Why was it important to you to make a film about Tatsumi and his work?
When I was approached by Times Publishing decades ago to come up with a graphic novel, I was really excited but was told I had only three months to deliver the finished product. Then, destiny came into play—a friend passed me a collection of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s short stories and I was blown away. I was on such a high that it took me only two weeks to come up with over 90 pages of stories and I made it in time for the book fair—all thanks to Tatsumi Sensei. Some of my early short films were also inspired by his stories.

This is your first foray into animation. How different was it to your previous work?
As I started as a comic artist, it helped a great deal in I saw the final product to be, and for some of the stories I directed actors to play out the parts and have the animators follow the timing. I usually direct a film in two weeks so this was my longest project to date—eight months for directing the animation.

Tell us more about Tatsumi’s travels.
Tatsumi has been invited to over 50 international festivals but it’s tricky to let the film travel to all. I’m so honored that it went to Cannes, Annecy (the world’s leading animation festival) and Sitges, the most influential and fantastic film festival.

Tatsumi is now screening exclusively at GV VivoCity and Plaza Singapura.