Sadistic and Masochistic

---

I worked with you on a total of three

films back then.

MASARU KONUMA - FILM DIRECTOR

I noticed that during preproduction,

you were very mild,

very inoffensive.

I wasn't aware of that.

But I've noticed that for myself,

sometimes when I'm on the set,

I become sadistic.

I start getting aggressive

or being offensive.

What about you?

I don't do it on purpose.

The night before filming,

I do a "shoot" in my head.

It's amazing.

Everybody does exactly as I want them to.

The reality is quite different.

It tends to disappoint me.

Does that ever emerge

in your everyday life?

Do you ever become aggressive?

Never.

I've never picked a fight.

Maybe I would if someone

started shouting abuse at me,

or if told to "grin and bear it."

Not me. I don't. No way.

I find myself getting masochistic

on a shoot.

I'd have to say

sometimes I get that too.

A touch of masochism in my personality.

SADISTIC & MASOCHISTIC

Fifteen years ago, in midsummer,

we shot Woman in the Box right here.

It was the hottest spell

of the entire summer.

Just here,

at the east exit of Shinjuku Station.

Record temperatures that day.

It got to 41 degrees centigrade.

Scorching hot.

The film had hardly any budget at all,

so I did something we're not supposed to do.

HIDEO NAKATA - ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

I dashed off to a pub

for ice water.

The cast and crew

were on the verge of heatstroke.

We parked the van just here.

Inside, they were filming

the sadistic sex scene.

The scene required the vehicle

to be parked here.

We put barriers all along here

to stop the passersby

from actually seeing inside.

The reason why we put curtains up

was to conceal the sex scene,

and also we wanted to shoot the passersby

with the station as a backdrop.

What was the director like?

On set, he was quite demanding.

He wanted aggressive acting.

I suppose you could say he was sadistic.

That was my only impression of him.

He considers love scenes

to be important to the story.

While we were shooting,

he came across as being irritated.

No!

They can see everything.

SAEKO KIZUKI - ACTRESS

It was 41 degrees-

no air conditioning.

It was hot.

But I've always loved the sauna,

so I didn't actually mind the heat.

I thought of it like a sauna.

Hello there.

Good to see you again.

Filming already?

Where were you born?

Up in Otaru, Hokkaido.

What's your family history?

My family?

I lived with my mother and father.

Then, as you know,

WWII started in 1941.

My father taught school before the war.

Then he got drafted into the army.

Within a year,

he was repatriated and died of TB.

I have no memories of him.

There was a festival

when I was six or seven.

The most erotic thing back then

was the film of a birth.

- A baby being born?

- Yeah.

They had this barker out front.

"Roll up and see everything!"

Then he'd give us a tiny glimpse

of what to expect.

It made us all the more eager

to watch the film.

We couldn't afford tickets.

So all of us kids

were hanging around outside.

We were so eager,

but could only catch the occasional glimpse.

In all, there were three films

on giving birth,

but you could hardly make out

what was on screen.

Maybe the producers did it on purpose,

but it looked like it was raining

on the screen.

Those prints would have

been ancient by then.

They'd been dragged around

the carnival circuit for years.

In his teens,

Konuma's mother remarried.

She told him to leave home.

She sent me off to Tokyo when I was 15.

In those days, there was no TV.

I had no idea about Tokyo.

It was as distant to me

as Africa or Alaska is to kids today.

I didn't want to go. I cried.

In Tokyo, I soon got homesick,

so I started going to the movies.

It was a way to forget the loneliness.

The locations were the pits!

I sent a crew out carrying a big crowbar-

walking down the streets swinging that bar.

When we came across a manhole,

we opened it.

Then in Takadanobaba or Shibuya, I think,

we found an outlet

on the side of a storm drain.

I sent the crew in there to check it out.

They looked so miserable,

all hunched over.

It smelled really bad.

That stink was just so depressing.

I remember one funny incident there.

We all arrived on location

just after midnight.

Ejima was standing on the road

with a big crowbar.

He pried open a manhole

and said, "Here it is."

Everyone did a double take.

Then they climbed down there.

There seemed to be no place

to rig up the lights.

I had my doubts.

We needed two sewers converging,

and that was the best he could find.

You reckoned that, for a drain,

the water was very clean.

So you built a dam down there.

Help!

No one will help you.

The monster is coming to eat you.

There's no escape.

Can you cross the water, Michiyo?

Raw sewage from all over the city.

Dip your foot in it.

Listen to me.

It is fouled with piss, sh*t and blood.

Animal blood and waste.

Menstrual blood.

That's the first I've heard

that they built a dam.

Weird dialogue!

Help! I beg you.

I'll do whatever you say.

Please.

Please help me.

You really sounded like you'd had enough.

I didn't have to act!

There were swarms of wriggling maggots

down there.

- You didn't know?

- No, I-

You were there only briefly.

The director kept only

the crew he needed.

Right. You all left.

It wasn't so bad

when the entire crew was down there.

Then everyone left,

and the camera started rolling.

I was psyching myself up for the scene,

getting into character.

Then I noticed

on the wall of the tunnel-

At first, it didn't register.

Then I noticed

the moving mass was maggots.

I swear.

I realized I'd leaned up against them,

touched them!

I was terrified.

It shows in the shot.

The thing about shooting on location-

compared to everyday life,

it's another world.

I really like that "reality gap."

The whole atmosphere on a shoot

is like a carnival.

On any shoot, everyone becomes fanatical.

But Konuma's crew gets even more intense.

They have to,

to keep up with his energy levels.

The ocean?

What will you do next?

I remember that scene.

I was drowsy.

That was my big chance.

I fell asleep inside the box.

It was so relaxing,

just the right temperature.

When the box was opened,

I had to say my line.

I was thinking that while I was sleeping.

HIROSHI HANZAWA - PRODUCER

I might be the only one

who thought so at the time,

but Konuma's crew

were all over the place.

Then the female lead,

that actress Saeko Kizuki-

her natural character seemed

to bring the production into harmony.

In high school, Konuma watched movies.

He studied in the art department

of Nihon University.

In 1961, he joined Nikkatsu

as an assistant director.

In the same year,

producer Yuki and director Tanaka

all joined Nikkatsu around the same time.

OHARA TANAKA KONUMA YUKI

Diligent Yuki, slovenly Ohara,

OHARA TANAKA KONUMA YUKI

faithful Tanaka, reckless Konuma.

A perfect description.

I didn't deliberately strike that pose.

Once I yelled and threw a book at Hasebe.

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