Ichise, Taka (The Grudge)
Taka Ichise is one of the most prolific producers in Japanese cinema, especially when it you look at the amount of horror the man has brought to the big screen. He’s worked on all 4 of the Japanes Ju-On movies, as well as films like Dark Water, Crazy Lips, and all three Ringu films.
He’s now producing some of the U.S. remakes of those very same films, his first being the remake of The Grudge which opened to huge box office last weekend. I had the pleasure of sitting down with producer Taka Ichise (and his interpreter) a few weeks back to talk about the film and the rest of his full slate, so I hope you enjoy it!
Q: When did you first discover the horror genre?
Taka Ichise: I was never really a die hard horror fan or anything, but when the original book of Ringu was published in Japan a friend told me to read it, so that was when I first became interested in horror.
Q: Were you surprised that American audiences embraced, The Ring and do you think they will do the same with The Grudge?
TI: Yes I was surprised that The Ring was embraced by the American audience. When I first read the novel I thought it would be great if we could make this film in the United States. I knew some producers in the U.S. at that time so I brought the project to them and they all said that the story of people who watch a video and die is not going to sell. So I thought maybe this kind of story wouldn’t work, so I am surprised that many years later the audience likes it. Maybe the attitude of the audience or the market has changed over time.
Q: How has director Takashi Shimizu changed from when you first discovered him to now?
TI: From day one I knew he was a very talented director. As he developed I worked closely with him on how to tell and develop a story. He has a very special talent in creating a fear moment and I helped him to make it into a full film because back when I met him he had only made short films.
Q: How did you decide what to keep and what to change for American audiences?
TI: I tried to keep this version as close to the original as possible, but the one major change is that Japanese horror films are very vague and sometimes there isn’t any resolution at the end. You don’t really know what is going on to the character and such. The Japanese people tend to not mind but in America it is not acceptable. You have to have some kind of rule and some kind of resolution at the end. So that is the major change.
Q: Is that frustrating when you have to make those kinds of changes?
TI: It’s not frustrating but during the development process when I discussed the script with the American producers they requested more exposition, but if you make everything clear then it’s not horror at all. So I have to keep it clear but not too clear. I have to find the balance.
Q: There were two endings shot for this film, could you talk about those?
TI: Yes it is true, we shot two different endings for the film. The one we didn’t use is like the original Japanese ending but it was just too sophisticated.
Q: What do you think about the American sequel to The Ring not using the story from the Japanese version?
TI: I don’t know the story of The Ring 2 so I am looking forward to it. When I made Ringu 2, I had to make it just a year later from the original and I had very little time to deliver so I think it could use some work. I am looking forward to how they come up with The Ring 2 in the U.S.
Q: Is there going to be a fourth Ringu film?
TI: (Laughs) They would have to write one first and then we will see.
Q: Do you think there is a cultural difference in what the Japanese audiences find frightening versus American audiences?
TI: I think in terms of fear they react the same way.
Q: Can you talk about using hair as a devise? It seems to be a recurring theme in Japanese horror.
TI: I can’t really give you an exact reason, but the Japanese horror film is based on the old ghost stories that are passed on from generation to generation. Those ghost stories include all kinds of things to do with hair and long black hair. I think the Japanese audience react or fear or fell some uneasiness with the black hair. That’s why we use it as a device.
Q: Would you like to see Japanese directors make more original horror films in the United States?
TI: Yes I would, but there are only a few directors in Japan who can speak English clearly or know enough to be able to carry the production in the U.S. so that would be a big challenge.
Q: How has Japanese horror changed and how do you see the future of the genre in Japan?
TI: There used to be a lot of Japanese horror films that had dolls in them but now I am trying to create another kind of fear using ghosts. I am currently working on the J Horror Theater package where I will produce six horror films by six directors. With that project I am going to try to do a different kind of horror.
Q: Are those going to be full feature films or will this be dome more as an anthology series?
TI: These will be six separate full length feature films.
Q: Is there one classic Japanese horror film that you would like to see remade in the United States?
TI: I would like to see Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s, Kyua remade in the U.S.
Q: Are you negotiating for that?
TI: I think someone else is. (Laughs)
Q: Is The Grudge’s curse an original creation or is that based on Japanese legend?
TI: It is Shimizu’s original creation.
Q: You are remaking the 1981 American film The Entity. Why did you choose to remake this film?
TI: When I read the original book, The Entity, I was just very interested in remaking it.
Q: How will you approach the special effects with today’s advances over the effects used twenty years ago in the original? Will you use CGI for the attack scenes? In the original they had to build a whole mechanical body.
TI: (Laughs) Yeah I watched that movie again the other day and like you mentioned you could see that the chest looked like rubber. (Laughs) Personally I’m not that interested in using CGI too much in the film or other horror films. Instead of focusing on the CGI, I would rather focus more on the character and the story because I find it so interesting.
Thanks to Columbia and Ichise-san for the interview!
Categorized:Interviews News
