Kiyoshi Kurosawa is God's gift to film journalists. He speaks slowly and distinctly, in a rumbling baritone, weighing each word -- and giving even the most fumble-fingered reporter time to get everything down. He is also patient with questions that, after the 20th media interview, he has heard 20 times before. When I met him on the set of "Kairo" last spring, he was nearing the end of the shoot and was in a receptive mood, if decidedly eager to get to his lunch.
Somehow the story of the film reminds me of "The Ring" -- the dead invade the world of the living via a technology that is still alien to a lot of people.
"It's a coincidence. A script writer on 'The Ring,' Hiroshi Takahashi, has been a friend of mine going way back. We think alike, and our ways of approaching this type of horror film are similar. So perhaps it was inevitable that 'The Ring' and this film should resemble each other. . . . But when it's finished it's going to be quite different."