An Evening With Kojiro Abe
by Anton Phibes

Hello folks, the Kojiro Abe interview I've been working on for months is finally here! (Or one that I haven't been working on rather, if I had, it would have been up earlier.) It all started in the late november of 2003 when I was summoned to Kojiro Abes secret lair. Wandering around the wide Massachusetts, I only had to follow the stream of white panties and the distant sound of japanese schoolgirls giggling to find the seedy home of Kojiro Abe, the Abe Studios. I will skip my adventures with the schoolgirls and get right to the interview.

AP: First of all, tell us Who is Kojiro Abe, and where does he come from?

Kojiro Abe: Well, my real name is actually not Kojiro Abe, it's Jules Carrozza. Kojiro Abe is really just a nom-de-plume I chose it since I always wanted to live and work in Japan. At times I honestly wish I had been born in Japan, I really wish I could have taken part in tokusatsu (SFX) and anime productions. I know some people on the Collective seemed to think that I was Japanese, but in fact I was born in Massachusettes. And my company isn't called Abe Studios, it's Basement Productions, though so far the only actual staff member here at Basement Productions is me, and my HQ is my lonely room in the basement (hence the name, since I edit my films down here).
My childhood was fairly normal, aside from the fact I have a little something called Asperger's Syndrome that rendered me a self-absorbed, socially indept, obsessive dweeb. I did alright in school and had some friends until around 7th grade. I become increasingly withdrawn, became addicted to Pokemon and very emotional and agressive. I don't really want to speak much about my painful teenager years, let's just say I spent a week in a mental hospital for a variety of reasons, was almost kicked out of the house by my parents and spent a year in a school for juvinile delinquints, where I met a variety of bizarre characters, some of which actually inspired some characters in my films. Finally I settled down and became homeschooled and basically did alright for a while, though this year I fell into a depression caused by my on and off speech problems and some harsh criticisms of my work on the internet.
My interest in filmmaking started at around age six, when I saw the orignal Godzilla movie. Throughout my childhood I wanted to make Godzilla movies. I literally adored Godzilla and was so obsessed it really interfered with my homelife. I started making some horrible stop motion "movies" when I saw about 9 with my Godzilla figurines (I liked Harryhausen a lot too when I was a little kid, Valley of Gwangi was one of my favorite movies). These films were terrible, most of them revolved around monsters and were totally improvised. When I was 10, 11 and 12 I made lots more of these terrible improvised stop motion shit. I also tried making some fan episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (sorry Anton, I know you hate it), which I was absolutly obsessed with in my early teen years. When I was 14 I finally attempted some more serious filmmaking by creating a slasher film called The Plastic Man. I got in trouble for doing some crazy things while filming it and thus couldn't make any films for about another year. That was when I got the idea make another little infamous film about fucking puppets, which I followed by a little film called The Big Toe inspired by this spooky urban legend I had found quite memorable as a kid, which I actually heard originated in the South during the Civil War. The rest is really history..

AP: What inspires you as a filmmaker? I've heard Quentin Tarantino gets ideas for scenes listening to his record collection. And also of course watching other movies, which is probably the biggest inspiration for any filmmaker?

Kojiro Abe: Everything from nature to classical music. I like to listen to it while writing my scripts. With my two Aquatic Observations films I had no script, I just knew the music I wanted to use and went out to find scenes that would fit in. But other films, including anime, sci-fi films, zombie films, spaghetti westerns, etc, are probably the biggest influence of all.

AP: When you get an idea for a film, how do you start working on it, do you
write it down to paper, computer, or do you just develop it on your head?

Kojiro Abe: Kind of a combination of all three. First I think about the film and what I want it to be like, after getting a strong enough image in my head I write down the film's plot, get started on the screenplay and do concept sketches. I always do a few sketches before I film. With the Aquatic Observations films, however, I had only an image in my head, I didn't write a script or do any drawings. I had only the classic music I wanted to set it to.

AP: Let's talk about your movies, are you satisfied with the films you have made so far, do they portray your vision as you imagined it, or has the lack of budget and resources prevented you from brining your vision alive?

Kojiro Abe: The Big Toe went way beyond my expectations. I expected I would create a typical product from a 15 year old with a video camera but I worked hard enough on it so that I felt it went beyond that, it's a decent student horror film, especially compared with the crappyness of my childhood stuff. I actually went back to it last July, a whole year after shooting most of it and shot another scene. The Aquatic Observations films more or less met my expectations. I wanted to make something interesting and I felt I got just that (most of the people at a recent open studios agreed).
The Boy Who Cried Wolf [extra gory version] is an interesting film no doubt, probably about as good as The Big Toe, but when writing the script I had some really fine images in mind that I was kind of disapointed when I shot it. The video had a really blurry and runny look to it and the wolf looked positively ridiculous. Luckily I used some digital filters to rectify this problem a bit.
And let's not even get started on how disapointed I was with Agony and the Ecstasy of the Puppets. I originally wanted to make a puppet orgy masterpiece to rival Meet the Feebles.

AP: Do you consider yourself a technical or artistic filmmaker, or both? Whats the part of filmmaking that you get the greatest pleasure in doing?

Kojiro Abe: There are really two types of filmmakers. Some are storytellers. They are more interested in telling a story and aren't as concerned about the visuals. Then there are the visual filmmakers, who are more interested in getting good images over a good story and script. A truly great filmmaker, like Kurosawa or Miyazaki, is equally concerned with both.
I lean a bit closer to the visual side, I'd much rather watch a film with great camera work but a poor script than a film with poor camera work and a great script, but that's just my taste.
As for what part of filmmaking I enjoy, shooting a film can be really fun, but I look forward and savor the editing most. If you were to actually look at all the bizarre random footage I shoot for my films you'd feel incredibly confused. I must have shot two hours worth of footage for Puppets and AO2 and one hour for AO1, The Big Toe and BWCW. I have totake this chaotic mess of random images that is the raw ingrediants of an Abe film and edit it into something like a pattern. It's like putting together a puzzle, but only certain pieces will fit, an editor has to find which pieces fit. When I became a true director I intend to not bother hiring an editor and simply edit my films myself, like Kurosawa did.

AP: What are the key-elements in a typical Kojiro Abe film?

Kojiro Abe: Well, I've only made about a half dozen films I'm proud of and most of them really aren't that similar. They all feature a fair amount of experimental camera work, I like to shoot things from strange angles that most mainstream filmmakers don't use. I also use tons of classical music in my films. AO had a soundtrack of nothing but classical, BWCW
used Bach's Jesus blebeit meine freud, Voodoo Zombie Bloodbath uses Handel's Messiah, Divine Comedy will use tons of it, Space Mission X will use about a half dozen classic music pieces, etc. I also have on more than one occasion filmed dead and rotting animals and put them in my films. They also almost always star my best friend Neil Cicierega and feature his music (save for the AO films).
When I actually get to make real movies as a real filmmaker I will pepper my films with tons of things that I love, including classical music, cats, rain, lingerie, beaches, Japanese girls, etc.

AP: Can you name the 5 films that have influenced you most as a person and a filmmaker?

Kojiro Abe: Only 5? How about 10? Or 20? Or 50?
Well, the original Godzilla film is certainly one of them, as are many of the sequels. When I direct my films I still like to imagine myself as Ishiro Honda barking orders at a guy in a huge rubber suit.
Another big inspiration was the films of Akira Kurosawa. I exposed to the work of a true filmmaking genius at age 13 and they seriously fueled my filmmaking passion. Rashomon is still my favorite movie.
The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion also changed my life quite a bit as well. I saw it when I was a young teen and just getting into anime and the whole Christian imagery thing, the graphic depiction of the apocaplyse, the spinelessness of Shinji, it all really creeped me out. Then I sat down and watched it a few years later and I absolutly adored it. I wish Rei and Asuka were real people, almost as much as wish the cast of Love Hina was real. I think I'll go play with lifesized Rei blow up doll I built..
Last but not least is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I went to The Fellowship of the Ring thinking I was going to see another typical Hollywood CGI film but ended up being transported directly to the world of Middle Earth by Peter Jackson. Since FOTR came out it's been one long fucking wait for The Two Towers and then for The Return of the King. After ROTK comes out it will be really odd NOT waiting for another Lord of the Rings film to open next December.

AP: If you had to pick one filmmaker, that you feel closest to, comparing your style to his/hers, who would it be?

Kojiro Abe: Only one? I am stylistically inspired by at least a dozen filmmakers. But the filmmaker whom my films most resemble is probably David Lynch.

AP: Do you think your japanese style movies can be succesful in the America? Do you hope or believe that japanese movies would get more success with mainstream audiences in the US?

Kojiro Abe: I think Japanese and Asian style films have quite a potential to do well. The Matrix films were blockbusters and they are heavily inspired by anime. Kill Bill was critically acclaimed and is on most top ten lists of 2003 I've seen. Pokemon took the US by storm and since Akira there has been a growing anime boom. I'm rather annoyed at Disney's treatment of Spirited Away, they released it to just a few select theatres, I had to go to Rhode Island to see it, and they basically doomed it. If they has given it a wide release I think it would have done well. This is not a fucking artsy fartsy film, it's a masterpiece by Hayao Miyazaki that was the highest grossing film ever in it's native land.

It's a shame with Godzilla too. In the 50s, 60s and 70s they used to have companies like AIP releasing the films to theatres. I wish I could have been alive in thiose days. Then they stopped after Godzilla 1985, which was released a year before I was born. All the heisei G films were released directly to video, and this was after year of waiting. They tried it again with Godzilla 2000, but they didn't give the film a very quality release and thus it was a flop. They should have released GMK to theatres, but's it's coming strait to DVD.
The big problem with Asian films not being mainstream enough is not because of the public or because of the films, but because the companies that release them aren't willing to take any chances and show them wide. I think audiences would widely accept a company that makes Asian style films, they just have to be good films.

AP: What do you see in the future of Kojiro Abe? Future is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives, you know.

Kojiro Abe: For the immediate future, I'm at work on and intend to finish shooting Voodoo Zombie Bloodbath, which will be shot almost all in Super 8 (I used some Super 8 shots in AO2, AO3 will feature many more). I also just started the scripts for Divine Comedy and Gen-Y and some drawings for Gen-Y, which will be done in an anime-ish style. I'm also working on my first minature and intend to build about six of them (all representing the world's capitals, the one working on right now is the Great Pyramids) for the armageddon ending of Divine Comedy. Future events such as these will affect you in the future.
And now for the more distant future. After college I had long planned to move to Japan and start an indepedent film company there. I'm not sure what the somewhat xenophobic Japanese would think of a gaijin working in their film industry, I might have to get some of my films financed over here.

AP: I'm sure all the people in our forum are wondering this, and maybe some who read this article too: Whats with your schoolgirl obsession?

Kojiro Abe: You know, I always pondered that myself. Maybe it's all the semen that traveled up to my brain and hardened when I was six. Or it's probably just all the anime I watched in my early teenhood. You know, I just watched a couple of episodes of Sailor Moon on the Cartoon Network and this anime called Blue Seed where this young girl wears panties with a different animal on it each episode and all and then suddenly I found that all of I could think of was young schoolgirls. Maybe those anime directors are slipping secret subliminal messages in their works that turn some of their watchers into perverts. Well, Hideaki Anno does, anyways. If you pause at certain sections of End of Evangelion, you can see some extremely fucked up shit, including a shot of Asuka's decaying, eyeless corpse.
I'm not the only guy like this, either, in Japan there are shops that sell nothing but used schoolgirl lingerie that cater to the needs of guys like me, most of them avid anime fans. Girls with little money like to sell their unmentionables to these places for good cash. I wish these establishments existed here in America, almost as much as I wish girls in American schools would wear sailor fuku.

AP: You are a big fan of Sonny Chiba as I know, but who would win in a fight, Bruce Lee or Sonny Chiba? Both being in their prime form.

Kojiro Abe: Have you ever seen a classic Chiba film called The Bodyguard? Early on in the film there is a debate between a white guy and a black guy on who is cooler: Sonny or Bruce? The white guy thinks Chiba's the cool one, the black dude favors Bruce. I'm sure this argument occured outside of many grindhouses (I wonder which of the two Quentin prefers?).
It all just comes down to opinion, seeing as Bruce is dead and never got the chance to star in a Lee vs. Chiba movie. I personally think Chiba would win, but that's just because I'm a much bigger Chiba fan.

AP: I haven't seen The Bodyguard yet, but I have it on dvd. Actually I heard that Quentin prefers Bruce Li to Bruce Lee, and I tink he is more of a Chiba man too. By the way, random recommendation to everyone whos reading this: if you can, see Soul of Bruce Lee starring Sonny Chiba, a Thailand produced crazy kung fu classic that has nothing to do with Bruce Lee, but kicks ass more than nearly anything.

AP: Back to topic, since we are on the Tim Burton Collective, tell us about your relationship to Tim Burton, the great american filmmaker.

Kojiro Abe: I got into Tim's films when I was around 14. I saw and loved The Nightmare Before Christmas as a kid, though I didn't really get into his films until right before Planet of the Apes. I adored his Batman films and actually cried when I watched Edward Scissorhands. Some of his films are amazing, others don't really work. I really have to watch NMBC and Edward Scissorhands again, since it's become a yearly holiday tradition of mine. There are very few directors alive today who have the vision that Burton has. He's probably my favorite American filmmaker besides Lynch.

AP: This is something I just ask you to do for fun, could you do movie linking? Okay, David Carradine to Toshiro Mifune. That should be quite easy. (I'm sure most of you readers know the 6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon game)

Kojiro Abe: Being an avid reader of Mad Magazine I know what you're talking about.
How's this one:
David Carradine appeared in Kill Bill, which also starred Sonny Chiba, who starred in Message from Space, which starred Eisei Anamoto in drag, who also appeared in drag in The Lost World of Sinbad (The Great Thief), which starred Toshiro Mifune..

Thats it for the time being! More to come in "Evening with Kojiro Abe" Vol 2, if the audience so wants.

You can read more about the Crazy World of Kojiro Abe by visiting his Official Website: www.kojiroabe.com

If you have any questions, suggestions, ideas, whinings, ramblings, bussiness suggestions etc, contact Anton Phibes

If you have questions to Kojiro Abe, you can mail him directly.