The Rules Of Living And Making Movies iIn Japan
[Music] And welcome once again to Japan Expert Insights. As always, we have Maya Oka in the studio. Well, in Tokyo in the studio, so to speak. Hello, Maya. And then hello. And then Greg Dale is going to be on the show here in a moment. So, as everyone’s logging in, we usually like to chitchat with the audience and let people know of some things that are going on. Last night, the Japan American Society of Chicago had their 95th anniversary gala. It was a very lovely um event. And you know, for those of you in the Chicagoland area and you’re looking to sign up for some uh wonderful Japanese organizations, the Japan America Society of Chicago is one of several that are I could highly recommend. There are two JASC’s um in Chicago and both of them are wonderful. So please sign up for that. I’m reminded someone an old friend of mine pointed out many many years ago I used to do a cable access show. I didn’t do it. My friends did it. It was a local music video show. Now for those of you who are maybe a little bit on the younger age there used to be a thing called cable access. We used to have cable television and then in order to broadcast things because we didn’t have the internet, we had to have some connections to be able to do stuff on local cable access shows. And I was reminded that that show was on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. which is when we air our show. And so I want to give a shout out to some of those people who used to work uh on that program because they got me my start. So to Frank Vance, uh to Skip Landom and Jamie Evans Carlson, who sadly she passed away, gosh, it’s been so long ago. 1998, her and her husband died in a car accident. Um and what was Yeah, it was just tragic and we still, you know, it’s funny how people can be gone for so many years and we still miss them and um she’s one of those people we still miss. What was interesting about the dynamic of that show was is that Frankie V or Frank Vance was the host of the show and Jamie would just be kind of yelling him and making sure he stays on track uh throughout the whole program. So, the fact that I got Maya here to kind of make sure I stay on track. Um it’s kind of an it’s I was realizing there was a wonderful homage but also this sort of serendipitousness of the fact that here we are doing live programming um all the years later but very different topics. They did music videos and we talk about Japan entertainment here. And what we got going tonight is very exciting because it’s a premiere episode. The nice thing about starting a podcast is you have a lot of firsts and this is a first time we’re actually having a guest who is premiering a film this evening in Japan. And so we can’t we’re just thrilled to have Greg Dale on the show with us. So, Greg, without further ado, welcome to the program. Thanks so much. Hi, Maya. Hi, Michael. Hi, everyone. How you how you feeling? You a little nervous. You got a exciting night, right? I was nervous actually two days ago. Um, and I guess by yesterday, I just decided, you know, uh, and actually I thought that we would be opening tonight. We opened two hours ago. So, Oh my gosh. You had the premiere two hours ago. Congratulations. Yeah. Yeah, we did have the premiere, but the point is is that the Japanese cinemas have this really weird way of doing things. So, we knew we were opening on the 19th, but we didn’t know what time and so we expected it to be at night. No, our first show was at 800 a.m. I think we got 15 people to come and see it. Probably blurryeyed. Hopefully, we woke them up. Um but uh we’re in 30 I think 26 cinemas today and averaging two to three showings um on the day. So in some places yeah we started at 8 a.m. 8 a.m. It is September 19th 2005 for those who might be listening to this on the replay but obviously we are doing this live. So right now if anyone wants to see this film where can they catch it? Obviously can’t name all the places, but are there going to be any events or is it just going to be shown wide? Any places you can refer that to catch this? Actually, this is the film. Can you uh the Yes. Rules of living. Yeah. Rules of living. Uh it’s totally bilingual. Um it’s actually based on some of my experiences here in Japan. Uh living with a Japanese woman in a platonic way. We were sharing uh a two-bedroom apartment and there were so many weird cultural things and funny cultural things that happened that I just logged it in my memory and these ended up in the movie. Uh so uh we are mainly at the premier uh cinema Shinjuku Picadilli and we’re having our big event tomorrow. So at uh 11:00 we’re going to have a showing and then we’ll have a mass media stage greeting with the star Mina Mikah and another uh very popular actress Sumid and me and our producer will be there and we’ll have a talk for about 20 minutes after that screening and then right away we’ll have another talk uh for the next screening. So that’s Saturday tomorrow if you’re at Shinjuku Picadilli. Uh there’s still tickets left for the second one that will not be with mass media, we think. We still don’t know. Um and uh it it’s a great movie. It’s a great film. So uh the writing is amazing. The directing is amazing. I’m the writer actor uh writer director actually. So uh sorry for Well, I know you’re biased, but um we’ve heard nothing but good things. So let’s we’ll just run with it actually. So yeah. No, that’s that’s you know that’s always very impressive. So for once again for our audiences at the Shinjuku Shinjjuku Picadilli 11 a.m. And then when’s the other showing? The other one is at 2:15. That’s when we start the stage greeting and then it will actually show from 2:40 I think is what it is. But other than that, we are at already we’re at 26 cinemas all over Japan. So even in Tokyo, we have three other uh cinemas that are showing us. So, if you can’t come to Shinjuku, uh there’s plenty of opportunity to to watch us. And uh then we’re also going to be adding cinemas as we go along. So, we have some cinemas in Okinawa that are starting in the beginning of October. Uh even in Tokyo, we have a very big cinema uh Sunshine Iok, which will open October 3rd. So, uh we hope we hope audiences come. Congratulations. Yes. Congratulations. Yes. a great introduction. So, and yeah, very Yeah, this is there’s live events happening. You can’t beat that actually. So, it’s wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for letting uh us know. And then for everybody in Japan, um please go see this movie if you can check out these premiere events, you know, at the Shinjuku Picilly. Do it. Now, Greg, you didn’t always live in Japan and you were originally from New York, if I’m not mistaken. Yeah. Right. So, if you can tell our listeners, how did this journey begin? How did someone from New York end up in Japan and eventually making movies in Japan? Uh, pure serendipity. And I think that that’s kind of what life is all about. Um, little events lead to big changes. So, I was an actor, director, and a writer in New York. uh struggling uh off off Broadway, a little bit of off Broadway and uh I wasn’t the type type of actor who like partied or you know would do anything for a role. So things were a little bit slow. Um and I think when I was about 27 I started writing more and at that time I also uh had to earn a living. So, I was uh working at a high-end shoe store about 20 hours a week, and there happened to be a Japanese director there who was married to uh an American lawyer. She wanted to do a play in New York in Japanese. And I told her, “No way. There’s no way that New Yorkers are going to want to go see a Japanese play.” But we figured out a way of doing it bilingual. And it was really intriguing. So, we had a Japanese play in the middle. We had interpreters on the side but they also could interact with the actors. We had a wonderful reception and she then invited me to come to Japan and try the same thing and I did. Um I was getting a little bit disappointed with the New York scene. Uh I’d never been to Asia before but there were so many things even my my way of thinking was very eastern I guess you can say. uh and I came here and her group was so amazing. I met one of the foremost playwrights here. He was also the artistic director of the uh Coobe Performing Arts Foundation. We became friends. Um he was about 30 years older than me. Uh we spoke in English till 1 2 o’clock in the morning and he ended up casting me in a Broadway level play without ever seeing me act. And then after that he ended up hiring me for four directions also at Coobe and Tokyo without ever seeing me direct. So you know I I love the fact that a lot of this happened just because of conversations because of connecting with people and that they trusted me because of who I was. And yeah, I think the theme of the day is going to be serendipity. I think we’re just going to run with it. That’s going to be that’s going to be uh that’s going to be our our word of the day, our theme of the day. Um you started it looks like when you’re looking when you people go through your you know IMDb credits uh you did some work for the video game industry in those initial years. Yeah, that’s constant. Um being an artist here in Japan in this business, you have to do everything. Um I have a family so I have to uh uh do all kinds of work. Um, I’ve done narrations. I’ve done uh I think maybe some of you know the Crimson Pig uh which is uh Miyazaki Haya, the the super famous anime director. I did the original English version here and then it when it was translated to uh America, uh Kerry Ulwis actually played my role and I’m sure he was much much better than me. Um but I’ve done lots of stuff. Uh so TV dramas, uh movies, commercials, video promotions and honestly it’s fun. Uh I also am super super lucky that I was one of only two actors because I had New York training and experience that I was in 2,000 seat theaters maybe for 10 15 productions. Um these are all ridiculous. They’re called Jai Gekki. They’re historical plays, right? Yeah. Three and a half hours long. Everybody brings their bento. The average age of the audience is 74. But they love it. And they have these huge huge stars like Elizabeth Taylor uh caliber. Um and I always played like the the the bad guy. Can you know if you can believe? Look at this face. A bad guy with that face. Yes. I was going to say, wow. Okay. The bad guy is the bad guy no matter the face then. Yeah. Well, that’s one thing here. Was it like villain roles but not like who you think the villain would be but sort of like oh my gosh he’s the villain kind of roles. It was kind of I was the villain because I was a foreigner. So usually because I do have this face it ended up being that I was a nice guy at heart. So you know those are the most of the roles that I’ve gotten here. Uh but they’re fun. Um, you know, it’s great being able to play. Yeah. Well, you did the voice of a video game I was obsessed with when I was younger. It was a bat. I’m gonna I’m pronouncing it the Japanese way, so I’m probably getting it wrong, but it was like Baten Kaitos, the Eternal Wings, the Lost. Yeah, it was a It was a Nintendo cube game. I didn’t get into it till later, but I was like I was obsessed with this game. I thought it was like the coolest little thing. And so, I got to hear your voice many years ago. Did not know it. So that’s got to be interesting when people bring that up, right? Because it’s not like when you’re doing a film, I mean, you’re actually acting in the film. I mean, you do video game voiceovers and you’re only probably so involved. They I would imagine that process, they probably give you like what the character looks like and maybe they give you kind of an overview of what the game’s going to be, so you have something to work with. But for the most part, you must feel do you feel removed more from a video game project than you do um a film project or a television project? I think with anything here preparation time is nil. So you basically go in uh same thing for auditions. You go in, you get what you have to do, you have five minutes to prepare, you do it. And it’s the same thing with jobs mostly. Sometimes you don’t get the script till the day before. Um so you got to learn to be very flexible, very fast. It helps to have experience. Um but I enjoy that. I love the fact that I have to be quick, that I have to come up with ideas. uh one anime that I did a movie uh it was in the dot hack series and I was one of the main roles and they wrote it for a Japanese I mean the character for a Japanese and it was in kansa ben which is a very hard to do and my wife happens to be from kansai so she helped me but I had to speak this fast in the anime uh and my Japanese is good but it’s not fluent and we had 12 hours to to a two-hour movie and it’s like all this stuff going on and everybody goes up to the mic and does their line and then runs back. Somebody else goes up to the other mic. And the hilarious thing is that one of the characters came in a business suit and he’s this 45year-old quiet absolute uh nerd and you know he walks up to the mic and he’s the guy who’s playing the warrior and he goes up to the mic and yeah and just this enormous energy and like my god. So they did everything almost one take. Almost one. I had to go through two or three takes because obviously timing and everything, but it’s it’s challenging. Well, yes. Yeah, I was going to say go my if you had a question, go right ahead. No, I wanted to say challenging. I I imagine it’s also very rewarding because I heard you in the beginning you said that it’s in interesting. It’s u exciting and everything. So, but how long did it take you to get used to this uh necess necessity for flexibility or did you go just to dive into it straight away after you came to Japan? Um I think one way to describe myself is I’m a jack of all trades. So unfortunately the other side is that master of none. I all through high school and college I just was so interested in different things. So once I felt I had learned enough about acting then I started to direct. Once I thought I had learned enough about directing I started to write and it’s a process. So it it took me 30 years I think to become a good writer. Um and not to hate it. I used to hate it. Uh and for this film for Rules of Living we had some superstars join us and so I had to write scenes for them. And some of my screenplays I’ve taken 30 years to write, rewriting, rewriting, going back five years later, rewriting for these new scenes for rules of living took me 45 minutes. Um, and again, it’s because I’ve become used to it. Also, because I sat characters for such a long time, I knew the movie, it was just easy. And it wasn’t just for one character. I did this for about four or five characters. So again, I think if you put in the work, the inspiration comes. Um, so even as a director, before I even step into the first day of rehearsal, I will read the play a hundred times, 200 times. As an actor, I’ll read it 50 times. And there’s just so much information, so much creativity, and then you get an idea of, oh wow, I got it. I want to do it this way. So um yeah it takes sweat, takes hard work, it takes creativity, um risk and just to go back to you know whether doing anime or voice over is is challenging any expression that you can do is valuable. So the acting that I do as a voice actor, the acting that I do um in movies, on TV, uh on stage, all has the same element, but you just adjust it for different sizes. So you did this for a long time and I noticed that as a performer, you did a lot of performing in Japan and then Rules of Living is your first sort of credited director, writer, you know, was there things you’d worked on? um on behind the camera before you did Rules of Living to kind of prep you for this or was this your first real just do it. Bingo. Yeah, the latter. Okay. I’ve been in front of the camera a lot. So, I’m a trained stage actor and director. Uh but as a writer, I write screenplays. So, I love dialogue. I love what you say versus what you mean. What you say versus what you want to get from the other person. Uh, if I have to, you know, talk about what I’m good at, I’m really good at dialogue. I’m terrible at plot. Um, that’s why it takes me 30 years sometimes to write a screenplay. Um, but I think that uh all that experience that I had in front of a camera and as a director, what is most valuable to me is communication, honesty. Uh, you just shift parts of yourself to fit a character. You don’t fake anything. You don’t have to become somebody else. uh you just yourself and that’s how you create your roles is is my way of thinking and what works for me and also what I teach what I direct. So I think even though I had no experience uh behind a camera, I had a consulting director who has experience. Uh I’m also the main actor. So whenever we shot my scenes, I would go and see a playback immediately and then I would adjust little things. And I do this also uh when I’m acting for other movies. I always want to see what I look like. um because I can adjust little things not just facially but also the feelings that I have and uh so honestly when I came in for this project I was wearing four hats because I was also a producer. Um but the writing part was over and we just trusted the Japanese actors. We told them you can change any words you want. Uh our star changed about 3%. Um, our second star changed one line. So, that also is a testament to how good the Japanese was. And that was done by my my wife and and me a little bit. Um, and then I just was able to totally disassociate. So, when I was acting, I was acting. And then the minute the scene was over, I was the director. And the same thing when I actually was not in the scene, I would prep the actors. And we also had about um two hours of prep for everybody even before we started the entire process. And then we just shot and I left a lot of the angles up to my cinematographer, trusted him completely. Um I came up with ideas, but I don’t I’m not a dictator. So I I understand that everybody has their ability and I really rely on that. And uh I’m really proud of the product. Yeah, I think that just Yeah, I think that it’s often difficult for people to delegate, right? And you seem to be uh perfectly fine with that. So, uh what helped you get to that point? because I have worked with people in other fields of of course business, some arts as well and they still find it difficult to delegate to their uh collaborators and the colleagues and everything and it seems that it works very well only if you feel comfortable with it, right? Yeah, I think you would crash in this business especially in Japan. I know that, you know, uh, we want to talk about working in Japan. They do 16 scenes a day. Um, in most movies, it’s insane. They work 16 hours a day. Um, and actually the directors delegate enormously here. Everybody has their own role. Sometimes I really think the director should take more control of of certain elements. Um, in this business is different. So, first of all, as a writer, as a screenwriter, if you think that your word is the word of God, get out. Write novels. Write poetry. Um, you’re not gonna you’re not going to enjoy a career. Um, and as soon as you sell something, you’re going to have 20 people telling you to change things. So, my flexibility happened just because of the way I was brought up and who I am. But also, having gone through that experience of rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. Sometimes when I write a section, I will look at the one line that I hope to be a comic line, I’ll write it 20 different ways, and then I’ll read through up until that line, up until that line, changing little words, changing rhythm, changing tempo, changing stress until I find what works for me. So that finally if I sell it, somebody says, “No, no, no, change it.” Okay, okay, I’ll change it. You know, so I think that um you have to be flexible. And in terms of delegating, uh my god, you know, there’s just no time to do it all by yourself. And I think the one thing that a lot of people forget is that any art is an art and a business. And unfortunately with me business, they call it the movie business. They don’t call it the movie art. So the people who are in charge are younger and younger and they are so interested in the bottom line that artically takes a backseat. So you have to be able to be as artistic as you can, but then be flexible and understand it’s a business. So sometimes they will cast somebody who is totally inappropriate, but they are famous or they have followers and you’ve got to deal with that. You get that here too. That sound very It’s funny you mentioned though that uh you talk about like writing dialogue. I mean I always love writing dialogue. It’s like it’s sort of like vocabulary, you know, dancing. It’s just the the way words and you can just play with them and you can just make them and shape them and I understand um what it takes to like when you’re having to write you just refine refine and you’re just you know how one phrase will set up another phrase and you know and that the minutiae gets into so but people will always tell you like oh yeah I got to change this change this how have you found to take advice but have you ever pushed back and said you know what no this is way it has to be how do you determine what needs to day and when you should accept advice because I think that’s a really thing. That’s a really tricky thing. Yeah, extremely hard. Um, and believe me, I uh can get very egotistical as well. So, you know, the problem is is no, if nobody’s buying it and they’re just giving you advice and they’re saying, “You got to change these 40 pages, cut this character, uh, what do you do?” I mean, you know, if if you have somebody who’s just a friend or family or somebody in the business, you just have to somehow realize what works for you. And it’s extremely hard, like you said, Michael, and I hate that process. Um, so obviously once you do sell it, once you do get a producer, you will have to take what they say, especially if you’re starting out. um you know there are only a handful of writers um who can say no this is it don’t change a thing but you’ve got to really have a history to be able to get to that point and even then I don’t think that that’s right you know I think it’s a collaborative process and the one thing that I was afraid of when I took on the four roles is that I would deny the interpretive collaborative process, but luckily everything was so uh separate that I allowed a lot of of leeway for for everyone and I’m I’m happy for it. I think it’s a much better product. Well, I imagine it’s like you have to have your anchors, right? There might be two or three things that or concepts or ideas about the film about Rules of Living that okay like you have these sort of mental guard rails where you know we can play and we can play but there are certain areas whether it be a character or whether it be like you know sort of like aesthetic or something where okay this is out of bounds and so maybe that’s part of it is understanding the out of bounds areas. It’s almost you look at it from a looking glass perspective and um but that’s that’s still that’s that’s u that’s I think it’s very that’s one of the most challenging things um I think about the film business is because everybody’s got an opinion and who to listen to and who not to listen to and sometimes I imagine you probably get three or four opinions about the same character and then you got to pick which one you’re going to follow knowing that you might hurt some feelings of the the internal politics as well and making a film. You know, there’s a lot of people like to dream about making movies, but then when you actually make them, you, you know, you’re in an office basically, and so you’re in a office setting where there’s office politics. Um, in your first film, since you played so many roles, um, were you able to circumvent a lot of like maybe the issues that other films have when you’re especially if you’re making a film in Japan? Yeah, absolutely. Um, you know, talking about dealing with the producers and people who bought your uh screenplay, I actually have jumped all that. I never sold a screenplay until Rules of Living and it was because a friend of mine loved it and we actually were super lucky. I mean, I hate to say it, but because of COVID, um, all production companies were closing down. So the Japanese government allowed production companies, they wanted us to keep working. So they said, “Okay, we will give a certain amount of money to get you started and still work work.” So we applied for that and it took forever, a lot of red tape. Uh but we got it and then from there we were also able to to get money. So for this project and for no project, I’ve actually had people, you know, over my head going, “No, you got to do this, you got to do this.” Um my producer friend just absolutely let me run with it. Um so I am actually not looking forward to uh you know having people demand uh crazy things putting the Smurfs to a uh a drama or you know whatever whatever it may be. Um well that Smurfs movie did bad. I don’t think you have to worry about the Smurfs. I think they’re they’re g they’re gonna have to reboot that in 10 years. It just where? Yeah. Uh but so so getting to the movie that’s premiering now this is shown in festival. So this isn’t necessarily the first time people have seen this film. You did the festival circuit first. Wouldn’t that started about like a year ago? We’re still doing it. Um we were very naive. Uh, as a first-time director, my chance of getting into Khan, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, and Sundance were 0.1%. Uh, they’re very political and but if that had happened, you know, we would have had a dream journey. So, we took an entire year, you have to wait because it has to be a world premiere at all of those. Took an entire year to try and get in. We didn’t get in. And so, then we started to apply to the second level. And last year uh we got into Sedona International Film Festival. We were just so thrilled to get in. It’s a really good nine-day festival uh mainly for independent cinema and we were there for all all nine days. The director took such good care of us and two days before the awards received the the highest judging panel. And so, you know, this is our world premiere for a movie that my first movie. And two days before the awards, he came up to us and our wives were there as well. and he said, “You know, you guys are going to win best feature comedy.” Like, what? Out of 2,000 submissions. And then he said, “And I’m telling you this because you are so close to winning the audience award as well.” And we didn’t we came within a hair of winning the audience award, but we weren’t expecting this at all. We were just so thrilled to get into Sedona. But because of that, we’ve also gotten into three Japanese. Uh we were at the red carpet at Yokohama. Uh we’ve gotten into a German, two Italian. We won in India. Uh we just found out that we got into Dilly, which is a new nation uh that split off from Papa New Guinea, I think. I think I’m sorry, I just got this yesterday. Uh and six in uh America. So we’re in Big Bear, California next week. We’ve had five this month. Right. Um congratulations. Yes. You thank you. So even you know if Japan is tough we we still are continuing Japan but we really believe you know these programmers from such desperate desperate countries. Uh and even in America we’ve had supremely liberal minority oriented and supremely conservative uh upper middle class who’ve selected us. So we really think that there’s an audience worldwide for what we have to say because it’s about the human condition. It’s about connecting and it’s especially about accepting people from other cultures to see what our differences are. And I look at the differences in a comical way. Um because there are differences, right? And you end up instead of fighting those differences, if you can get to a point where you really accept compromise, you still hold on to your beliefs, but you you adjust. You adjust, right? And can grow and that’s what the film is about basically one one of the themes. So, what else? Now, for our viewers who don’t know about Rules of Living, this is the first time they’re hearing about it, um, can you give us a synopsis as to what this film is about? Sure. Uh, a little bit, but more of a deep dive into Okay, I’ll read something that I’ve prepared as well. So, uh, the log line is it’s about a middle-aged Japanese woman who has to take in a middle-aged American man as a roommate in order to survive. And this actually is from I I mentioned before uh, you know, I lived with a Japanese woman platonically and I used a lot of my experiences uh, again looking at it in a comical way. But Miko, the main character, who’s played by Minami Kaho, uh she’s a phenomenal actress. Uh she happens to be the ex-wife of Ken Watanab. Um but she’s also very well known here in Japan. She has a great fan base, a brilliant, brilliant actress, brilliant person. Um her character is locked in life. So she’s taking care of an ailing mother. her daughter has escaped uh and is backpacking around the world and sending her all these gorgeous postcards from places Mikoko could never go to. Uh she’s in a noend job where nobody accepts her uh abilities and she is engaged or she’s connected with a boyfriend from childhood who is an elite businessman. So everybody is pushing her remarry, remarry, marry this guy, your life will be perfect. But she doesn’t love him. And into this life comes me, a backpacker with a mysterious past. Uh you can imagine, you know, middle-aged. Look, look at me. I’m a backpacker. Um and I come in and I’m trying to live freely. I’m trying to live with no connections. So we are at the opposite ends of the spectrum. She is full of responsibility and boredom and I’m no responsibility and just loving it. And of course neither is good. Balance is important. Um and so slowly slowly fighting each other all the way comically we end up kind of melding and understanding that we can take a part of each other’s abilities uh and we can grow from that. And then of course there’s you know the cultural things. Um there are so many themes that I never even intended. Uh women around the world still have it tough. Um there is no real equality honestly you know even in Europe and America and Europe certainly is way ahead. uh there’s so much responsibility that is put on them and Japan especially is so tough the roles that they have to play here um and so I want this to be our our by line is uh it’s never too late to start your dream so this even to 25 year olds who have, you know, chosen a path that they don’t like anymore. And we found this out from some of our audiences. Of course, it appeals to our main audience, which is above 35 women and especially Japanese women. U but it also appeals to men. We’ve had 55year-old Japanese businessmen who come up to us and go, “Yes, this is what I wanted to do my whole life.” Um, so I hope I really hope you know, honestly, financially I hope we’re successful, but I also hope that we’re successful because we we really want to affect people. We really want to help find that path. And if you’re happy with what you’re doing, that’s great. That’s great. Uh even if you’re happy with what you’re doing and you want to just try something else on the side, that’s great. But uh let me just read what Caho, our star, has said about this. It’ll take about a minute and a half. Sorry. That’s fine. Okay. We have an hour show by um she’s actually she’s amazing. She’s done six interviews now. Uh she’s a phen oh my she’s just phenomenal. She is so upfront. She’s there’s not one fake bone in her body. Um so she says first and foremost if you haven’t established your own identity no matter how wonderful a person you meet you’ll always end up living to match someone else’s expectations. Mikuko her character values herself deep down and that’s why she’s distressed and wants to escape her gloomy circumstances. Sorry this is chat GPT this is not me um writing but she never had the putting herself first. She was used to always considering others feelings, raising a daughter, caring for a parent, working at a company. While trying to fulfill all these roles, she lost her own voice. That’s why I went into filming with the theme, is it wrong to value yourself? So, this is Kaho. After all, it’s your life. You should be the protagonist. If you’re not shining, you can’t light up those around you. If you’re worn down, you don’t have the energy to help others. So living in a way that values yourself is not the same as being selfish. I hope people can realize that. And then finally she says the key to turning your life around is to let go of fixed ideas. Let go of the shoulds and the musts and your world will change. This film and Miko taught me that. Thank you. Go. If you stay in your own narrow world, you’ll never take new steps forward. Instead, listen to people with different values. be curious and that might spark your own transformation. This mindset was strengthened by rules of living through this film. What I want to convey is anyone can make themselves happy. It’s a beautiful work. I hope many people will see it. Thank you, K. Lovely. No, it’s great because I have lived in Japan for over 24 years now and I come from a culture which has a lot of um let’s say shared value with the Japanese culture and I can relate to a lot of uh what you just read to us because I mean not only because of my own culture but also I have watched my mother-in-law for example and relatives and women uh I have met here friends as well and um Yeah, it is really overwhelming and because of the societal expectations, people just don’t look deeper into this um because everybody there is a role in society for everybody for men, for women, for children, for the elderly and and so on and so on. And these roles are accepted and they’re never questioned, right? But most of the time and I’m saying this because women they do have a lot of responsibilities there are a lot of expectations uh concerning them but also it’s the same with everybody men as well right and I’m really I was happy to hear you say that men also can relate to the story and uh it’s kind of cathartic to them as well because for women I’m sure that it is but uh We need movies like that who can appeal to different members of society so that eventually they get together and that that feeling is shared right and so that they can move forward together. So um I wanted also to ask you maybe it’s a little bit too early but is there a website where people can find the schedule the screening schedule of the movie in Japan? Yeah, our main website unfortunately is in Japanese. Uh, but hey, chat GBT. Yes, I used to have to ask my wife everything to translate. I just now copy, you know, and to get in the information, get just getting the information is it’s perfectly fine. So anyway, whatever you use AI, use it. We are at r-living.jp. r-living.jp and that will have that has lots of information. It has critiques from three very famous uh Japanese critics. We’ve also had five-star critiques from American critics as well. Um that those aren’t on there. Uh it has our schedule for tomorrow uh for the stage greetings. Uh it also has our newest trailer. Um please watch it. It’s great. And then at the very bottom, it has a listing of all the theaters. So again, in Japanese. The problem is in Japan, the theaters only put their schedule up three days ahead. So, exactly. If you want to reserve a ticket a week from now, you can’t uh for most of them. Some of them still you you you can still can, but a lot of people just show up at the theater anyway. Uh and right now is a pretty down time. We’ve been looking all across the boards at all the movies and you know our 15 people that saw it at 8 o’clock in the morning. Um that’s kind of part for the course for all the movies that are happening right now. Um so you can find the listings there and then you just go to the websites of the theaters. Again our most our main one is Shinjuku Piccadilli. Uh, and then you punch in there. They’ll say, so today is the uh, 19th. So they’ll have the schedule up through seats, you buy your tickets, and that’s it. Michael Ryan just posted the comment um, on the comment board. He just posted the website. So for those who are watching, check. Yes. Thank you, Michael. Yes. And Andrew says, “Hello, and thanks for creating, Mr. Dale.” Thank you. Now getting back to the film being is it autobiographical or did you just take these kind of like this collection of things that happened to you? Like how far removed is the film from the actual events of your life? Did you create because it seems like you weren’t necessarily a person who that free spirit who would come in and just wanted to like you know surf or whatever. You obviously have you know when you came to Japan you had work you had things going on as well. So, how much of it was made up? How much of it is really your life? I’m a thinker. I sit back and look and watch and listen and I miss opportunities a lot because I’m not a doer. I don’t jump in. So, I think Vincent, my character, uh, his past is kind of like that, but he also was not a very nice person. And so he wanted he was very successful but he really wanted to break off from that because it ruined his life. So he’s gone totally opposite and he’s like a little kid now backpacking around the world with no cares, no cell phone, very little money. Um so as as a director and as a writer as as I said before you don’t leap into a character. I’ve played as I said bad guys. Um, in one movie I was a real Can I say on this? I just said, “Oh, sure. That’s okay.” Yeah. Okay. I was a real So, I’m not. But how do I play that? But I’ve done shitty things and I’ve used shitty behavior before. So, my method is you just you you learn all those behaviors as an actor so that you can use them anytime. And even nasty behaviors, if they’re used in a good context, right, they’re not horrible. So, you just reshape your personal recipe to become somebody. Vincent was not that far away from me in terms of who he is now. Uh, except he’s much happier and much more uh uh I get just free will. Uh, I could never do what Vincent does, but I did backpack around Asia when I was 30 for a total of 11 months. And this was insane. Insane for me. If you told me at age 25 that this would happen, no way. Um, but again, serendipity. Pure serendipity. I was just at a party and somebody that I really didn’t know, didn’t really like, kind of a stuckup person was talking to somebody else and I just happened to overhear him say, “Oh yeah, I backpacked around Southeast Asia. It was amazing.” And I went, “You you backpacked?” And then that just opened the door. I started to look into it. I swear to God, if I had been two yards away from him, I would not be sitting here today. So life is just full full full. And I it wasn’t even somebody that I’d ever talked to, you know. Um if I had had a cold that day and not gone to the party, if you know he hadn’t talked about his experiences, all these things that can change your life. Uh so yeah, there’s a lot of Vincent that I wish I could do. I wish I could be as free and open. Um, but that’s a part of me as well. It’s in me. Uh, so it was a blast to be able to to play him. Um, and it kind of was the only character I’ve ever played who is just nice. Totally. Um, but he he ends up kind of ruining from his point of view, he ends up ruining Miko’s standard stayed life and he feels very guilty about that. But I won’t give away too much. Yeah. Yeah. Go see the movie, everybody. Go see it. So, a lot of people, you know, they dream about making films. And I think more and more people want to make films in Japan. I think part of why our podcast has gotten such attention is because it’s sort of a trending topic. So, what lessons did you learn doing writing, directing, producing, and acting in your first film, doing all this at once? What lessons did you learn that you would impart on filmmakers wanting to do the same thing? Yeah, I was afraid. I know that’s a loaded question. I’m sorry. Okay. Well, let me let me start with the negatives first. Okay. Um, as I said before, they shoot 16 scenes a day. Uh, if you go to NHK, which is the stateowned broadcaster, they have phenomenal facilities. they in one room they can create four intertwined sets um and then strike it for the next day and then just have a blue screen, green screen the next day. Um they have a uh a roof, a ceiling with lights all on tracks that a computer just resets with the gels so that nobody’s up there on ladders resetting things. So that’s TV. The movies is still probably kind of like the 1960s in America. Um, honestly, it’s duct tape and, you know, uh, something to block the sun and filters and glue and then somebody hanging there, you know, holding it up. Uh, they get it done. They get it done super fast. Um, for us, our cinematographer was incredibly picky about the lighting, so he refused to have that type of kind of Yeah, I don’t want to say Mickey Mouse because it actually works. Um but he wanted a more a deeper vision uh for his film and he did beautifully and he worked with the uh the lighting designer. Um everybody’s sick, everybody gets colds because they’re working. They’re constantly working. They’re just so exhausted. Um, and you know, some of the directors still are from the 1940s and they yell at people. Uh, you I believe in love. I believe in positivity. I believe in bringing um joy into the shooting process. But it’s work. It’s work. You must come prepared. You must. Yeah. Um, in Japan, they also believe in one take, literally. Oh, 95% of all the movies, all the TV shows that I’ve done, one take for each angle. So they they set it up, they take it, that’s it. It’s in the can. And so what I do is I run to the director and I peek over his shoulder at the playback and then I see what I’ve done and then I will adjust what I’ve done for the next take. And obviously that one’s in the can. So you can’t change that much, but that’s how I have developed a way of dealing with this. and I just figure out how to make it funnier or deeper or more communicative. Um, so for us, the weird thing is that because we’re lowbudget, uh we didn’t have choices in location, we had uh for our main uh set, which is Mikugo’s home, which is one-third of the entire movie, we were 20 yards away from a main train line. Three, four minutes. every three, four minutes. So the sound guy was cut, cut, you know, we can’t do it. So we’d have to retake. Um, but the beauty is that everyone was so professional that actually coo she would just get deeper every time. She wouldn’t like do something completely crazy because really I don’t believe in that. I believe that you rehearse it, you figure out what you want to do, and then you just you you polish you polish that. If you have a little bit of inspiration while you’re doing it, that’s great, too. But you want to, especially if you have several takes, you need to be able to connect them with continu continuity, of course. Um, she would just get deeper. She would get funnier. Uh, and we all had to do that sometimes because we had four, five takes because of sound problems. Um, one of the themes in the movie is how horrible the Japanese are at English. And I make fun of it. And my character Vincent has to teach at a school and he’s horrible. He’s a horrible English teacher. Um, but the Japanese have been learning English for 80 years and they’ve been learning it from the 1920s. So, and they still learn from the 1920s is what I want to say. So, they have an a vested interest in people not being proficient in English. So, when I was on court, yeah, working uh part-time, we had this 80s, we had tons of Japanese tourists who would come. They came on Jalo, they stayed in a Japanese hotel, they went on Japanese buses, they ate at Japanese restaurants. The only thing that they bought in America in their one week was shoes from me and bags from uh Chanel. Every single yen was spent in Japan. So, sorry, you know, this is political. Japan had a vested interest in keeping everybody not proficient so that they wouldn’t go off on their own. They would have to go on a tour. they would have to spend money in Japan for Japan, no matter where they went. So, you will find extraordinarily hilarious misuses of English here. And just as an example, um our uh props guy, we have a calendar in the movie, he showed me the calendar that he made, August, September, um spelling misses in the calendar. Right. Right. at a place where Mikoko has to eat what Vincent has in the fridge and she’s interested in blue cheese. And of course, she has a weird expression. And five minutes before the shooting, I’m double-checking and I look, cheese is spelled ches on the label that he has painstakingly created, but he never checked the English. So then we’re running to the convenience store to try and get a little uh trademark, you know, the little R thing so that the cheese is actually the name of the company instead of a spelling mistake. Um just crazy crazy stuff you have to deal with here. Um has it gotten better because I know or has it just been the consistently this way? Because I know a lot of things have changed over the last 20 years, but has this has this has this changed at all or no? Again, it’s low budget. So, we ran into problems that a big budget would not have or even a mid midsize budget. The beauty is that the Japanese really incorporate a lot from the western world and from Asia. They want to at least half of the things that they show here are from outside Japan. uh they want to learn, they want to experience different cultures. Um, of course there are barriers, but if you really want to work here or even bring something over or do a a joint venture, um, you will need to have people who understand the business here. you will need to doublech checkck the people who are interpreting for you because they too have nobody to check them. So many many times you will have a Japanese interpreter who is not bilingual, who’s not fluent, and you don’t really know if what you’re saying is getting through to the people. Um, but it’s an extraordinary experience to be in a different country and creating and I don’t know if you could get any more different than Japan. Um, the culture, the beauty, uh, the soul of the Japanese, whatever barriers you have are bureaucratic barriers. If you can get to the Japanese themselves, that’s what’s beautiful here. Um the the food of course the the anime um the the architecture, the the na the natural elements, the the temples. Uh it’s extraordinary here and we shot a lot in those areas and it was just uh a thrill, a real thrill. But if you really want to come, then definitely uh you will need to get some kind of bilingual bicultural group. What’s next for you, Greg? Are you still going to obviously you’re still pushing this film, Rules of Living? It’s now it’s going to be all over Japan. Maybe eventually we get to see it in the States a little bit more. Um what’s next for you? Well, we really hope we really hope um you know, even if uh our Japanese run is tough, we have independent cinemas coming up here. Uh we hope that it translates according, you know, from what we’re seeing from the festivals, we really have think it has a global appeal. Uh so we really think this is going to be a big hit. Um it’s a slow burn, so we’re going to survive on word of mouth. We want 80% of people who see this movie to go, “Damn it, I’m calling my mother. I’m getting her down here. I’m calling my brother. I’m calling my sister. I’m calling my daughter. Calling my son, my best friend. Come see this movie.” That’s how we will become successful. Um, I have five screenplays that I’ve written, right? Two are written. So, again, it’s so hard to break into this industry. Um, I’ve tried to shop them around. Uh, I’ve had phenomenal um, critiques uh, from this movie, but still agents will not take me on unless Rules of Living is a success financially in America. Um, so I’m working as best I can. Uh, three of them are huge Hollywood screenplays. One of them is a 1 million budget Japanese movie. Another is about a 50 million Japanese American venture. These are all screenplays. If anybody’s watching has a ton of money or connections, uh you can just reach me somehow through the website. Um I’ve worked a lot on these and everything that I work on has something to do with human nature, but they’re completely different genres. So it it’s like creating a baby. I do not create the same baby at the same time. Each one has its own individual uh character and also that’s what I love because that’s what inspires me to to write. Well, congratulations on getting Rules of Living shown in Japan. I hope we get to have some sort of release here in the States. And you know, for those check out this trailer, it’s it’s a solid trailer. And you don’t say that a lot. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of independent films and you watch the trailer and the trailer is like, hm, okay, maybe you’ll see it. And it ends up being a really good film, but the trailer just doesn’t sell the film like it should. And the first time when I first heard about this film, and I think it was Greg, not Greg, it was uh Jeff, what uh Ro from back way back when. Yeah. He was talking about it and I remember telling him like, “Yeah, that trailer really that’s that’s a that trailer snaps. That is a good trailer.” And I don’t just say that lightly. Um, a good trailer is very very hard to do. And so it got me interested in seeing it right away. So I was just very very happy to have you on the show to be able to talk about Rules of Living here today. Thanks. And one caveat that that trailer, it’s in Japanese. Um, and we are gearing it to the Japanese. Uh, we do have an older trailer that we used for Sedona, which is purely comical. So, if you want to see that, it’s rules of living film.com. And then you can also check us out on Facebook, rules of living feature film. And we’ve got tons of of information about the movie. Uh, you can see our interview at Sedona when uh we won the award. Um, so please uh we need your support. Um, if you’re in America, uh, God, we hope we hope we can come over and meet you personally. And if you’re in Japan, I will be going to, uh, many cinemas dressed as Vincent. And we have a small campaign that you can also see at r-living.com. We’ll be giving away a free backpack, uh, to people who post for us. So, if you’re in Japan, check it out. It’s in English and Japanese. Um, and it’s been a blast being here with you guys. Yeah. Are you going to be in Shinjuku Picadilli this afternoon? Because I it’s on my my schedule to to watch whichever of the screenings still has tickets. So, you’re Yeah, I’m planning to to going Yes. to watch it this afternoon. Be tomorrow, right? Yeah. Our big stage greeting tomorrow. I’m going tonight to watch it with uh my family. Um Maya, will you be there this afternoon? Yes, I I have to check which screening actually still has tickets. Uh Oh, yeah. I still have plenty of tickets. Yeah. Okay, good. So, yes, because my schedule is a little bit fluid, so and I prefer the earlier screening, but if I’m not able to make it, then it will be the later one, but it’s on Yeah. on my schedule today. So, I’ll be there. Yeah. So, uh let me know by email and then if you are, then I’ll try and show up as Vincent. Okay, listeners listening live, you know where they’re going to be in the next few hours. So, feel free to say hello. Yes. Yeah. If you look at the campaign, Where’s Vincent? Uh it’ll explain everything in English and Japanese about come on up, take a selfie with me. Do not be shy. Post it. Say something about the film. Uh, and out of the first 300 people who send us uh who hashtag us, we will send a free backpack to one of you by uh one of you randomly. So, it’s a $300 Gregory backpack. My god, if you needed more incentive, so there you go. It’s It’s a good film. You should go see it. All right, Greg, thank you so much. We’ll see you all again in two weeks. However, um just to let our audience know, I will be on a plane to Japan. So, next week we’ll be uh or next two weeks, uh we’ll just record something. I don’t know what we’re going to do yet. Um but, um I’m hoping to see a lot of uh a lot of my friends and a lot of my podcast peeps um in Japan while I am there. So, um to everybody listening, thank you so much and we’ll catch you again in a little while. Terrific. Thanks everyone. See you. Thank you. [Music]
Greg, a Princeton graduate with a decade of experience in New York theater, has been directing and acting in Broadway-level productions and films in Japan. He has written half a dozen screenplays and recently wrote and directed his debut feature, the romantic comedy “Rules of Living”.
The film won Best Feature Comedy at the 2024 Sedona International Film Festival and has been selected for 12 other festivals worldwide. Starring Minami Kaho, Shiina Kippei, Sumire, and Kawakita Mayuko, “Rules of Living” premieres Friday, September 20th, with a roadshow at Shinjuku Piccadilly and 60 other cinemas across Japan.
More from this podcast: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLD_K55pXIzjUzldfsRrVM_5-Qxi20zyYo&si=lUAaQp_d4Ma0LeA-
This podcast was fun to make and watch: https://www.youtube.com/live/ggx8NBp_Wi8?si=bGUvhzBMQtkO5Vuw
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