After watching Midnight Eagle, I was struck by the strong stance against nuclear weapons and its themes dealing with responsibility. Director Izuru Narushima has kindly taken some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions in regards to his movie.

GoD: Midnight Eagle has a strong anti-war and anti-nuclear weapons message. Are the heightened concerns about nuclear arms development in recent years something that drew you to this project?

Izuru Narushima: Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks, and we have experienced this tragedy twice. A strong wish for avoiding a third tragedy is a very big issue, but at the same time, it is a very intimate mental issue. I was interested in depicting how nuclear weapons could threaten one man’s life in a modern day setting, not a period drama set in Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It was not because of heightened concerns that drove me to create this film. I thought it was a theme that should be worked on as a Japanese film by somebody.

GoD: While Japan has been mostly known for its horror and yakuza movies in recent years, Midnight Eagle is a military drama. Are you hoping to expand the international perception of Japanese cinema with your film?

IN: I wish that this film will become a new first step in Japanese films.

GoD: You started out as a screenplay writer before becoming a director, but you have not directed anything you have written. Do you have a preference between the two, and have you found it more difficult to allow someone to turn your screenplay into a movie, or adapting someone else’s vision on paper into a movie?

IN: When Japanese movies were in its golden age, they called writing “hitosuji” and valued the screenplay more than anything. Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, and Ozu were all masters of screenwriting themselves, and are some of the top writers of the world.

I think directing a scene is also an important job of a director. It’s not whether I wrote the screenplay or somebody else did, but I’d like to put the priority on directing a great scene.

I might write for myself to direct, if it’s something highly artistic and a very personal story.

GoD: Were you influenced by any particular writer or director to first get into moviemaking?

IN: There is nobody who I was directly influenced by. But there are many writing directors who I respect all around the world.

GoD: Midnight Eagle is your biggest movie to date, with over half the movie filmed on a snowy mountain under blizzard conditions. Were you looking to challenge your abilities as a filmmaker?

IN: The freezing conditions were very severe, but it was the same for all the cast and staff. It is because we were all professionals, and we were able to accomplish and finish the shooting without any accidents.

Narushima-san, I wish your film the best of luck as it opens here in the United States. On behalf of Geeks Of Doom, domo arigato.

Read the Geeks of Doom review of Midnight Eagle, which opened in theaters in New York last Friday and will hit theaters in Los Angeles on December 7, 2007. For more information, visit www.midnighteagle.jp/english.