CRANK-IN.NET: [Extract] 44th Hochi Film Award

Actress Nagasawa Masami, artist GACKT and many more attended the 44th Hochi Film Award awards ceremony which was held in Tokyo on the 18th.
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GACKT, who attended to accept the Special Award which was awarded to Tonde Saitama (Fly Me To The Saitama) in which he co-starred alongside Nikaido Fumi, spilt about his high school student character, “When they spoke to me about it, I declined (the role) in the very beginning. At the start, I thought, ‘What on earth are they saying?’…” He then added that he was a long-time fan of the original work’s author, Maya Mineo, and he recalled, “Master was the one who nominated me, so I couldn’t decline him. I acted as a high school student while internally distressed.”

Continuing, he said, “To me, if this movie was a bento box, I’d think (of myself) as a ‘good umeboshi’, and I took on the movie with that sort of feeling, but it was so unexpected that the movie would create such results that I don’t think anyone of us involved ever imagined it. Instead, I think it was likelier that some of us wondered if we’d end up turning Saitama into our enemies. But by the abilities of director Takeuchi Hideki, the many wonderful actors, and all the staf, this has become a truly wonderful piece of work. And I suppose, as the umeboshi, I managed to be a little helpful with that.”

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