About twenty years ago in the old anime tape trading days, when you could only watch new anime via fan-subbed VHS tapes, a buddy gave me something he thought I should see, being a fan of George Romero. Up until that point my exposure to Japanese cinema had been fairly limited, and I was more into the animated rather than the live action output of Japan. That day it all changed. Along with a subtitled copy of The End of Evangelion, my friend gave me a VHS tape in LP speed with Versus and Wild Zero, a Japanese zombie double feature that would remain two of my favorite zombie films to this day. That also ignited my love for Japanese cinema as I began to seek out similar films, which led me to D-Cinema and eventually to dig into the exploitation classics such as the Female Convict Scorpion and the Battles without Honor or Humanity series.
Last week I got a few moments to chat with the director of Versus, Ryuhei Kitamura, who after turning out such other Japanese action staples as Aragami and Azumi eventually landed a gig directing what was supposed to be the final Godzilla film at the time, Godzilla: Final Wars. Kitamura then came to the US with his American directorial debut, the horror film Midnight Meat Train, starring none other than Philly’s own Bradley Cooper. I got to chat with Ryuhei for his latest American effort, the horror anthology Nightmare Cinema, which sounds like it started out as a feature length Masters of Horror. The film, which is currently available on VOD, takes place in an abandoned theater (the same theater from La La Land) where the projectionist (Mickey Rourke) unspools five stories of fear helmed by horror masters Alejandro Brugués (The Thing in the Woods), Joe Dante (Mirari), Mick Garris (The Projectionist, Dead), Ryûhei Kitamura (Mashit), and David Slade (This Way To Egress).
Unlike most anthologies where some segments are better than others, given the roster of talent here it’s definitely more of an even playing field, with five solid stories. Kitamura speaks about not only his episode Mashit, but Versus and his cult favorite of the franchise, Godzilla: Final Wars.
First off I have to thank you: when I was a teenager I stumbled onto a VHS copy of Versus at an anime convention and it gave me my love for Japanese cinema and I’ve been following your career ever since.
Wow. Thank you for your support, that was like 20 years ago.
Being such a huge fan of Versus, I have to ask, what were some of your favorite zombie films that inspired it?
My favorite zombie film is actually Day of the Dead. I love that movie. I love Day of the Dead more than Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead. Day of the Dead is the one, and I also love Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness.
So do you still speak to Tak, and are we ever going to get Versus 2 or Down to Hell 3?
There will be no Versus 2. But I am working on a Versus reboot, which is 100 times crazier, bigger. It’s kind of like Mad Max: Fury Road. It’s all new, but the same. So, it is kind of like, Versus: Fury Road, that is what I am working on right now. So, I don’t know when. I have a lot of things going on, but I will do it in the near future.
Versus was my very first movie, and Down to Hell was an amateur movie I did with like five of my friends, we had like $2,000 and we shot it on the High Eight video. Then that won this indie movie festival in Japan, and the festival gave me $20,000, which is a giant step up from $2,000. So that is how we started to do the sequel, Down to Hell 2. But then we started to think about the story and it expanded more, and more, and more. When we finished the script, it didn’t feel like Down to Hell: Part 2, it felt more like something new, something bigger, something cooler. That’s when it transformed into Versus. But the problem was the script I wrote was way too big, there was no way I could only do it with only $20,000. It ended up at like $300,000. I wish I knew how, but I don’t remember how I did it, but I somehow got that money by calling everybody on my cellphone and then asking for money, invest in my movie. Then I got the $300,000, which I paid back, you know.
But when I was making that movie, I was just a crazy 29-year-old filmmaker. No famous actors, no stars, basically it was a bunch of street fighters who starred in that movie. No professional crew in the movie, you know it was just us and a Super 16mm camera. No AD. No producer. No Light. No Slate. No Sound. Nothing.
No Sound?!?!
We just had a silent Super 16 camera and a bunch of street fighters and we locked ourselves in this off-season ski resort for two months. Every time we ran out of money, we would shut down, and I would have to run out and get more money, I don’t know how I did it, but I survived. By the time we finished shooting, I had shot 4,800 setups for that movie, which is insane. 4,800 setups for a silent film, no script supervisor, no nothing.
Even we didn’t know what we had when we finished.
That had to be a nightmare to edit.
The only way to edit this was to use a computer system, which was very rare in Japan 20 years ago. So only a couple of big editors in Japan had an Avid System. We went to this one big editor, who we made an appointment with, and we went to his office and just started unloading this mountain of silent film. He was like, “Who the fuck are you? What is this?” I said not only is this my future, but the future of Japanese cinema. I have 4,800 setups, silent with no slates, so the only way to edit this is to put this into your computer system and I need your help and I have no money. But this movie will change my life and I will pay you back.
He laughed and said he had been in this industry for 30 years and he’s never seen anyone who pays back. So I looked right into his eyes and said, I will be the first. Somehow this big editor believed in me and he did it for free. But I kept my promise, I took him all the way to Godzilla: Final Wars as my editor.
Speaking of which, I have to ask you about Godzilla: Final Wars, one of my favorite Godzilla films, and how you got involved in what was at the time one of the biggest Godzilla films to date in Japan?
Godzilla was really going down in popularity in Japan at the time. So everybody in Japan was actually against me doing a Godzilla film. Everybody was like “Godzilla is already dead, why do you want to do that?” That is how it was in Japan in those days, about 15 years ago. But if you were a Japanese filmmaker, and it was the 50th anniversary, at least for that time it was the final Godzilla movie, and if they ask you to do that how are you going to say no? I was like what the fuck, it’s a Godzilla movie? I have to do it no matter what. I had a blast making that movie.
It was a giant production for a Japanese movie. We had four different units, it was a super complicated project. I am very proud of that movie. The franchise was already dead in Japan, so it didn’t do too well at the Japanese box office, which was very disappointing, because I sacrificed two years of my life making that movie. I am still very proud of that movie.
After 15 years I still get interview and screening requests from all over the world. Yesterday I just did a long interview for Spanish newspaper, so somehow Godzilla: Final Wars didn’t do so well in Japan, but is loved all over the world, which over the years has given me a lot of energy, that I was doing the right thing.
Care to share your thoughts on America’s latest Godzilla, do you think we finally got it right?
(Laughs) I don’t want to speak about other people’s work. That is the only comment I can say about that movie. Of course, I watched it while on a day off, I was in Romania making this action movie, so of course me and my crew went to see the movie, but no comment.
Speaking of the American Godzillla, I have to ask about the ‘96 version Zilla and his brutal demise in Final Wars. I guess the Japanese really hated that iteration.
No, it was just a fun joke for me. I don’t think so. Honestly, I have never met someone who LOVES that movie, but I don’t really remember Japanese were that against that. More like the Kaiju fans all over the world didn’t like that design, but I mean when I watched the movie, I didn’t hate it. I thought it was a big movie and it was fun. They were already doing that Japanese Godzilla, like 20 years ago, I wasn’t a really big fan of the Godzilla movies anymore. I loved them when I was a kid, but somehow I felt like why do you keep doing this old school thing, again and again and again? That is what I thought was the failing of the Godzilla movies in Japan, so I thought the ‘96 Godzilla was already better than the Japanese Godzilla at that time.
But I just didn’t like the fact that he eats tuna. That’s why I beat the shit out of him.
Godzilla does not eat tuna, what are you talking about?
The horror anthology Nightmare Cinema, what was the origin of the project and how did you get involved?
Mick Garris came to the very first in house screening of Midnight Meat Train, 11 years ago. He loved the movie and he welcomed me into a spot on Masters of Horror, which was a very honorable thing for me and we became very good friends over time. We’ve been trying to make this movie version of Masters of Horror for a very long time, and a few years ago he found a partner and he said, “Now it’s ready to go, are you still interested?” I said, “I’m in no matter what that meant!”
They hooked me up with this super talented Mexican writer, Sandra Becerril; she started pitching me tons of ideas, and Mashit was the one I really loved. Because it’s crazy, and it’s hard to believe some super nice woman like Sandra came up with this twisted script. So that is how I got on board.
So what interested you in Catholicism and some of the themes you tackled in your story: sin, faith, redemption, and evil? You actually touched on some of those in Versus as well, strangely enough.
Yes. That’s why I felt it was interesting that this lady from Mexico would send me that idea, particularly, since I am very good at doing it, but I haven’t done it in a while. So I thought that was a great combination, this Mexican writer and Japanese director doing this bloody story about religion and faith. That part really grabbed me, and I love that the final five minutes of the movie goes into this chaotic nightmare, right? I just loved everything about what Sandra did.
I love how, like in a lot of your other films, you managed to introduce an insane fight sword fight sequence, this time involving a Catholic priest and the children at his parish. I was like, is he going to go there? Oh yes, he is going to go there.
(Laughs) I mean, actually believe it or not I was the one asking the producers when I got the script, are you serious about this? Are you going to let me do my job? Which is, I am going to fucking chop off arms, legs, and smash the heads of the kids. You know in the style of Evil Dead. (Laughs) That is what I said. You now I didn’t want this film to get an NC-17 because of my segment. I don’t know why, but nobody stopped me.
The effects were great.
KNB did the special makeup effects, so I asked them to bring the same blood pump they used on Kill Bill. And that is what they did. Whatever body parts and blood you used on Kill Bill, bring it! They did and it was fun! Exploding blood and heads and legs, it was crazy.
Was it a real church?
Yes. We were shooting in the church where they actually shot John Carpenter’s The Fog. That church. I was like shit, this is amazing! This kind church let us do all the crazy things we did in the movie.
What was the shooting like on Mashit?
It was very chaotic because every director had only five days to shoot. It was in and out, Monday was started shooting and Friday we wrapped, and my segment had that huge action sequence, which basically I had to do that in a day. It was very tough, but fun.
That’s insane.
Yeah, yeah, it’s all I had.
I know you’re always super busy, what’s next up for you?
I came back to LA three days ago, I was in Romania for three months doing this action movie called The Doorman with Ruby Rose and Jean Reno.
Wow, that’s a great duo there.
I had a blast. It’s a female version of Die Hard, and Ruby Rose just kicks everyone’s ass, and I got the chance to work with a legend, Jean Reno. That was a dream come true every day. I just came back, so I am in the middle of editing that right now, and I am supposed to jump into my next movie this fall.
This interview was edited for clarity.