Ultimately I'm making movies because of the producers and I don't want to disappoint my producer. It's always a tough balance to figure out how far I listen to them though.

I believe Korea is making the best movies. Only in Korea - you can do whatever you want to without any rating system or whatever. They can make world-class karate movies and make lots of money, which is very important.

The Hollywood system has its own problems. Movie making is never an easy job.

Hollywood industry people are very spoiled. I don't think they can adjust to the insane, no-money, super-hard working tradition of Japanese filmmaking. I don't think any American can go through that. They don't want to work more than twelve hours and they want Saturday and Sunday off.

Moviemaking is a hard job and this industry is crazy. You never know what is going to happen.

If I could finance my own movies, I would be doing it.

I brought in two genius guys from Korea. Guys who did my favorite movies like Oldboy and The Man from Nowhere. It was fun working with them. Even though they don't speak Japanese and I don't speak Korean, I knew from day one we were speaking the same language because they love my work and I love theirs. We instantly connected. There was zero frustration.