Hirokazu Kore-eda

Yes, a family is interesting. You can get a lot of drama in the conflicts there. It's like the sea. It seems calm, but inside there is conflict.

I am hopeful that films can connect people who are in conflict in a separated world.

When I was 27, I won an honorable mention in a scriptwriting contest and got a television job as an assistant director.

My mother was really against it when I said I wanted to make films. She said that I should be a civil servant because that was safe, and it had security. But my mother was always very proud of my movies and would give videocassettes of them to all the neighbours.

Directing while overcoming differences of language and culture is a stimulating challenge.

You only get back what you are prepared to put in.

All my mother ever wanted to talk about was what she hated about my father and the times he cheated on her when he was younger. It really irritated me, and I told them they had to sort things out between themselves. Looking back on that, I see that it was really cold of me as a son.

I have been told that... time doesn't flow in a straight line in my films. It goes round in a circle. Sometimes people comment that the films remind them of Ozu. Maybe that's right. But in Japan, nobody comments on how time passes in my films. So perhaps that is a different way of thinking.

There's a difference between people being free and the atmosphere of 'freedom.'

I'm so entranced by what unfolds in front of the camera. It seems wonderfully out of my control.

I grew up without a father.

We can see loss as something missing, but that missing space can be filled with something else, and that creates healing.