 |
 |
| Keishiro Shin |
|
| Napalm Films Producer |
|
|
| How did you meet Ryuhei Kitamura? |
|
|
| I met him 15years ago in Osaka, Japan. I clearly remember the first time we met. It was after an English test and I was talking to classmates about grades. I thought I scored the highest grade until Ryuhei showed up. He got the highest grade. I was really disappointed. Anyway, his seat was right behind me so I turned around and had a little conversation with him. That was our first contact. By the way the guy who was sitting infront of me was Daisuke Yano, who's composing the music for Ryuhei's film. |
|
| What were you guys doing at that time? |
|
|
It was time when I was playing around after I graduated highschool and Ryuhei just got back from Australia.
Not only that we enjoyed watching films, we wanted to make one. So, we just decided to make one right after we met. Last month I found my schedule note of that time and it was really interesting, Every schedule on my note was concerning filmmaking like "start shooting" or "shooting on the roof" and It didn't say anything about the school, test or report deadlines. When we were not shooting, we enjoyed playing the band, watching a film or going out to see liveconcert. |
|
| How was Ryuhei Kitamura at that time? |
|
|
Basically same as now.
I don't know if I am lucky or not, but Ryuhei was the first filmdirector I have met in my whole life. When I met him, he only had experience of directing one short movie with 8mm, but I felt he was different than others. He was natural born leader and also he was very good at wheedling. So I simply thought people like Ryuhei is going to become a film director.
Even though the scale of his film became larger and larger, his film has not changed at all. So is he. |
|
| Did you have image of Ryuhei Kitamura's success? |
|
|
Yes. I belived his success. But I never thought he would direct so many films here in Japan.
15years ago, all we were thinking about was how to become a Hollywood director. We checked the information like Steven Spielberg often visit USC to see the student's film and so. I still can't believe he is directing GODZILLA now, because I know he once wrote his original GODZILLA story long time ago when we were making a film with videocamera. |
|
| Last question. What is Ryuhei Kitamura to you? |
|
|
| Ryuhei is most powerful, lethal, and ultimate spice of my life. If I didn't meet him, I had totally different life than now. Sometimes I regret that I met him. He is like a racingcar driving maximum overspeed without brake. There is no way to stop him. His action, anger, and kindness are 100 times stronger than others. So I believe that person who is working with him (like me) is having 100 times bigger problems than others. If you want the proof, you can see my picture above. People used to say I look like Kurt Russel or Michael Douglas! Now I am fat and losing my hair because of him! But, I can't stop working with him. I just can't. No matter how hard it is, I want to keep working with him. And that's Ryuhei Kitamura's charm. |
|
|
|
