“I take on a variety of work,” reflects Miike. “It’s all film–I don’t really differentiate between modes. I wasn’t conscious of taking on documentary, but I would say it’s a natural progression. Kabuki artist Danjūrō turned up in front of me eight years ago and gave me the opportunity to film him. There’s no way I could say no to that kind of opportunity.”

Danjūrō’s signature glare is reminiscent of other iconic Miike protagonists, such as Asano Tadanobu’s Kakihara from “Ichi the Killer.“

“When you perform on stage, your emotions surge, but there’s subtlety to it,” says Miike. “With anger or sadness on stage, you have to follow the rules and the story in those expressions. In performing emotions, your actual emotions are killed. Stage performance is quite different from film performance. When [Danjūrō] acts in my films, he liberates himself”.

Miike had directed stage performance in his filmed theater production “Demon Pond“ and horror feature “Over Your Dead Body,“ but he adopted different approach to documenting Ichikawa Danjūrō’s kabuki engagements.

“This time, I didn’t want to give any direction to the stage work,” says Miike. “I wanted it raw, as simple as possible — to show who Danjūrō and his son are. Some audiences will surely find the beauty of kabuki pleasing, but capturing that wasn’t my primary purpose.

It’s more to make them wonder what kind of people these two subjects are, to pique their interest in seeing them perform in person. If I succeed in that, then I’ll be really happy”