“This city is a kind of sanctu­ary for me”, says Masato Harada.He came here for the first time in 1972 when he met Howard Hawks, his mentor and friend. It was a key moment in his career,“in actual fact, my career begun here”. After 36 years, he’s back.“I’m greatful to the Fes­tival committee members for having given me an ex­cuse to come back; not just as a competitor, but also as a Jury member”.

Harada has also presen­ted his well known film Jubaku/Spellbound (1999) in the thematic retrospective Japanese Film Noir.“Un­fortunately, this genre is dead in Japan.We all love film noir, but if you mention this genre when you present your project, no one takes it seri­ously. It’s really frustrating”.

The Japanese director is currently working on three projects,two of which are co­financed by an American and a British producer respec­tively.“This is the new trend”, explains Harada,“foreign investors that are interested in shooting films in Japan or with a Japanese story hire Japanese directors. I think this is something really inte­resting and enriching”.