cult Japanese filmmaker Shunji Iwai on emotionally connecting through cinema • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

This ties into my next question. You work in many different mediums—films, novels, music. Is this important to your creative process?

Well, when I look back at my original impulse to become a filmmaker, it was really just that one day I had the thought: “I want to make a film.” And when I want to do something, I kind of can’t stop myself.

If I had walked past a boxing gym, and if the thought had crossed my mind, “Hey, that’s something I want to try,” I could have easily become a boxer [instead]. That’s how easily influenced I am. And it;s a series of those things happening to me that have led to where I am today.

I was interested in making manga. If we go back even further into my childhood, I wanted to be a scientist. I had many different dreams. But as for where I am in my career today, I would say novelist came first—then I wanted to make a film. And then, when I was a university student, I remember thinking, “If only I knew how to play an instrument, I’d be a musician.” Eventually, I couldn’t give up on that one, and so now I’m trying my hand at music.

So there are many pathways to how these various impulses have become a reality in my life, but that’s just my personality.