"I had lived in Fukuoka during the mid 1990s, and I was a volunteer with the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival"
"I didn't really discover yakuza films until about five or six years ago"
"Since my Japanese isn't very good, I had to have an interpreter to communicate with most of the crew"
"As you can probably tell, I like films and directors that bring a totally unique style to filming action"
"And, of course, supernatural elements just make a story more interesting"
"To me, Shakespeare uses the supernatural elements to reveal his character's inner desires and fears"
"The awesomeness of God is that even in the works of the Beach Boys, Beatles, etc., the beauty of the music is a mere reflection of what God does everyday. He creates music of all kinds and moods"
"There aren't many American directors here trying to direct a Japanese yakuza film. When you combine that with the fact that I don't speak much Japanese and this was an independent film I was financing myself - people were curious about what I was doing"
