The Promise - Wu ji (2005)

Wu ji - Die Reiter der Winde

The Interview With Hiroyuki Sanada ("Guangming")

46 years old Hiroyuki Sanada first appeared on screen at the tender age of five. The versatile actor participated in over sixty film- and tv-productions, the most recent ones being The Last Samurai (alongside Ken Watanabe and Tom Cruise), The Twilight Samurai and The White Countess. Sanada was the first Japanese actor to participate in a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company; he played The Fool in King Lear. For his part in Wu Ji - The Promise, Hiroyuki Sanada learned Mandarin.

The view from the roof-deck restaurant high above the zoo of Berlin was as charming as the actor. Despite of a long party night he was good tempered and eager to answer our questions:

» Das Interview in deutscher Sprache.

ON: Chen Kaige mentioned that the two of you had a really good relationship.

HS: Yes. This was the first time I worked with him and also the first time that I worked with Korean and Chinese actors. Our communication was quite good. Basically, we used English on the set but sometimes we needed a translator to translate from Chinese to Japanese, from Japanese to Korean, from Korean to Cantonese and so on. And we used the Mandarin dialogues as well.

ON: Is true then, that you learned Mandarin for this movie?

HS: Just for this film. Two months before the shooting started, I started learning Chinese from scratch: the basic characters, meaning, sounds, pronunciation and intonation. It was really hard for me - it is hard for the Japanese to learn Chinese because the grammar is different and the sounds are different. We have some characters that are the same but they sound different, or the meaning is the same but it sounds different. It is really difficult. But I had a good coach on the set and I felt like a student (laughs). I was repeating and learning and repeating and memorising wherever and whenever I had the time - during dinner, while taking a bath, when driving, always. So finally, I was able to do my voice myself. After we had finished shooting and the looping [automated voice replacing] was about to start, we had a competition, me and a Chinese voiceover. If I lost the competition the voiceover was going to get my speaking part so I was very excited. I really wanted to the voice of my character myself because I thought it would be really awful seeing my face on the screen but hearing another voice speaking. So I tried my best and on the first day of looping the director said: Okay, I will use your voice. But if it does not sound native, you cannot go back to Japan - okay? I said yes, of course. Initially, they had planned on a three day schedule, but finally, I spent three weeks just doing my dialogue.

ON: You were obviously quite enthusiastic about this film...

HS: Twelve hours a day: I had breakfast in the studio, lunch, dinner and stayed there until ten or eleven o'clock. It took us three weeks like that. But I was very happy being able to do my voice myself and I thanked the director for spending so much time and money on this. He replied: We set a new record in the history of Chinese films: three weeks for looping! But we set a new record at the box office as well, so we're fine. Obviously, I was very happy about that.

ON: Are there any differences between making a Japanese film and a Chinese film?

HS: Oh yes. I felt they [the Chinese] had a good mixture of Western influences and Eastern style. The director of photography, Peter Pau, received an Oscar for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, so he knows how to create good images. His crew was from Hong Kong and they had wonderful high quality equipment, the same that is used in Hollywood. Chen Kaige was spending much of his time on rehearsing. He never used two or three cameras, he always used just one and sometimes we had very long shots, almost two or three minutes, filmed by just one camera. That is why we needed so much time for the rehearsals, in order to get the timing straight. We spent about half a day on this preparation and then shot the scene in the afternoon: take 30, take 40 and cut! And that was our work for the day. I was stunned and went like: Only one shoot?! That's a luxury! In Hollywood, they never do it like this, they always use three or four cameras at the same time. And the same goes for Japan: you cannot spend time like that - no money, no time. So you see, it was a special mixture on the set. The technique was from Europe and the way of spending time and the handmade feeling is from Asia. That's a good mixture. Sometimes, we waited for the wind to start blowing, me wearing my armour, the helmet and sitting on the horse. We were waiting for the wind for up to six hours! That is definitely something we can't do in Japan anymore. But Chen Kaige could and I had a great time.

ON: Were there any problems because of cultural differences between Japan and China?

HS: There really are differences. The two countries are geographically close, but their culture, their religious system and their food are completely different. There is a big gap. The Chinese people had tense feelings towards Japan after World War Two and these feelings still exist. One of my reasons for joining to this project is that we have a big wall between China, Japan and Korea. Working with a Chinese director, with Chinese, Korean and Hong Kong actors, making a film together, working towards the same goal is a great opportunity to break this wall between us. I feel that this is why this project is very important not only for me and for filmmakers, but also for the Asian people. There were many things that surprised me. For example, in China no one is in a hurry, everybody is just waiting, waiting, waiting. I sometimes asked myself: What are we waiting for?! But that is just the way it goes in China. There was an incident when we were waiting and I needed to go to the toilet. I couldn't find it until somebody pointed me to the forest... I was like: ah, I see! But you know, it was really difficult with the costume I was wearing. I therefore asked if they could build a toilet on the set and they actually did it. But when I saw it, there were no walls! So I asked if they could build a wall around it. They did - out of plastic... And there was no door either! So I had to talk all the time when I was on the toilet: I am in here, don't come in! Like that... (laughs)

ON: Why, in your opinion, are people from Western countries so fascinated about the Asian culture, as it is, for example, displayed in The Promise?

HS: I think the spiritual thing is probably our most important "sales point", like the Samurai thing or Buddhism. There are big differences between the cultures of Eastern and Western countries. We therefore should make films with an Asian spirit. The Promise, however, is not a traditional film in my opinion. It is an Asian film but the story is very simple and quite global: it is about love and fait and about destiny. You can fight against your destiny and you can shape your personal life yourself.

ON: After The Promise you participated in James Ivory's The White Countess.

HS: While shooting The Promise, James Ivory gave me the script for The White Countess, a story taking place in 1936 just before World War Two. I was offered the role of a spy from the Japanese government, a dangerous guy. At first, I felt dismayed about that, but I also felt that this role had to be played by a Japanese actor who grew up in Japan. Also, it was a good chance to re-examine our history. In that way, The Promise and the James Ivory film were completely linked for me.

ON: You have done many martial arts movies. While in earlier times there were means of help such as wires, nowadays everything is done using CGI. How do you feel about that?

HS: I feel sad about it. CGI is great but especially in Hollywood, the actors don't need to do much themselves anymore. When I was a child, I watched many European movies and Hollywood films and a many of the big stars did their stunts themselves. I felt that this was the best service for the audience. That is why I started to acquire skills like doing stunts, martial arts and horse riding. When I went to Hollywood, however, I was quite shocked: As the union is very strong there, they want to use stuntmen for just anything and especially in cases like jumping from a running horse or fighting they say: you do not have to do that! I asked myself: why? I learned all these things, why do they stop me? In Asia, we have to do most stunts ourselves which means we have the skills to do all that stuff. That is an advantage for us. I believe the future lies in combining real body action with high quality CGI. Currently, there are some films with good CGI but lacking drama and suffering from stereotype acting. I hate that. On the other hand, real body action combined with poor CGI is horrible as well. So in the future, I would like them to be joined: real-body action with high quality CGI and of course with good drama and emotions.

ON: What kind of films do you feel most familiar with?

HS: I watched many European and Hollywood films when I was young. I like the European taste, their pictures, the lighting and the drama. I sometimes have to do commercial films but basically I prefer art films, such as for example those by James Ivory - he is American but has a European taste.

ON: There are only few actors who are given the opportunity to work outside their own country; you are one of them. Is that the result of a well laid plan of yours or were you simply lucky?

HS: I had this dream when I was young that I was going to work with Western people on high quality projects at some point in the future. When I was 18 years old I worked on a film with Vic Morrow, an American actor, and some other actors from Hollywood. Working with them I observed their quality and their professionalism. I was always thinking about the future. I went to the US and to Europe a lot, probably two or three times a year, in order to learn and to watch their films, watch their shows, their plays, their art.

ON: Are there European films that you were especially impressed by?

HS: Films by Jean-Luc Godard and Federico Fellini. And I especially love Jules and Jim, a movie about two guys and one girl. That's a classic, you know, this triangle love is classic in films. I love this movie very much.

ON: What is your next project?

HS: I am going to work with James Ivory again, in Argentina, at the end of this summer. Right now, I am preparing for that film and doing promotion for The Promise and The White Countess.

ON: Thank you for the interview.

12.02.2006 / rs, th