A Contented Tiger Living His Dreams
INTERVIEWER What sort of message do you think viewers will get from Tiger’s way of life?
SATŌ The fact that he has kept delivering newspapers for all these years in this getup is amazing. He has made something difficult happen. You can’t do that unless you have a strong will. He has kept at the same thing all along, not for money but as his dream. I think this is ideal. People may want to live their dream, but their weakness generally prevents them from doing so. I want viewers to see that it’s possible, that somebody like Tiger actually exists.
TIGER Money and power mean nothing to me. I let my dead brother’s three children have my entire share of my parents’ estate. I’ve never focused on money. It’s best not to let it fetter you at all. That’s what it means to be a tiger.
Tiger squeezes through a narrow door backstage at Theatre Shinjuku. His bulky costume weighs more than 10 kilograms.INTERVIEWER You distribute newspapers, but do you read them?
TIGER I just glance at the front page. It’s not that I have no interest in politics or social issues, but if it’s on the front page I can’t help seeing it. There’s never anything good written on the politics pages. But I do watch socially aware nonfiction films. When I see a movie, even if I find it uninteresting, I’m glad to have the experience of seeing it. There’s always something to gain. But I’m not involved in any sort of political or religious activity. For me it’s just movies and beautiful women. That’s what I believe in. I don’t need anything else.
INTERVIEWER A lot of young people in today’s society apparently feel difficulty in living.
TIGER Lots of people say pessimistic things, but it’s best to have happy thoughts. It’s a tough world, and if you let the darkness get to you, you get dark too. You need to find some light in the darkness, even if it’s faint. If you can wield both light and darkness, your possibilities are infinite. And if you watch Star Wars and Star Trek, you realize how small human beings are when they venture out into space.
INTERVIEWER Did you gain anything by making a film in a style different from anything you had done before?
SATŌ Up to now my thinking about films didn’t include the concept of bringing dreams into the foreground. But for me, Tiger was a dream incarnate, and I wanted to show that. It was an eye-opener to see that somebody could express themselves the way he does. In my next work, I intend to return to the topic of my previous film, which dealt with the death penalty.
TIGER The film Satō made this time presented me in an attractive light and gave a clear view all the way inside my heart. His work is amazing—better than perfect. What he shot was the real me, but what we see on the screen has enhanced power and looks like a dream. I was overwhelmed to see it. Frankly he’s a genius.
SATŌ See, he talks like that not just to beautiful women but to men too. And it feels good to be flattered.
(Originally published in Japanese. Interview photos by Hanai Tomoko. Interview and text by Matsumoto Takuya of Nippon.com. All photos © “Shinjuku Taigā” Production Committee.)
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