Shusuke Kaneko has had a fascinating career. Getting his start in pinku films back in the 80’s, with titles like I’m All Yours and Itazura Lolita: Ushirokara Virgin, and transitioning into horror with a guest slot in the portmanteau H.P. Lovecraft film Necronomicon, he found his calling with the amazing mid-90s Gamera trilogy. Kaneko’s Gamera was heroic, but a force of nature, bringing awe and destruction to the traditionally more kid-friendly turtle knock-off of Godzilla. The trilogy deservedly made his reputation - Gamera 2: The Advent of Legion in particular is easily one of the best kaiju films ever made - and let to a his directing the best of the modern Godzilla films - Godzilla-Mothra-King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (though Kaneko confirmed to me that he would preferred to use Varan and Anguilus but that Toho insisted on Mothra and Ghidorah because of their popularity).

Kaneko has worked on a number of projects recently, but by far the biggest has been his phenomenally successful two-part adaptation of the Death Note manga series. The Death Notes are notebooks, usually owned only by the invisible Gods of Death. The notebooks, and their human finders/possessors, are governed by a series of arcane rules - most importantly that when a name is written in the notebook, that person will die shortly thereafter. The plot is a battle of wits between two junior geniuses - Light Yagami, a young pre-law student who finds the notebook and sets out to eliminate all criminals, and L, a mysterious teenage Sherlock Holmes. The battle escalates as they use increasingly ruthless methods and all resources at their disposal, human or otherwise, to unmask and destroy each other.

CSB’s David Austin recently had the chance to sit down with Shusuke Kaneko for an in-depth interview about the Death Note films when he visited New York for the Subway Cinema New York Asian Film Festival and the Japan Society’s new Japan Cuts festival.

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CSB: I am curious how you became involved in the Death Note project.

Kaneko: A Japanese media company – Nihon Terebi [Japan Television] – got the copyright on the Death Note manga after going through a very harsh competition because it was such a popular comic book. After they got the copyright, about a year later, I got the job offer. Perhaps it was partly because the Nihon Terebi producer involved was a big fan of the Gamera series. Nihon Terebi was also involved in the Gamera films – this producer had made a commercial for the films. I was very happy to get the offer.

CSB: The Death Note atmosphere is so different from the Gamera films. Why do you think the producers thought of you, as opposed to a director who had more experience with thrillers.

Kaneko: My own feeling is that it is because I am capable of taking something that is very hard to believe, and bringing it into the reality of film. For example, look at the Gamera monster movies. Kaiju films are extremely hard to imagine as if they are real, but I knew how to make it look and sound like it was real. I think that is the connection to the Death Note films.

CSB: Had you read the manga before?

Kaneko: My son is in junior high school right now, but back when he was in 5th grade, a couple of years ago, he introduced me to the first volume of Death Note. He said it was very interesting. I read it and said, okay, it is going to be very tough to make a movie out of this. That was my first impression, because it was really hard to follow.

CSB: Is it that complexity that made you decide to make it a two-part movie?

Kaneko: From the very beginning, the producers insisted on making two films out of the comic book. Speaking of the complexity of the storyline, it was not easy to make it into two films. So when everyone was writing the script for the second film, I even asked the producer if we could make it three films. But the producer said no, it had to be two, and they had the final word. And now, thinking about it, it was a really good decision.

CSB: Did you have any trouble deciding where to cut the story in half?

Kaneko: The story itself is all about the encounter and the struggle and the fight between L and Light. At the end of the first movie, they finally come face-to-face. The first movie is all about fighting and struggling in a remote situation, and then the second one is their face-to-face encounter, seeing each other every day, and they are still fighting and struggling for power. So it is a totally different approach. The decision was more interesting than tough.

CSB: Were the two films shot at the same time?

Kaneko: It was completely different. The first, we had a script, then shot it, finalized it, then wrote the second script.

CSB: Were all the cast lined up for both?

Kaneko: A casting condition was that if you’re in the first film, you will be in the second. Especially for the lead actor, Tatsuya Fujiwara, his schedule was pretty tight. Last year from February to March, he was shooting a film, from April to May, he was on the stage, and then from June to July, he was shooting again.

CSB: How did you end up with Fujiwara? I’ve only seen him in Battle Royale before.

Kaneko: He is extremely popular in Japan, especially among the middle-aged women. He’s that kind of character. But before I got the offer, Fujiwara-san was already booked as the leading actor, and that’s partially because his production company was investing in this film. So it was already decided before I was involved.

CSB: Is his audience the same demographic as all the Korean pop idols?

Kaneko: That’s right.

CSB: Was there any kind of reaction to him playing against type as a villain, or an anti-hero?

Kaneko: People enjoyed it because he was a villain. I remember that one of the script supervisors working on the scene, a middle-aged woman, especially when Fujiwara-san would make that villainous, devilish face, she thought he was so cool. So it worked that way.

CSB: So evil is cool as long as it is stylish?

Kaneko: Compare the role of a movie to our daily life. If you actually met a villainous guy in real life, you might be scared. However, psychologically, in a very twisted way, this woman who works in the film industry thought he was very cool when he made a devilish face - spoiler - while using and killing his girlfriend - end spoiler.

CSB: Maybe the film will improve his reputation as a bad boy.

Kaneko: It depends on his production company and his strategy, but I have a feeling that he’s going to be a good guy for his next film (laughs).

CSB: I noticed that the other main character, L, while more of a “good guy,” also had some dark edges in that he’s very cold in the way he is willing to sacrifice other characters. Was it intentional to not provide a protagonist that audiences could fully identify with?

Kaneko: Well, in a broader sense, especially in the publicity, the film was marketed as a “battle of the geniuses.” But what I see as a director is not exactly that. It’s more like two kids. They are very, very young and I feel sorry for them because they have their own problems and issues, and these poor kids are playing a game, a murder game, using other people. That’s how I see them, and it is pretty disgusting. However, on them I projected the gaze of the adult, Light’s father, who is desperate to understand what is going on. In real life, if I saw Light and L at the same time, perhaps I would like Light, because he seems nice and L is creepy.

CSB: As a father, with a son in junior high school, do you empathize with the father when he doesn’t know what his children are up to, and they seem to be doing good things on the surface, but there is a lot going on that he doesn’t know about as a parent?

Kaneko: Oh, I understand and sympathize, but my son is not as good or bad as Light. He’s not at that level yet (laughs).

CSB: Can you tell me where you found Kenichi Matsuyama (“L”)? I thought his performance was terrific.

Kaneko: I hadn’t yet decided whether he was going to be cast, but I had half decided based on the recommendation of the production company. Matsuyama-san’s previous resume was playing totally different characters. For example, he was in a World War II movie, Yamato, about the symbolic warship from WWII, he played a soldier in that. I saw that film and was not that inspired, but when I met the real Matsuyama-san, I decided to cast him as L. Matsuyama-san is a really interesting and honest character.

CSB: I heard there was going to be a prequel starring L. Are you involved?

Kaneko: I’m not involved at all. Hideo Nakata, who directed Ring, will be directing it. Although it features L, it will have nothing to do with the Death Note. The producers want to make something completely different and separate.

CSB: How faithful did you have to be to the Death Note manga? Did you want to make any changes, and were you able to?

Kaneko: One condition of directing the film was that I could not touch or alter the rules of the Death Note. I had a free hand to change the story, which was good. However, keeping the rules was an extremely difficult task because when the original comic was written, they added to and changed around the rules as the story developed, so they had a freedom to adjust the rules. But I couldn’t change the rules, just the story, which was really tough.

CSB: Was there something specific you would have liked to change in the rules?

Kaneko: For example, in the original script that was prepared which I worked on, after finding the Death Note, Tatsuya Fujiwara thinks “this is ridiculous, a big joke” and throws the Death Note away in a trashcan. The next morning, he sees the newspaper and realized that the man whose name he had written was actually dead, so he panicked and ran after the trash collector to get the notebook. That was in the original script – however I was blocked because it was against the rules. The rules say that if you discard the notebook, you lose your memory. So they were really, really strict on that point. I had to make an arrangement where he didn’t discard it, he just left it somewhere (laughs).

CSB: You used CGI for the Gods of Death in the Death Note films, and you used a mix of computer effects, and rubber suits and other practical effects in your other movies. Which do you prefer and why?

Kaneko: What I actually asked for was to use the computer graphic technology so that it would look like the Gods of Death were wearing rubber suits. Of course I prefer rubber suits. I thought by using computer graphics to create characters that looked like people in rubber suits would look good, so that’s what I tried for in this production. Especially since if you stick to rubber suits, the movement of the characters is more restricted. So the combination of the computer graphics with the look of a rubber suit was very effective. But if you’re asking what I prefer, I prefer rubber suits.

CSB: This is kind of a silly question, but obviously the characters in the film who have the Death Note choose to use it to eliminate criminals, as opposed to, say, for political purposes to go after presidents or world leaders. I’m curious what you would do if you had the Death Note?

Kaneko: I could come up with a couple of names right away, on the spot. Puts a little bit of a chill in the air (laughs). If I were to say the names, we’d stop laughing.

CSB: A couple of people in the film industry?

Kaneko: Kinda (laughs).

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Thanks to Grady Hendrix of Subway Cinema and Mika and Kuniko of the Japan Society for their assistance.

© David Austin