Interviewer:
You started making mockumentaries and found footage very early in your career. What attracts you to this filmmaking device?
Kôji Shiraishi:
Thank you for this question. Before that, I had watched a Belgian film called Man Bites Dog (1992), and I started watching quite a lot of found footage with my friends. I also began experimenting myself in an amateur way. I didn’t find it realistic enough; something was missing, an identity in my work, and I reflected a lot on how things could be done in a more realistic way, as if they really existed.
Man Bites Dog was truly my first encounter with the mockumentary genre, and it is the one that marked me the most and made me love the genre.
But before that, in Japan, there was Psychic Vision: Jaganrei (1998), which I also watched and appreciated a lot. I thought it was nice, but there was still the problem that it felt very acted, too theatrical; I couldn’t really get into it.
When I saw Man Bites Dog, I found it much more realistic. It felt like real people, even in the way it was filmed. Even though you can feel it is handheld, you are really immersed in it.
From that moment on, I realized this was the kind of genre I truly liked.
To continue, I understood that I liked mockumentaries and wanted to make videos in that style, but I was at a very poor university with very limited means. I was part of the university film club.
At that time, we were lucky enough to have a small 8mm camera, and we were very happy about it. We decided to make our first real attempts with it. It took us almost two years, making small films every day.
We found it very immersive, the result looked clean, and that is how I started out.
Interviewer:
Where did the project Noroi: The Curse come from?
Kôji Shiraishi:
At that time, I was working on Honto ni Atta! Noroi no Video, and I was already producing some films.
I was also watching Ring (1998) by Hiroshi Takahashi, and… I don’t know if you are familiar with “Onmyōji”. It is a form of magic, a spirituality that existed during the Heian era in Japan.
I wanted to make a film about people who use this magic, so I made a film called Onmyoji (2001).
I shot it and showed it to the screenwriter of Ring (Hiroshi Takahashi). He was very convinced by what I showed him, and from there we decided to start working together.
We explored many ideas before settling on Noroi, but it was really from that small part of Onmyoji that I presented that I convinced him.
Interviewer:
How did you direct your actors on Noroi? Did you leave room for improvisation, or was everything tightly scripted?
Kôji Shiraishi:
For auditions, we first had a script, but there were also parts where we let them express themselves freely.
However, the film itself also had a script that had to be followed. I wrote lines that needed to be spoken, but I did not want people to simply read their text.
We allowed freedom in how they expressed it, as long as the message was conveyed and not distorted.
Interviewer:
Noroi is striking for its length; it has a real narrative ambition compared to many horror mockumentaries, which are much shorter. Could you talk about the writing process with screenwriter Naoyuki Yokota and Hiroshi Takahashi?
Kôji Shiraishi:
First, I would like to clarify something: I did not write with Takahashi. He supported me and brought me into the project, and I was later introduced to Yokota.
He is the one who essentially built the core of Noroi.
Without cuts, we shot almost 3 hours and 30 minutes of film; it was quite intense.
What I particularly liked about him is that he was sensitive to sounds, and it was with him that we came up with the word “kagutaba”, which sounded quite horrific.
He was studying in something like a “club” related to sound and music. He was passionate about sounds, music, and sonic textures. He had a real sensitivity to that, which I appreciated a lot.
Unfortunately, he passed away from illness a few years ago.
Interviewer:
Noroi is structured like an investigation, hinting at a much larger story that both the audience and the characters only partially perceive. Did you have a complete mythology from the start, or did you intentionally leave gaps in your own script?
Kôji Shiraishi:
I really like John Carpenter’s films, especially The Thing (1982), where things are not necessarily shown visually but felt instead, and that is something I also wanted to convey in Noroi.
I wanted to leave areas unseen so that the audience’s imagination could work.
I also liked dispersing details throughout the film. Eventually, those details come together, and the viewer realizes the deeper structure of what is happening.
I did not try to explain everything, because I value imagination, sensation, and mystery.
I would also like to add something: I was also inspired by mythological frameworks like Cthulhu, the idea of an imaginary world with an evil deity influencing Earth and humanity in a negative way.
I had that idea in mind, but I did not tell anyone. I do not think even Yokota knew it was in my head.
I built Noroi with that idea in mind as well.
I did not want to directly feature an evil god, but instead something closer to a curse, a ghost, or something more familiar.
I did not tell the production directly, because I was sure they would reject it and insist on sticking to ghosts, curses, or possessions.
Interviewer:
Could you talk about the shoot?
Kôji Shiraishi:
Yes, it was not easy.
What we did was watch a lot of Japanese variety shows to make it feel realistic, especially *Unbelievable*, which Takashi participated in and wrote for.
We noticed that Japanese variety shows often use a lot of small captions and on-screen text.
But in cinema, we could not use that much, so we reduced it when Kobayashi appears, because we were more focused on image and aesthetics.
Having real actors also added realism, because they were used to television work, so it really feels like a real documentary or Japanese TV program.
That was very positive for us.
I also want to emphasize that every time we filmed, we stopped after each take and zoomed in to check whether it felt realistic.
I think I was quite annoying about repeating that many times during the shoot.
Interviewer:
Did you develop any kind of commentary on Japanese society through Noroi? If so, what was it, and through which elements?
Kôji Shiraishi:
At the time, no, it was not intentional. I did not set out to make a social commentary.
But last year, my film was shown for the first time in Canada, and I had the chance to see it again on the big screen.
I realized there is a recurring theme: the presence of a god, nature, or something invisible on one side, and humans on the other.
It is like a separate dimension for each side.
That invisible dimension can be frightening, mysterious, or perceived as natural disasters or forces beyond control.
Perhaps that is also what I was expressing, but it was not a conscious decision.
Interviewer:
Out of the hundred films you have made, did you expect Noroi to become the most renowned, especially in the West? Why do you think it became so successful over time?
Kôji Shiraishi:
At the time there was The Blair Witch Project (1999), which was very popular.
When I released Noroi, there was some sense of inspiration, but it was different, and it was Japanese.
I was not known at all, but I worked with well-known television actors, which helped attract attention.
People were curious: “What is this film with known actors?”
It was not a hit at the time, but it stayed in people’s minds.
Over time in Japan, people started talking more about it, but the recognition came gradually.
I also made the film thinking about international audiences. I wanted people abroad to understand Japanese mythology and nature, and Japan more broadly.
That is partly why it became more recognized overseas.
I emphasized mystery, realism, and the occult, and that is what resonated.
But I did not expect it to become my most viewed film.
Last year I produced KINKI (2025). I had more money than for Noroi, but I could not really achieve what I wanted.
For 20 years I have been waiting to have more resources to make an even more realistic film, but I have not managed to surpass what I did with Noroi.
Interviewer:
Does it change your view of Noroi to see that it influences a new generation of works and artists today?
Kôji Shiraishi:
Before, there were no social networks, so I had no feedback from audiences. I did not know what people thought.
I went to the cinema to watch my own film, and observed reactions directly, especially school students in front of me who were very surprised.
After the film, I heard them asking each other whether it was real, which I found very interesting.
Even in magazines, my film wasn’t mentioned.
Only years later, with social networks, did I start receiving messages from people saying they had seen the film and loved it.
I was happy and proud to have made it.