actors-from-japan

"Being on stage, singing on stage makes me the happiest."

"To act in a language that I’m not fully immersed in, not fully fluent in, it does pose a bit of a challenge. It does have some good in it as well; there are pros and cons actually. But I do believe if there is a point that I could just be acting like I would in Japanese, but in English, I’m sure that would be so much fun and exciting. One major challenge is that I can’t just do an ad-lib, I can’t do it off the cuff, so really that’s the difference. But it is exciting."

"For me, being an actor and being a reggae musician are two flowers blooming from the same root. I see it as my strongest asset in order to make the world a better place. Acting and being a musician is like being an instrument mixing dreams and reality."

"Japanese fans are more quiet. American fans are very enthusiastic and speak openly."

"It is a joy to me that children whose parents are in their thirties or forties become aware that I am in some of the Godzilla films when they see them on VHS tape or laserdisc. Children often point and say, "Hey, it's Uncle Godzilla!" when they see me. It's very heartwarming."

"I can't choose any particular roles. I enjoyed all of them. I think it's very important for an actor to be able to enjoy playing many different kinds of characters."

"All directors always try to do their best. The kind of movie on which they are working does not matter. Directors are limited by the size of the production budget and the amount of time that they have to shoot a film, but they always try to do their best within those constraints."

"It`s Godzilla`s duplicity, not just as a destroyer, but also as a victim, that made him a character cherished by people all over the world."

"I have the same attitude toward acting in television and in movies. For me, the only difference is the size of the screen."

"When you discard yourself, real love comes into relief."

"In my house, I was surrounded by actors, by nothing but talk of plays and performances, so I felt it was more advantageous to go in that direction, now, I can’t quit."

"I began to feel that it was time for me to retire at the end of production on GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA. I noticed that I was beginning to lack the three powers needed to play Godzilla. My physical power was diminishing because of my age, and my spiritual and performance powers were diminishing because of budgetary constraints and interpersonal problems. It was difficult for me to approach my work with enthusiasm and energy. It didn't matter how much kendo I did."

"The special effects are more sophisticated. The materials and techniques used to construct the monster costumes and miniature sets have improved, and we now use computer graphics. However, the earlier Godzilla films are much more profound. I think the reason for this is the fact that the people who worked on them experienced World War II firsthand. Shinichi Sekizawa served in the South Pacific, and Mr. Honda was a prisoner of war in China for quite some time. The earlier films also are more detailed. For example, there are more reaction shots in them. The expressions on people's faces are shown more often, and the effects of the monsters' actions are shown more often. On the other hand, the newer movies are more contemporary in that they address current issues such as bio-technology and environmental destruction. The earlier films didn't do that as much."

"I was amazed that the miniature set constructed for GAMERA - THE GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE was so tiny. It's hard to believe that a film made with such a tiny set could receive such good reviews!"

"I'm currently working on a book that will be published by the Kindai Yumei Company. I haven't chosen a title yet, but the book will be about Godzilla-do, which really isn't all that different from some aspects of kendo and judo."

"Be Godzilla. Don't do anything else. Write books about playing Godzilla, talk to reporters about playing Godzilla, but don't do anything else. Just be Godzilla."

"I have now done seven films as Godzilla, and I believe I have achieved most everything I have wanted to do inside the costume... Most importantly, I have always felt Godzilla should express its emotions, which is very difficult given the range of movements and expressions the suit can make. So, whatever Godzilla does - roaring, spewing his radiation breath, communicating with Godzilla Junior - I always try to add little movements that will show his emotional state, like moving his fingers, or a short glance. The Heisei Godzilla [has] a very different personality than the old Godzilla. He is very animalistic, always in motion. But I believe Godzilla is a very emotional creature."

"Shortly after I was offered the role, I realized that although it would be possible to replace all of the members of the staff and all of the other actors, it would not be possible to replace me. I also realized that if I didn't go into work because I was sick, none of the members of the special effects staff would be able to do their work. All of this gave me a tremendous sense of pride."

"Katsumi Tezuka and I both tried on the Godzilla costume during the first day of shooting. The costume was very stiff and heavy. I could walk about thirty feet in it, but Mr. Tezuka could only walk about ten feet in it. There were three cables coming out of the back of the costume. Two were for the operation of the eyes, and one was for the operation of the mouth. Eizo Kaimai was responsible for the movement of the eyes and the mouth. The ASA speed of the film that was used at the time was very slow, so the set had to be very brightly lit. Another actor complained that the lights made it too hot inside the costume, but I never complained. Batteries were installed in the Godzilla costume that was made for the second Godzilla movie. They were for the operation of the eyes and the mouth. The batteries made the costume even heavier than the one that had been constructed for the first Godzilla film."

"Working on GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN was easier for me. The Godzilla costume that was built for the movie was made to fit me, whereas the one that had been built for GODZILLA - KING OF THE MONSTERS had not been made to fit me. The most difficult aspect of working on GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN for me was shooting the ending. I had to stand in the middle of the set while a large amount of crushed ice came tumbling down on me."

"Since Hedorah was supposed to be a monster created by pollution instead of an animal, I tried to avoid portraying him as an animal. I tried to make him seem spooky and grotesque."

"It was helpful for me to study the movements of only large species. Smaller species, unlike Godzilla, Varan, and so on, move very quickly. So, it wasn't helpful for me to study them."

"Playing Godzilla for GODZILLA - KING OF THE MONSTERS was very difficult. Playing Rodan also was difficult because the legs of birds, unlike those of human beings, bend backward."

"My stomach was very badly burned when we filmed the shot of a truck exploding underneath Varan."

"Mr. Kurosawa would spend an entire day filming one shot. None of the other directors with whom I worked would do that. Working with Mr. Kurosawa was like working on a play instead of a movie. We would spend a great deal of time rehearsing. It was torturous."

"Mr. Tsuburaya was a gentleman. He was very charismatic. Mr. Tsuburaya would never express his anger at me or the other monster actors. However, he would express his anger at the members of his staff. Mr. Tsuburaya often pretended to be asleep when he in fact was just thinking about his work. Once he had decided what he wanted to do, he would pretend to wake up. He then would begin giving instructions to the members of his staff. There were two things Mr. Tsuburaya hated. One was snakes and the other was bloodshed. I remember that someone once asked Mr. Tsuburaya why he never showed bloodshed in the monster films on which he worked. Mr. Tsuburaya replied that he never showed it because he knew that children went to see the movies. One day, a Toho employee suggested that the studio produce a film about a giant snake. Mr. Tsuburaya didn't like the idea, so the movie was never made. Mr. Tsuburaya would try to inspire the people with whom he worked. His inspiration helped me keep playing giant monsters for eighteen years."

"Mr. Honda, like Mr. Tsuburaya, was a gentleman. He was very likeable. Mr. Kurosawa always told the actors with whom he worked exactly what to do, but Mr. Honda would give those with whom he worked as much freedom as he could. That's the way Mr. Tsuburaya worked as well."

"I based the choreography I did for WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS on the techniques of professional wrestlers. I think it turned out very well."

"When I was playing Godzilla, we would show him wrestling with the other monsters. These days Godzilla and the other monsters only are shown firing their rays at each other. Period films are enjoyable because they feature sword battles. Westerns are enjoyable because they feature gun battles. The recent Godzilla movies are like period films without swords and westerns without guns."

"I controlled [Rodan's] wings with my arms. While we were shooting the scene in which Rodan flies over the bridge in Saikai Village in Kyushu, the pulley from which I was suspended broke. I fell from a height of twenty-five feet, but the wings and the water, which was about one and a half feet deep, absorbed much of the impact."

"The Godzilla costume constructed for GODZILLA 1985 was made to fit a much larger man, but he quit just before production was scheduled to begin. So, I took over the role. This, along with the fact that the costume weighed two hundred and forty-five pounds, limited what I could do in it. The Godzilla costume constructed for GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE, on the other hand, was made to fit me. In addition, it weighed only one hundred and eighty pounds. I felt that the GODZILLA 1985 costume controlled me, but I controlled the GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE one."

"[Portraying Godzilla in the water] is the most dangerous part of my job. If I fell over, I could drown. I would never be able to get back up with the Godzilla costume on."

"I really envy the members of the production departments of American movie studios. Their ideas are better, and they are given much more time to work on films."

"I hope that we some day will have a big budget and a lot of time in which to do our work. It is my dream to have an American staff and a Japanese staff work together to create a Godzilla film."

"[Godzilla kenpo] is a combination of karate and the kinds of moves I make while playing Godzilla. I developed it to help me from becoming too worn out while playing Godzilla."

"I asked Mr. Honda to direct the next Godzilla film at a party that was held shortly before he died. He said that he would. I don't know how serious he was."

"Godzilla is an outrageous monster that is played by an outstanding guy! I am a little short, but in my heart burns the spirit of the samurai."

"I was surprised that Godzilla was going to die on land instead of in the ocean, which was his cradle. I think it's natural for Godzilla to die because he is a living thing, but I envisioned his death differently. My idea was based on the legend of the tomb of elephants. According to the legend, when an elephant begins to feel that he is going to die, he secretly goes to the tomb. I envisioned Godzilla returning to the South Pacific when he began to feel that his end was coming. There then would have been some implication that Godzilla had died."

"I had to wear an oxygen mask both in the water and on land because of the carbon monoxide. I fainted four times during the first day of filming. We were shooting the scene in which Godzilla emerges from the water as he approaches Hong Kong. I wasn't warned about the carbon monoxide, so I wasn't wearing an oxygen mask. We were shooting in water, so nobody could just run up to me when they saw me acting strangely. We were filming a long shot, so nobody was very close to me. The members of the staff didn't realize I'd fainted that first time until they started opening up the costume so I could get out."

"I think my performances did keep getting better. I also think that I managed to give Godzilla a distinct character. I'm very proud of that."

"Yukio Mishima is one of my favourite authors. It's not his suicide I'm obsessed with. We've got enough reference points there. I like the fact that he was coming to the end — he knew that he was working on his last novel. He knew that was the sum of everything he'd ever done. I like the fact that he saw the end of the road. I like to feel that you do follow your years out and you do get your answer in the end."

"The author is very young in years. I prefer not to disclose just what sort of person he is, for I believe it best not to. For those who insist on knowing, I will say only that he is one of us, a youthful version of ourselves. That young men like this are emerging in Japan is a joy too great for words. And for those with no confidence in our national literature, his advent will come as an overwhelming surprise. But there is no cause for surprise: the truth is that this young man is heir to Japan's everlasting history. Though far younger than we, he emerges fully mature. And it is from ourselves that he is born."

"What transforms this world is — knowledge. Do you see what I mean? Nothing else can change anything in this world. Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world, while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is. When you look at the world with knowledge, you realize that things are unchangeable and at the same time are constantly being transformed. You may ask what good it does us. Let's put it this way — human beings possess the weapon of knowledge in order to make life bearable. For animals such things aren't necessary. Animals don't need knowledge or anything of the sort to make life bearable. But human beings do need something, and with knowledge they can make the very intolerableness of life a weapon, though at the same time that intolerableness is not reduced in the slightest. That's all there is to it."

"His devotion to bushido (the "way of warriors"), sacred monarchy and ascetic Buddhist traditions coincided with a media-savvy, role-playing, club-hopping hunger for celebrity that could have had Andy Warhol kowtowing in homage. With Mishima scarcely the wafer breadth of an antique sword-blade separated high art from screamingly high camp."

"Let us remember that the central reality must be sought in the writer's work: it is what the writer chose to write, or was compelled to write, that finally matters. And certainly Mishima's carefully premeditated death is part of his work."

"In the highly conformist culture of Japan, Yukio Mishima stands out. He was, for example, a homosexual — who thought it his duty to marry and breed. He is also Japan's most renowned novelist whose very Japanese industry produced 40 novels, 20 volumes of stories and many essays in only 22 years of writing. But Mishima is most famous not for his life, but for his death by ritual suicide, or hara-kiri... Mishima's final act was a political protest against the liberalisation that has continued, slowly, in Japan. It was also a deep and dark aesthetic deed. Mishima was a narcissist, and wanted to beautify his body in death."

"There is something that even now strikes me as strange. Originally I was not possessed by gloomy thoughts. My concern, what confronted me with my real problem, was beauty alone. But I do not think that the war affected me by filling my mind with gloomy thoughts. When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made."

"We Japanese must reveal the true form of our imperial land, in which the sovereign and the people are gloriously united. We must become an example of the freedom, the peace, the happiness, and the spiritual enlightenment desired by every nation in the world and every race. It is our heaven-sent mission to stake our lives on our faith in the emperor and to guard the prosperity of our Imperial Throne. Therein resides our greatness, our sublimity."

"‘The human body is the work of art. It doesn’t need artists.’ But the artist replies: ‘Okay, let’s say you’re right. What good does your sweating and grunting do. Even the most beautiful body is destroyed by age. Where is beauty then? Only art makes human beauty endure. You must devise an artist’s scheme to preserve it. You must commit suicide at the height of your beauty.’"

"I've never done much, but I've lived my whole life thinking of myself as the only real man. And if I'm right, then a limpid, lonely horn is going to trumpet through the dawn some day, and a turgid cloud laced with light will sweep down, and the poignant voice of glory will call for me from the distance — and I'll have to jump out of bed and set out alone. That's why I've never married. I've waited, and waited, and here I am past thirty."