In terms of making TV drama, not everything has to make sense. In cinema, you usually strive for reality and a natural environment, but in TV, it's more acceptable to do something crazy and break with naturalism.

And if I'm running away from something, I try to make myself face it and overcome that initial fear. As a director, I don't think it's possible to make a movie that you really don't want to make.

The reason I like incorporating the Yakuza into my movies - all their actions, everything they do, you can say 'It's ok because he's a Yakuza'. Changes happen very quickly in their world. If you were trying to make a movie about politicians, it would takes years and years for something to change; whereas for Yakuzas, it could only take one night and things can change dramatically.

You can't really change somebody completely, deep inside your nature. But I think what I did was admit to myself what kind of a person I was, and sort of get into the idea that that's who I was. And I think preserving that part of myself really helps me make movies.

Every medium has its own kind of freedom. I don't want to just cross from one to the next. I want to enjoy the freedom each one has. Sometimes, you can do something for TV that you can't do in the cinema.

When you are completely satisfied with what you have made, you're pretty much done as a director. So when that happens, that'll sort of be the end.

I think the reason why I have so many movies to my credit is that I never say no to any project, I never veto anything. I sort of challenge myself to do stuff, even if it's something that I've never done before.