Interview - The price we pay : Let’s talk with the director Ryuhei Kitamura

By Mulder, Los Angeles, 11 january 2023

The Price We Pay is a 2022 American action thriller film directed by Ryuhei Kitamura and starring Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff.The film is set to release on Video On Demand on January 10, 2023 and in select theaters on January 13, 2023. 

Q :  After, Azumi (2003), Godzilla : Final Wars (2004), Midnight meat train (2008), Downrand (2017) and The doorman (2020), The price we pay (2023) is your new movie. How do you look back on your career today and what memories do you have of your early days as a director and scriptwriter?

Ryuhei Kitamura : Well, you're asking me a deep question. I don't think we ever we need like two hours to look back at North Korea but you know I've been just doing what I really love you know. I grew up watching all those great 70s 80s 90s action movies, horror movies.  I mean even the romantic comedy all kind of movies and when I was 17 I just decided that you know this is what I wanna you know try. This is what I want to do. I want to make movies so since I was 17 when I quit high school because I made up my mind. I want to be the film director and because I love movie like Mad Max, Highlander Razorback you know Chain Reaction all those Australian movies I went down under and I started you know studying filmmaking over there right then I went back to Japan and started doing this indie film making and this movie I did 23 years ago called Versus. This crazy zombie Samurai youngster kung fu movie which basically made me famous and then you know I had an opportunity to do this big movie at Zumi in Japan and which made me famous in Japan and then I got a chance to do Godzilla which was like owner then after the Godzilla I came to Hollywood and yes you know I did my first American movie Midnight Meat Train and I was a huge fan of live workers so it was like truly honored to do that so. Since then, I mean from the very early of my career I've been just chasing my dream, chasing my passion and just doing what I what I love it is it is my job you know film directing is my job but it's not really a job it's just I don't know it's me it's myself my life my everything so you know I love watching movies and I like I love making movies so that's what I do.

Q :  Can you tell us the story of this film in a few words ?

Ryuhei Kitamura : story of the price we pay this title says it all you know this is the story about you know consequences you do something always there's something you have to pay right so a good or bad and this is the story of you know bad people do bad things then you know they encounter even bigger bad things and this just few innocent people who Stuck in the Middle trying to survive that's what it is okay nice.

Q : What Can you tell us about your filming ? 

Ryuhei Kitamura : Location we shot this and two years ago in New Mexico in July August so like it was like seriously so hot it's so hot and the shooting was this was very everything happened you know very fast so we had only 15 days to shoot this movie so every day was like rush rush rush you know yelling yelling and shouting and fighting running shooting blood so. It was very chaotic but I think we were managed to keep that you know maintain that you know tension and capture it on screen so I I'm really you know proud of especially like final 20, 30 minutes of the movie every when everything goes crazy I just wanted to you know this was like a fun project for me you know. I just wanted to go back to my roots which is like 90s you know horror movie action movie Crazy movie and I just wanted to have fun you know where's Great star like Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff and Vernon Wells from Mad Max too so it was you know it was fun 

Q :  What should be for you a good acting direction? What can you tell us about you work with Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Gigi Zumbado on this movie ?

Ryuhei Kitamura : Emile Hirsch was the driving force of this movie you know. This was originally supposed to be very small like a friends project. I was thinking about just bringing my friends and just do it somewhere you know then Emile got the script and he loved it and he got on board and he you know made a phone call to Stephen Dorff and Stephen called me and we chat for 10 minutes and then we all decided to do then at the audition. I found Gigi Zumbado and you know just like that you know and everybody came on board maybe probably because right it was right after the lockdown you know we all were like bored and we wanted to just you know go out and do crazy things so you know everybody had this very like this super high energy high tension so you know a meal especially Emile was like you know working with me even on the script too he every day he came up with a new idea there was this Russian Roulette scene in the movie which I love that wasn't on the script you know that was the meal came up is that idea so you know we started talking and we changed the script and we did that and so you know not only as an actor Emile helped me you know as more like a co-creator of this project and Stephen Dorff you know he's such a professional such as you know intense guy so you know I wasn't even sure you know like a day is that you know are you Stephen or are you the Indie character Cody which are you so so everybody was great in this movie

Q :  What were your main sources of inspiration for this movie ?

Ryuhei Kitamura : inspiration was came from this super talented London-based writer Christopher Jolley because like I said you know it was locked down you know. We had not you know like everybody else we had not much to do anyway so I met him online and we started talking about what we love and we felt very good vibe so you know I said you know wow other than you know just getting depressed and worry about it in the future you know if this is the end of the world yeah that's it but I don't think this is some of this you know fun idea so that when the world opens up let's go out and do something and Chris Jolie came up with this concept of Grandfather the doctor the one on Wells claim which is he is a serial killer but he has he's you know kind of like code of honor you know he has his reason why he's doing it and that fascinated me so that's when we really started working on the script.

Q : What can you tell us about long collaboration with the cinematographer Matthias Schubert ?

Ryuhei Kitamura : my DB Matthias. I again he is like my uh probably one of my most important people when I make movie and I found him I met him when I was doing the downrange and downrange was like almost like very very small Indie style get rid of style filmmaking so I was looking for not spoil the Hollywood crew somebody who think work like me you know which is like you know when I work it is my work but like I said it's not my work so I take it very seriously so I don't really care about over time or you know how much are getting paid or something like that you know or weekend you know once I get the movie I'm just like 300 and Matthias was like that so when I met him in downrange I was like this guy is like you know super talented and super passionate and he's super nice guy you know so uh he's been my friend he's like my brother so since downrange he's been shooting my movie so uh yes even though we only had 15 days to shoot this movie which was very short but I had Matthias so I knew that you know we're going to survive he's amazing he has this you know his own you know unique visual style and he understand what I see and he always come up with something more he's not the guy just do what I tell him to do he always come up with his own idea which I love.

Q : You have made films in Japan and the United States, what are the main differences you see? Which are your currents projects ?

Ryuhei Kitamura : Last year I just did my first Japanese movie in nine years and you know I shot that two years ago and it just movie came out in the last year and now I'm working on my next movie which we will start shooting disabled this American movie. So yes, you know Japanese film industry and Hollywood industry they have very different system you know for example Japan we don't have unions so we don't need to care about over time which is good and bad but you know my record when I was shooting movie in Japan was 46 hours non-stop not even lunch break you know if I do that in America I'll be in jail right so there is a different system but you know basically you know most important thing about the making movie is communicate you talk to the producer you talk to the writer talk to the crew talk to the cast and that's what I do so I don't really you know think there's much difference and I I enjoy you know whatever you know I can make movie.

Synopsis : 
After an intense heist at a pawn shop, Grace is taken hostage by the robbers. Forced to take refuge in a remote farmhouse late at night, they discover a secret dungeon with evidence of sadistic violence - and when Grandpa returns home, all hell breaks loose. Can Grace find the courage to escape the heartbreaking fate of her fellow criminals ?

The price we pay
Directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
Produced by Andre Relis
Written by Christopher Jolley, Todd Lundbohm, Robert Dean, Bill Kellman
Starring Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Gigi Zumbado, Amazon Eve
Music by Aldo Shllaku
Cinematography: Matthias Schubert
Edited by Shohei Kitajima
Production companies : VMI Worldwide, 828 Media Capital, Buffalo 8
Distributed by Lionsgate (United States)
Release date : January 13, 2023
Running time : 86 minutes