Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2013

Quentin Tarantino is a filmmaker with deep ties to Japan. He was a devoted fan and friend of late director Kinji Fukasaku (Battle Royale). He visited the Yubari Fantastic Film Festival in Hokkaido and named Chiaki Kuriyama’s character in Kill Bill after it. That film was partially set in Tokyo—though it was filmed in Beijing.

His latest hit, Django Unchained, has its origins in Japan despite being set in the American antebellum South. “When I visited Japan to promote Inglourious Basterds, I went shopping and wound up buying around 20 Spaghetti Western soundtracks,” Tarantino recalled during a recent visit to Tokyo. “While listening to them, I had the idea for a story. I wasn’t planning to write a new script, but I was right at the end of promoting my previous film, so the timing was right.” The director didn’t have a notebook on him, so he started to jot down his idea on hotel stationery.

The story centers on slave Django (Jamie Foxx), who is bought by a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) in order to point out men with high prices on their heads. They become partners and take on an evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is holding Django’s wife.

“When you see the film,” QT told his Japanese fans, “remember that the first scene is exactly as it was written in a Tokyo hotel room. The first day I was in Japan last time, I had no idea what my next film would be. When I left to fly back to LA, I knew it would be Django.”

Django Unchained opens in Japan March 1.