AN INTERVIEW WITH ALBERT PYUN (PART 1 OF 2) (2025)

Albert Pyun is a filmmaking legend in the arena of low-budget genre and action movies, with credits like THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER (1982), RADIOACTIVE DREAMS (1985), CYBORG (1989), CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990), KICKBOXER 2 (1991), NEMESIS (1992), MEAN GUNS (1997) and TICKER (2001) behind him. Pyun has time and time again exhibited a gift for making the most out of his limited budgets to bring imaginative, vividly realised, edgy tales to the screen. Despite serious health issues (he was recently diagnosed with early onset dementia), Pyun continues to bring his unique visions to the screen, with films such as ROAD TO HELL (2008), THE INTERROGATION OF CHERYL COOPER (2014) and his latest, INTERSTELLAR CIVIL WAR (2017). In the first part of a two-part interview I talked to Pyun about his early film viewing and filmmaking experiences; the influence of his time in Hawaii on his films; interning with Toshiro Mifune; adapting his vision for low budgets; his love of mixing tones and genres; working for Cannon and Charles Band; his experiences working with big actors; his love of Captain America and his opinions on the DC and Marvel superhero movies; and his unmade projects Total Recall, Masters of the Universe 2 and Spider-Man.

Growing up, what weresome of the formative films for you?

The James Bond filmswere the first films I remember. I also liked musicals like BYE BYEBIRDIE (1963), and the Clint Eastwood Westerns. When I was in Japan Iliked the chinbara films, films like SEVEN SAMURAI (1954).

What were some of yourfirst short films?

Once I saw the firstJames Bond film, DR. NO (1962), I kept trying to make spy movies. Iborrowed my Dad's 8mm camera and I would make a film or two a week,from when I was 10 years old on.

How did your timegrowing up in Hawaii influence your filmmaking style?

Hawaii was interestingin that the movies we got were a mixture of cinema from Japan andEurope and also American films. Toho, the Japanese movie studio, hada theater in Honolulu that was designed like an old temple. Kokusaialso had a movie theater. I was very heavily influenced by Asianmovies.

How did you manage toget an internship with Toshiro Mifune?

He saw one of my shortfilms and he wrote me a letter saying ''It's a tough business but youshould stick to it. '' After that, he invited me to be an intern onDERSU UZULA (1975), the Kurosawa film that he was originally going tobe in. He didn't do the film in the end because he decided he didn'twant to be in Siberia for a year. He knew what to expect withKurosawa. He was doing his own TV shows and I basically went to workon those.

That must have been amindblowing experience.

It was! I grew upwatching his films, and both my Mom and Dad too. It was thrilling.Mifune was the nicest man. The last time I saw him was in 1992, whenI tried to get him to be in a film I was doing called NEMESIS (1992).He didn't want to do any more English language movies because he felttoo uncomfortable doing them.

What were the mostimportant things you learned from working under Kurosawa'scinematographer, Takao Saito?

He gave me a sense ofthe frame. He taught me that you have a canvas and it's like a windowthat the audience is looking through. You control what they see.Until then I had never realised all these planes of existence. Heshowed me to how to look through the lens and tell a story on manydifferent levels. He also taught me the importance of color.

What were the lessonsyou learned directing commercials in Honolulu?

I learned how to workfast, and add as much production value as I could. I never had anybig budgets so I learned how to be resourceful. I used to use all theequipment from my commercials on my own short films. I would do thecommercials in the day and shoot my own films at night.

It was mainly becauseall of the labs and the high-end editing facilities were in L.A. Iknew that if I wanted to make a feature film, which was what I wantedto do, I would have to go to L.A. I made a couple of visits, andluckily it worked out, and I got to start making films.

What was theinspiration for THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER?

It was reallyinfluenced by the films I had seen in Japan when I was in the secondgrade. I would go down to Shibuya and watch historical costume dramasand fairytales. I really enjoyed watching them so I brought thoseelements into THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER, along with stuff like theLone Wolf and Baby Cart series.

The film was extremelyimaginative. How did you respond to the challenge to fulfill yourvision on a lower budget?

I had done a lot ofcommercials, so I had some experience in how to make cheapcompromises that looked good. I knew that if I threw as many ideas upon screen in each shot as I could, some of them would come through.

Where did your love ofmixing genres and elements come from?

I think it comes fromthe way I grew up watching movies. My Dad would take me down to aToho cinema one weekend and we would see a Japanese film, and thenthe next weekend maybe we would see something like 2001 (1968). Atthat time, there was a lot of remarkable filmmaking going on –stuff like THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) and BULLITT (1968) – andthere was something I liked about every film I saw. I learned fromworking with Toshiro Mifune and Takao Saito that each element youphotographed was important. I wanted to bring as many ideas as Icould to every film that I did. It would elevate the material, andmake sure the whole was more than the sum total of the budget.

You became known forpost-apocalyptic movies, but you have said that you don't have aspecial interest in doing them. What genres and kind of stories doyou feel you are most passionate about and comfortable doing?

It's more about ideas.If I get an idea, it determines the genre. I don't stay in certaingenres because I have a special interest in them. But I did stay incertain genres because those genres were more cost-effective and Icould make a film look really good with the money and time that Ihad.

When writing yourscreenplays what do you usually begin with? The setting? The opening?A particular scene?

I usually have an ideaof something I'd like to see or try to do, and then I build a storyaround that.

Well, a lot of my fansfeel that my films aren't violent enough! I did a film called MEANGUNS that was really violent but there was no blood. I try toonly use violence if it's useful in eliciting a feeling from theaudience. I don't think I do gratuituous violence. I try to staytruthful to the worlds I create.

Why didn't your versionof TOTAL RECALL happen?

I think nobody couldsee that it could be a commercial film. Ronald Shusett, thescreenwriter, was very faithful to the Philip K. Dick story, and hisscript was more cerebral than the film that was made with ArnoldSchwarzenegger, which was far more of an action film. At the time Iwas involved, William Hurt was going to be the star. We had a meetingwith the Head of Universal and he was just nasty the whole time. Hedidn't respect the project or the script and certainly not theproducer, Dino De Laurentiis. It just looked like it wasn't going tofly.

Except for the factthat they had no money, they were great. They understood that we hadto be very inventive and be given a lot of latitude in how we broughtthings to the screen. So long as we stayed on budget and on schedule,they gave you a lot of freedom. They had a whole lot of movies goover budget and not make a lot of money, and that is what killedthem. They needed a lot of cash to keep going and so they wereconstantly making movies, which was how I got to make so many filmswith them.

What could we haveexpected from your Masters of the Universe 2 and Spiderman?

Masters of the Universe2 would not have been as pure fantasy as the first film. It wouldhave been more like a graphic novel. It was much darker. Spidermanwas going to be in the same vein. It was going to be more emotionalin the sense that it was going to be a film about how to overcomeloss, and like Masters of the Universe 2, it was about theresponsibilties of having to try to live up to your ideals.

I had read thecharacter as a kid and loved him. I was always intrigued by the ideathat Rogers never saw himself as a hero. All he was trying to do wasparticipate in the War and help America out. The script that we hadwas primarily based around those ideas. We really got hammered on thebudget. We ended up getting only a third of what we needed.

Do you enjoy thecurrent Marvel and DC movies?

For the amount of moneyand resources that they have, I am disappointed with them. WONDERWOMAN (2017) and LOGAN (2017) were really good though. They havechanged the Marvel characters so much from the versions I grew upwith in the 60s that it is really hard to relate to them. They'realmost like toy figures.

I love the fact thatafter Masters of the Universe and Spiderman were cancelled, youre-used all the set and costume designs for CYBORG.