Gangsta rapping

Anyone who sees Shinobu Yaguchi introducing one of the Forum screenings of his comedy Adrenaline Drive will be struck by the similarity between him and his protagonist, Suzuki, the junior from a car-rental firm who gets on the wrong side of a yakuza gang. It prompts the obvious question: is any of the film autobiographical?

"The character is like me in some ways," says Yaguchi. "He's nerdy and anti-heroic. But I've never clashed with any yakuza and I've never had a bag of money to run off with. I used to be very poor, and that may be why I make films about people chasing cash. But none of this is literally autobiographical."

Why aren't more Japanese directors making comedies? "It's true that hardly any directors of my generation (I was born in 1967) are into comedy, but the previous generation includes such people as Masayuki Suo (Shall We Dance?) and Kazuyuki Izutsu (Nodo-Jiman). So I feel I'm in good company."

Wouldn't it help with the promotion for the film's June release in Japan if figures from organised crime were to protest against his representation of yakuza?

Yaguchi shudders. "I don't show the yakuza characters in their social context, so they probably won't care about the film either way," he says. "Anyhow, the less I have to do with yakuza, the better. I like my violence on screen, not in real life." Tony Rayns