What is this film about?
That’s a tough question; I am still trying to figure that one out myself. But I guess ultimately it is about human beings and the relationships with themselves. Exploring and exploiting the sexuality that exists in all of us. It’s a chronicle of love and affection and an explicit description in to the psychology of sexual activity.
What was your first idea for making this movie?
Well originally it was planned to make a more comprehensive narrative feature, you know a kind of boring art film about Japanese high school girls growing up in
And then…
Well I had my long time friend Jake Clennell come from
How was it working with a cast and crew that didn’t speak your language?
It was definitely a challenge, but I got over the frustration rather quickly as we didn’t have time to teach everybody English. I just trusted that everybody involved at least understood my vision. I could even say there were no directions just cameras.
How did you start this movie?
I was in
What was your idea of
Actually I had no exact preconceived notion of what to expect. Would it be a place where everyone is clad in Kimonos and wooden slippers? Or was everybody a blade running cyborg in a floating future city? Interestingly enough it was a fine combination of the two.
Has your ideas changed about
I really like
I love the explicit exploitation of everything. There is something crass and charming about
How did you find the characters for the film?
As I mentioned before the girls in film came from street scouting in Shibuya, from one of my producers that actually is somewhat of a magician himself. He introduced us to Shun (who somehow was working with him at some point?). He also arranged a hypnotist and an old man that agreed to be filmed buying underwear from one of the girls. Kuniko the doll came from the internet after my friend Akemi turned me on to this guy’s site. I instantly fell in love and stayed awake for hours reading his words (which were in English) and looking at his photos. I felt he was the symbol of
So is it a documentary?
Its reality turned in to fiction.
It is a film about sex but not as one might imagine, why is the subject of sex so interesting to you?
It’s as interesting to me as it is to everyone else, though I came into a different perspective of the subject of sex since coming to
What about
Well having grown up in catholic school and living by a quasi moral ethic program given to me by my authority I naturally had all of the guilty notions attached to sex. In
How would you explain it being commercial and casual?
The list could go on forever…
For example the readily available blow job bars and bath houses to ease the stress of the over worked married salary-man is known and accepted by the wife. Popular among men and women are Manga novels (comics), usually sexually graphic in nature and sold at every corner convenience store. Teenage girls’ “enjo kosai”(compensated relationships) craze where over 50% of high school girls engage in sexual activity for money to buy into the latest Louis Vuitton or Christian Dior die hard style, (all of this highlighted by the students mini plaid skirts and long white socks). These are as visible in society as they are invisible. It is the unspoken truth that harmonizes everybody. At first I had my own western criticism but learned to accept and respect it as a different culture’s operations that obviously were working for them. Most interesting was the psychological aspect of it all. The ideas of sex were intricately analyzed and fragmentized so much that it separated the physical aspect sometimes completely. I love the fantasy.
People describe
People are fucked up everywhere you go. There are perverts and monsters in every country.
with twice the population of the U.K in a land mass the size of California has a crime rate that ranks last on list of violent crimes .Which I might add that one of this country's popular sporting events is K1 and PRIDE (full contact bloody brawling).
Murders per 100,000.
1.
2.
3.
Rape per 100,000.
1.
2.
3.
Serious Assault per 100,000.
1.
2.
3.
Robbery/Violent Theft per 100,000.
1.
2.
3.
I feel that there is the relevance to sexuality and violence here in
There seems to be a formal mental uniform that everyone wears here to keep things in order. It’s hard to imagine being idea of fantasy and reality is virtually inseparable in this country but easy to see its discourse. With one of the lowest unemployment rates and highest suicide rates its pretty obvious where all the energy goes. To think that someone would rather kill themselves than someone else is quite inspiring. Even more surreal is there is no religious template to follow in which morally condemns murder.
So what do you think of the roles of men and women in
I think historically men and women have had their roles in society for a reason. This is a global tradition since the documentation of time. In
What do you think of women personally?
Honestly it doesn’t matter to me what women do or men for that matter. I appreciate the people I appreciate for a reason. But I realized I am most sexually compatible with women so my opinions can go only go so far.
“In my thought, becoming a doll is an action to deny the physical body of my own. I cover my face with mask completely because the head of a human being has the most important identity and the most important vital organs and I want to deny them. I love to stay in the world as a doll, who doesn't feel light, or sound, nor smell, nor doesn’t eat, nor doesn't breathe at all. For me, my abstract world of thought, my imaginary world, my philosophical world are important, but not my body nor my identity. In order to enter my dream world, I deny my own body just before I'm killed and become a doll. I cover my eyes, I stop my breath, and I become a doll.
The Kuniko doll is a denial of the physical body, and it is a Utopia for me.”
Somewhere in the Middle of the insanity lies a deep breath of humanity.
Welcome to the sexual circus of psychology, manifested under the fluorescent glow of modern
What must be a secret and what is to be heard is clearly defined in the Japanese society. But what happens when the secrets manifest in to lifestyles and the relationship to your self becomes entirely too overwhelming? Some wish to be born again as a doll, and some just do it.
What will a father tell his son about becoming a doll?
What is the value of a plastic bag?
What does love smell like?