They are the most unlikely of collaborators: a fresh-faced, wholesome karate star barely out of her teens and the poop-obsessed director of Mutant Girls Squad (2010). But fate did bring Rina Takeda and Noboru Iguchi together, and the result is Dead Sushi (2012), the kooky horror-comedy that was one of our highlights of Fantastic Fest 2012. Rina stars as clumsy waitress/sushi nunchaku master Keiko, and while she doesn't engage in the naked antics of her co-stars Aiko Hashiuchi, Maaya Morinaga, and Marin, she's still managed to high-kick her way right into our hearts.

We talked to Rina and Noboru through a translator in Austin, TX:

SKIN CENTRAL: Rina, I wanted to ask you about your martial arts training and how you started doing films...you were very young when you started doing films, weren't you?

RINA TAKEDA: When I was 10 years old, I started training in karate, [but] before I started training I was interested in film. I wanted to be a movie star.

SC: So, you saw karate as a way of getting into film?

RT: Actually, my father is a karate master, and when he went to the karate tryout, he failed in the first round, so I said "I will do revenge!" Karate is one of my hobbies, but it is also a dream of mine.

SC: How old were you when you did your first film?

RT: I was 15 years old. I had a small part in a TV [show], but my first main part was in the movie High Kick Girl, when I was 17 years old.

SC: I liked the movie, I thought it was really funny. It seems like it would be hard to keep a straight face during some of the scenes because there were such outrageous things going on. What was the atmosphere like on set?

RT: It was so fun! I was laughing all the time.

SC: Were there a lot of second takes?

NOBORU IGUCHI: Yes, yes. [everybody laughs]

SC: So, I wanted to ask you, Iguchi-san, what was your inspiration for the idea behind Dead Sushi?

NI: First, I wanted to make a film with Rina, so I thought of what would be a special enemy for Rina, and I thought...sushi. [Everybody laughs] I love '70s horror movies like Piranha (1978) and Jaws (1975), [movies with] sea animal attacks...also I love the "panic" film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1979), so I wanted to mix the panic and monster films. We don't have any "food-attacking-people" type films in Japan, so to give it a special Japanese taste [I chose] sushi. Sea monsters...sushi is a food coming from the sea, so it combines the two.

SC: [To Iguchi] When you're coming up with ideas for your movies, do you have a certain type of audience in mind, or do you just make moves that you want to see?

NI: Actually, it's kind of both. I imagine myself [going] to the theater, paying the money, and watching the film as an audience member. I imagine myself as the audience...what's interesting, what's entertaining [to me].

SC: Earlier we were talking about Rina's background in martial arts, so I wanted to ask you, Iguchi-san, about how you got your start in film, which was making "AV" [adult] movies.

NI: The first time I made a film, I was a high school student. I joined the film club, and I made a lot of films. At the same high school, there was an older student who joined the adult industry as an assistant director, and he asked me if I wanted to join. I did it for twenty years...a long time.

At first, I made the adult videos to make money for my indie films. [But] while I was doing it, I also did an AV video as a monster film, and I directed the actress to do dramatic scenes. When you're going adult movies you don't need to [include] drama, but I wanted to add the drama [element]. So it wasn't so different from [the films I do] now.

SC: Is that a common way to break into the film industry in Japan, working in AV or "pink" movies?

NI: Yes, it is. Young Japanese guys who want to be directors want to make a film any way they can, and it's a good education for them, a chance to show themselves.

SC: Learn while you work.

NI: Actually, a lot of producers watch the adult videos to scout for young directors.

SC: Is that what happened to you? How did you transition to doing mainstream films?

NI: I wasn't a director who was scouted by a producer. I earned money for my own films, and I made an indie short. So then a producer scouted it and it played on TV, and [things went from there].

SC: So, now that we've talked about your different backgrounds, I was wondering what you are doing in the future. [To Iguchi] You did a segment in The ABCs of Death...would you ever consider doing an English-language movie?

NI: Of course. I'd want to do anything, [even a] full English-speaking cast...I don't speak English, but I'll try anything. Rina-chan, you should study English.

RT: I'll try. [Everybody laughs]

NI: Me too.

SC: One more question. Any future projects? Do you think you'll work together again?

NI: Nothing is [in the works] right now, but we'd like to work together again, so please, I'd like to request, if any producer wants to ask us, we'll do our best.

Actually, I made a short film for a YouTube channel, I tried a strange image, because the image is an important thing. I tried to make some crazy stuff. It goes up in October on the YOMYOMF YouTube channel [run by The Fast and the Furious director] Justin Lin. It's the story of a bathroom monster. I like it, yeeeeeeah! [gives thumbs up]

See more from Noboru Iguchi's Sukeban Boy (2006) and Mutant Girls Squad (2010) right here at MrSkin.com!