By Bryan Hartzheim
Higuchi started in the film industry as a mold-making assistant for The Return of Godzilla in 1984, but before that, he helped form a modest animation studio along with Hideaki Anno, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and Takami Arai called Gainax. You might have heard of it -- they're the guys behind a bunch of now classic anime TV series (Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water), movies (The Wings of Honneamise), OVAs (FLCL), and the most recent television smash success, Tengen Toppa Guuren Lagaan. Oh, and they're also the brainchild behind Neon Genesis Evangelion -- the TV series and its countless film remakes – for which Higuchi was a writer, assistant director, and art director/storyboarder.
While Anno and co. have remained, for the most part, entrenched in cranking out new anime, Higuchi's ambitions lay elsewhere. In the 90s, he was a large part of the brief revitalization of Gamera films for his ability to create high-quality special effects despite still working with the same molds that characterized the wonderful camp of the old Daiei pics.
Following the critical and commercial success of the “Heisei Gamera” trilogy and the release of the End of Evangelion feature film, he continued working in effects (most notably for Seijun Suzuki's Pistol Opera and Kazuaki Kiriya's CASSHERN), but had enough time to direct a digitally-animated short called Tobu – Konna Yume wo Mita based on the posthumous writing of the late Akira Kurosawa, which also won a prize at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival in 2000.
In 2005, he made his feature film directorial debut with the submarine epic Lorelei: the Witch of the Pacific, which was not only a commercial success but is also one of the very few submarine films in Japanese film history (which is also strange considering the ample availability of non-fiction material filmmakers could likely draw upon). This set up Higuchi to direct the remake of the Toho classic Japan Sinks, de-emphasizing much of the original's socio-political commentary and refashioning it as a romance-laden blockbuster with some great shots of temples getting obliterated.
Action director credentials? Check. Efficient special effects dude? Check. Imagination for remakes? Check. Kurosawa bonafides? Check. Rep within the otaku community? Check, check, and check. Higuchi's bio sets him up to be a natural choice to take on Toho's 50th anniversary celebration of the Kurosawa action-adventure classic, slightly renamed Hidden Fortress: The Last Princess.
APA sat down with the director regarding his wide-ranging career, pressures faced concerning the remake of a Kurosawa film, what he thought could be accomplished with an update to Hidden Fortress, and the story behind why he's Shinji Ikari's namesake.
Interview with Shinji Higuchi
April 27, 2008
APA: You seem to be a jack of all trades -- you're found success as not just a director, but you've had a career in animation as a storyboard artist, writer, and assistant director as well. Did you always imagine spreading yourself over various roles in the industry, and how has this broad range of work benefited your career as an artist?
SH: Basically, I think of the same thing on every job I've ever done, so there hasn't been a difference for me depending on the kind of work. When I'm offered a project, I take it and work on it just like I would any other project, with the goal in mind that the greatest possible satisfaction for me is to please and make happy whoever asked me to work on that project. Now that my clients are my audience, my approach to work hasn't changed.
APA: All directors in Japan probably owe something to Akira Kurosawa for various reasons. What do Kurosawa's films mean to you on a personal and professional level?
SH: Personally speaking, I grew up watching kaiju (“monster”) movies as a child. I loved watching movies that featured things that don't appear or exist in our world, and this includes a movie like Star Wars. But when I watched Tengoku to jigoku (High and Low) when I was in junior high, the film was still engrossing despite the fact that there was nothing unusual in it that couldn't take place in our world. It's an ordinary story about everyday people in heightened circumstances, but it still works wonderfully as an entertainment. When I saw this, I didn't realize it at the time, but thinking about it after, I realized that was the first time I really saw a movie, and it made me realize what a movie was and could be. In this sense, Kurosawa as a director is like a father to me.
APA: There are commentators online who are already critical of the project based on its cast and the very idea of remaking a Kurosawa movie. What kind of pressure did you and have you faced during the production? How do you address any criticism you've received?
SH: I'm not really thinking about the critics' responses, but rather how the audience views my work. What I'd like to do is continue to make movies for the people who don't go regularly go to the movies. Of the movies that are really big hits every year in Japan, 80% of that audience sees only one or two movies a year. It's my job to make a movie that appeals to this 80%, otherwise we won't be making a film that has any chance of being a blockbuster. Those Internet commentators who have strong opinions on the adaptation of or fidelity to the original script have completely different interests from me and, as a result, I'm really not interested in their opinions either.
APA: Akira Kurosawa said that he made films to explore why people could not be happy and why they could not be happy together. What was the reason behind your wish to do Hidden Fortress?
SH: The Kurosawa quote you're referring to he said, I believe, when he was making Ran later in his life, in 1985. As a director at that point in his life, I think he made this statement because of his disappointment in the never-ending chain of wars around the world. But when I looked to his comments during the making of Hidden Fortress, I saw his comments were completely opposite from the comments you just said, that his wish was to make a movie so people didn't have to think too hard and could enjoy it as a simply and thrilling entertainment. It were these comments that inspired me during the making of our version of Hidden Fortress. For me, what was most important in my film wasn't to copy the storyline, but rather this spirit, or stance, of making something that would be completely entertaining. George Lucas made similar type of comments when he made Star Wars, that the trend in films was that there were too many very serious movies and his movie was a sort of counter to that, and that was my feeling for this film as well.
APA: It sounds like your intention in remaking the film was to craft a very contemporary entertainment.
SH: Rather than “remaking” the original movie, I wanted to take aspects of the original and with my own hands craft a movie that is no longer made in Japan much today, which is the adventure epic. So in this sense, for me, rather than remaking the Kurosawa original, I was more interested and motivated in making a new action-adventure movie.
To be honest, I hesitated before doing film, but the original Hidden Fortress has as its basic plot a princess who is being chased by enemies and must use these two filthy thief-like bad guys to get away, and in the end these two different groups of people have to work together. When I thought of this aspect of the story, I recalled the similarities to a famous anime movie in Japan -- with a princess and some robber-like villains - and thought we could make a live-action version of it. Once I realized this, I knew we'd be able to make our own original movie in the process.
APA: This is a film that has yet to be distributed nationally in Japan, and yet it is premiering here in Los Angeles. Can you speak about this decision?
SH: Well, honestly, there'll be lots of attention. [laughter]. Not just that, but we chose USC as a place where Jun and I could show the film and talk about the film with students who are learning about studying film since they are the ones who have the most passion regarding films rather than a general audience. Also, USC is a school that has produced many great artists who have directly influenced me. And the most important reason is that I need to buy some USC T-shirts at the souvenir shops.
APA: You are a co-founder of animation studio Gainax, and many over here are eagerly awaiting the next three Neon Genesis Evangelion feature films. What is the extent of your participation with these films, and can you speak about what we should expect with the next three films in the tetralogy?
SH: I'm working on them right now and can't reveal too much about the projects, but they are going to be totally different from what you've previously seen.
APA: Last question: Shinji in Evangelion is supposedly named after you. Is there a story to this?
SH: That was director Anno's idea of an annoying joke. So much bad stuff happens to Shinji, and that was a way for Anno and everyone to say "Stupid Shinji." [In English] Why Shinji? Why me??
To read this interview, in Japanese translation, click here.
Interview with Jun Matsumoto
Article about Hidden Fortress
POP! Goes the MatsuJun