"I think music videos in particular and film in general - it's really good at communicating tone and feeling."
"In Japan, animation is a big part of your media diet. I moved out to Los Angeles at 9, and when I got homesick, I would watch anime."
"I love David Lynch movies, and I like Haruki Murakami books."
"I like absurdist aesthetics. There's something about dream logic that's really fascinating, how it interweaves with narrative."
"I thought there was a way of marrying what I wanted to do with filmmaking with pop videos, which I found out through a couple projects just wasn't possible. That's not saying anything about the artist. If you're making an Usher video, you're making an Usher video, not a film with an Usher song in it."
"FX is a network; that's their whole model, letting creators make the thing they want to make and then marketing it really well."
"TV is generally an unfriendly environment for directors because you're expected to come in and tell a story in the voice of the show that already exists and just fill in the blanks and then submit it back."
"I don't know why, but even my nighttime dreams are very, very rooted in reality. They just start to become surreal, little by little. That exact moment when you're about to realize that this might be a dream is my favorite thing."
"I'll listen to a song so much that ideas start to form out of daydreaming. It's as if I'm reverse-scoring the track and building visuals around a specific beat or riff that's grabbed me."
"Most of the time, I'm a little bewildered or sort of feel out of place."
"A lot of my personality and my affinity for certain pieces of pop culture and art all stem from a sort of Japanese aesthetic and way of thinking."
"I think to truly not know what to expect out of the story - to create a world where nothing is guaranteed - is sort of the backbone of 'Atlanta.'"
"Every time I've rushed into something, that's usually when I have regrets."
"Once you go outside of Atlanta, there are still a lot of Klan rallies and whatnot. There are a lot of conflicting elements that are trying to solve itself in that city."
"I'm an immigrant, and I think being an outsider in your home is something that I really relate to."
"I remember, when 'Atlanta' first happened, I didn't know what to expect. It felt like it was a lot of responsibility."
"Your understanding of culture can be very skewed sometimes, depending on what you're taking in!"
"I did a short film with Donald Glover for one of his Childish Gambino projects, and Flying Lotus was an actor in it."
"Some people draw a line between music videos and short films, looking down on music videos as a format, but there's so much potential in music videos."
"That feeling of wavering between reality and supernatural has always been really interesting to me."
"I'm one of those people who keep a dream journal."
"'Twin Peaks' was my gateway for David Lynch."
"I just got a Filmstruck account so I can watch all of those Criterion movies streaming. I've been nerding out about that."
"In a lot of comedy shows, there's a safety net where you don't assume anything of real consequence will happen."
"As an Asian guy, I would love to see a big blockbuster with Asian lead characters."
