"You're making a ninja movie... you can't say this is Citizen Kane," James McTeigue told me when I asked him about the light tone he maintained during Ninja Assassin, the second film he's directed with The Matrix visionaries Andy and Larry Wachowski on board as producers. Though McTeigue recognizes that V for Vendetta was advertised as a Wachowski movie first and McTeigue movie second, he sees Ninja Assassin as being very much his own thing, influenced by the Wachowskis of course, but also every other filmmaker who has inspired him in his career.

I talked to McTeigue about his working relationship with the Wachowskis, his decision to cast Korean pop star Rain in the lead role as reformed assassin Raizo, the completely imaginary weapon that Rain fights with, and of course, keeping the tone light even when the screen is splattered with blood. Watch our 15-minute interview below. Ninja Assassin opens wide today, and trust me, is by far the best movie opening wide this weekend.