Whatever the place or occasion -- including a hurried press interview in the middle of a film festival, as happened at April's Udine Far East Film Festival for the screening of his first English-language film "Imprint" -- Takashi Miike is always gracious, patient, thoughtful and well spoken. In other words, he is an ideal interviewee -- and the exact opposite of the taboo-shattering, anything-goes wild man that you might imagine he is if you watch his films.
There's been some talk that you wanted [U.S. television network] Showtime not to broadcast "Imprint."
No, I like being free, but I don't want my freedom to make trouble for others. I thought that I was right up to the limit of what American television would tolerate. As I was making the film I kept checking to make sure that I wasn't going over the line, but I evidently misestimated. Business-wise, it would have been better to make cuts so the film could have been broadcast, but (the producers) thought the film was interesting as it was. They decided it would be better to screen it without cuts at film festivals and release it on DVD.
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