May 2005
CREA Interview
Hiroyuki Sanada
--Expanding his horizon to Hollywood and China, and the challenge to a touchy issue in Japan


(Written by Atsuko Tatsuta)


Through his hand-on international experience, he sees the status of national defense and movie industry


"I had a training at the military academy of Marine Self Devense Forces (MSDF) as a part of my research. I got up earlier than the students so I can see everything from the early morning, and it was just amazing. At the wake up call, they changed, made beds, ran through the hallway, and made a line in only 5 minutes. It was almost superhuman. (laugh) They are trained to act like this everyday, so they can do the same at the emergency situation.

But one thing I noticed talking to the members of the SDF, many of them are very generous and kind. I could not believe that they would launch missiles when necessary. I thought that they can be generous to others because they know the tough things in life through the training. So I wanted to make this movie so it would communicate these human side as I saw it, not a routine military drama."

Hiroyuki Sanada was highly acclaimed in The Last Samurai (2003), and has become one of the most well-known Japanese actor. He recently has acted in various international movies, and is now coming back to Japan with "Aegis", the first Japanese movie for him since "The Twilight Samurai"(2002). This movie, based on the best-seller novel by Harutoshi Fukui, is a dynamic adventure-suspense drama that unfolds on theMSDF's Aegis warship Isokaze Sanada plays a petty officer who fights against the terrorism by a spy from a certain country, to protect Japan and the ship.

"Whe I walked through the archive in the military academy, lots of the exhibits about the history of war caught my eyes. Japanese people, including myself, believe that the peace is natural. But I have more opportunities to work overseas lately, and started to feel that is not the case, so this story sounds realistic to me. It was written 6 years ago, but the reality has caught up with the novel since then. This movie is not encouraging the fight, and is not saying that to defend one's country is not equal to fighting. The movie is intended to be an entertainment film, and at the same time, is posing a question what we can do for Japan to defend peace, a very rare and precious thing in the world now. I thought it is very meaningful to provide a trigger to think about this issue through a film, and that is one of the biggest reasons I participated in this movie."


Chinese movie making, different from Hollywood

Before the filming of "Aegis", he stayed in China for half a year for "WuJi - The Promise" by a prominent Chinese director Chen Kaige. There, he felt the problem of Japanese' perception about the history.

"We were working in friendly atmosphere most of the time,.but at certain times I felt anti-Japanese sentiment. At the beginning, I noticed people were talking something about Japan behind my back. Then when I started to understand Chinese a little, they started to talk directly to me, and we started to understand each other through discussions. They haven't forgotten about the history with past Japan. The story has been handed down through generations. But Japan has put a lid on the history and try to foget. I felt a gap there. I was forced to think about a subtle position of Japan in Asia. But I also had a hope that I could do something through movie making. Throughout this filming, I am confident that we came to understand better each other with the communication."

Currently he is working on filming of James Ivory's"The White Countess", written by Kazuo Ishiguro, in Shanghai. Through his experience in Hollywood and Asia, he started to have a new opinion about Japanese movies.

"In China, movie staff who worked in Hollywood brought in a breath of fresh air to the scene. The filming equipment was also much more advanced than in Japan. But at the same time, they didn't rely on computer graphics. They hired 800 extras for soldiers. They used human resources and time generously, and has inherited the way of filming like Kurosawa movie. They have been competing with the world with their own originality like this. It made me wonder deeply what the Japanese movies should do to compete. "Aegis" music and editing is done in Europe and the US. It is about time that Japan opens up its country. The time to play a solo game is already passed."


CREA Magazine - issued by Bungei Shunju