Tsukamoto Shinya on Independence, 'Tetsuo' and Why He Can't Leave War Films

Tsukamoto Shinya told a masterclass audience at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival that the state of the world keeps pulling him back to war films. "The theme of war wasn't something that I was going to linger on this long, I was going to be happy just creating 'Fires on the Plain,'" he said. "But it's the state of the world which made me continue to focus on war."

The talk, moderated by TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo, traced the director's career from his 1989 breakout "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" to his second English-language feature, "Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?," which played in competition at Venice in September.

How was 'Tetsuo' actually made?

Tsukamoto shot the film on 16mm, before digital VFX existed. "No CG. We had a little bit of tokusatsu [practical special effects] technology at the time but this didn't use any of that, this used stuff which was thrown out on the street and we basically stuck it on [Taguchi Tomorowo]'s face," he said. The famous shots of Taguchi gliding through the streets, he added, should be thought of "as really rough stop motion."

The film took about a year to complete, but the director worked much of the final stretch alone. "The time we spent with the crew was shorter, a lot of the time towards the end I was working alone – like the sparks flying off at the end, that was something I worked on alone," he said.

Ichiyama called "Tetsuo" a "shock" — less for its body horror than for the fact that a film of that quality could come out of Japan's independent scene at the time. Its festival run led to Tsukamoto's second feature, the higher-budget horror film "Hiruko the Goblin."

Why did he stay independent?

Tsukamoto turned down studio offers after "Tetsuo" and has kept producing films like "Bullet Ballet" and "Tokyo Fist" on his own terms. "I did receive offers [from studios] but I didn't want to become a director for hire, I didn't think that suited me, and there's certain things you want to do as a filmmaker," he said. "You want to be able to play with the material to maintain that interest, that first impulse... I think my impulse as a creator is stronger with my own material, which is why I went down that path."

His 2014 war film "Fires on the Plain" — based on an Ooka Shohei novel that Ichikawa Kon adapted in 1959 — was made independently, shot partly in the Philippines, partly in Okinawa and the rest in Saitama Prefecture. He had chased the project for decades: "I wanted to do this from my teens to my 20s to my 30s, I went to the Philippines to try [to] finance it in my 40s, and in my 50s."

Determined to reach audiences, he tried self-distribution, using social media. He planned a handful of small theaters but was persuaded to open in 40 cinemas, eventually expanding to 80.

What comes next?

"Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?" took about seven years to complete. Tsukamoto found the story — a New Yorker who joins the Marines at 18 and is haunted by Vietnam — while making "Fires on the Plain," but COVID-19 and the Hollywood actors' strike delayed it long enough that "Shadow of Fire," originally planned as a follow-up, was released first. Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush and Lily Franky star.

Asked for advice, Tsukamoto pointed to digital tools. In his youth, much of the budget went to film processing; now that money can go elsewhere. "Anything is a canvas now, [whether] it's done by a grammar school student or Van Gogh," he said, citing YouTube as proof of what can be made without a budget.

On wearing multiple hats behind the camera, he credits efficient communication and time management — but the real reason is simpler. "Filmmaking is an accumulation of everything I love," he said. And although he once hinted at moving away from darker themes, he admitted: "I don't think I can pry myself away from it."