Directors who become known as horror specialists often end up making little else, whether by choice or not. Labeled a ¡°horrormeister¡± for such supremely creepy films as ¡°Cure¡± (1997) and ¡°Pulse¡± (Kairo, 2001), Kiyoshi Kurosawa is one director who has successfully expanded beyond the genre with his dark family drama ¡°Tokyo Sonata¡± (2008), which won the Jury Prize in the Cannes film festival¡¯s Un Certain Regard section.

His latest film, ¡°The Woman in the Silver Plate¡± (¡°Dagereo Taipu no Onna¡°), is both a return to horror and a departure from his previous work. It is the first time the director has worked in a foreign country (France) and in a foreign language, but unlike Francophile colleagues Koji Fukada and Masahiro Kobayashi, he has not filmed an homage to French cinema and its masters. Based on his own story and script, ¡°The Woman in the Silver Plate¡± is completely Kurosawa in every frame.

In ¡°The Woman in the Silver Plate,¡± an assistant (Tahar Rahim) to a modern-day daguerreotype photographer (Olivier Gourmet) falls for the photographer¡¯s ethereally lovely daughter Marie (Constance Rousseau) ¡ª and their relationship continues after her untimely death. Prior to its premiere at this year¡¯s Toronto International Film Festival, The Japan Times spoke with Kurosawa about this most unusual project of his long career.