What are movies for you?

This is before I joined The AP, but I had an opportunity as a young reporter to ask an aging Akira Kurosawa a question: What is filmmaking for you? 監督にとって映画とはなんですか？

I got to tell that exact story in my recent AP story when I interviewed Hirokazu Kore-eda. Kore-eda of course asked: What was Kurosawa’s answer? I pretended to be surprised: 監督それききます?! You would ask; wouldn’t you? Kore-eda said: Come on, the way we are talking now このながれでは that’s the inevitable question. So I told him how Kurosawa had replied with a childlike but faraway look on his face, as though he was talking to no one in particular, maybe himself: If you take movies away from me, I am left with nothing. 僕から映画をとったらなにものこらないから。And Kore-eda instantly remarked: すばらしい！before he gave his answer about how lucky he was that he has his beloved hobby for a job. That interaction and his answer close my AP story.

I asked the same question to Kiyoshi Kurosawa, too. And the funny thing was that he didn’t ask what Akira Kurosawa’s answer was _ the entire opposite of Kore-eda’s reaction. He gave his own answer, which is the top part of the story, about how movies are an eternal mystery, and that’s why he keeps making them. Then I asked him: Aren’t you going to ask what Akira Kurosawa said? And then Kiyoshi Kurosawa said: Well, can I ask? Is it OK? So I said: Of course, I was more surprised you didn’t ask. Which goes to show what a nice person he is. When I told him what Akira Kurosawa had said, he said: うまいこというな。Which translates to: Hey, what a clever answer. It’s telling how his answer was a bit different from how Kore-eda had said すばらしい which just means “Fantastic!”

I’m going to keep asking this same question every time I get to interview a great Japanese auteur. BTW Kiyoshi Kurosawa said he had fun being interviewed. たのしかった he said. I’ve lived life and played reporter long enough I get to have fun now and then. Coincidentally an online “memory” popped up about the Akira Kurosawa Question. That said I’d asked: Why do you keep making movies? 監督はなぜ映画をとり続けるのですか？ It’s asking the same thing, but maybe a better question for the stage he was in _ both his life and career as a director. So next time I interview a legendary Japanese director, I would have to ask both questions.