costume dramas.

Q: What would attract you to making a film in Japan? You mentioned being interested in the sort of films that were in the Love Tears Us Apart series.

SJ: I have my own stories to tell as well. Things that I, as a person, have seen, that I think I could put on screen as well. I’ve been working on stories.

Right now I’ve had little time to think about it though. I’ve been working for a few months on a screenplay, but it’s at a fairly early stage.

The problem with Japan is that you might fall into the trap of a foreign film maker in Japan, which a lot of really good film makers have. I’d like to do something that is in Japan, and has to do with Japan, but isn’t going to be a Japanese film at the same time.

Q: Like Paul Schrader’s Mishima.

SJ: Yeah, that’s an interesting film, definitely. I don’t know if I could find the budget to do that though.

To learn more, go to http://www.japansociety.org

Japan Society
333 East 47th Street
New York, NY 10017

Japan Cuts
July 12-28, 2012

• < Prev
• Next >