Gone with the Wind

When I was six years old, I saw a Hollywood movie called Gone With the Wind. During wartime, it was prohibited to show any American films. But this was during a period of transition in the war where there were still some American films that were shown. And then when I was seven, I saw a film called Stagecoach by John Ford. And these films... they had such an impact on me. The beauty of these films was such that it was almost something like salvation from the very grim daily life that I was experiencing during the war... I came to feel that the humanity in these films, the humanity in Hollywood films, was universal. My films are made up of my memories... and my work as a filmmaker is an effort to share these memories... that’s what Hanagatami is about, it’s about sharing these memories.