TONDE SAITAMA

MRS.LIVING.JP: Tonde Saitama the movie. Special Interview with Lead Actor GACKT-san

The latest work of Director Takeuchi Hideki, who directed the Thermae Romae series, is the live adaptation of the shocking comic that aggressively disses Saitama, Tonde Saitama. Having Nikaido Fumi and GACKT costarring made it a hot topic too. Today, we asked GACKT-san, who plays the role of the transfer student Asami Rei who is returning to Japan from America (but is actually from Saitama Prefecture), about the movie and this thoughts on Saitama.

Perhaps it might receive the words “I’m glad that it got a live action adaptation” from people who love this manga

― Please tell us your thoughts about this work and what things were like during casting and filming.

When the offer came in, my first reaction was “No, no, no, no, isn’t it too much of a stretch to have me play a high school student?”. But, y’know, when I heard that Master Maya was the one who nominated me for it, I thought perhaps I’d just give it a try. Though I in fact did wonder if it’s really going to be alright (smiles).

However, when I actually went for the plenary meeting, and put on the costume, and read the script, I began to feel confident that this might turn out to be an interesting project. The first day of filming began with the scene in the student council president’s room, and I was so shocked by the luxurious furnishings that it made me wonder how much attention to detail was used on putting the set together. And the fact that they were so particular about things that we deliberately changed locations to film each scene was impressive. The schedule was also so tight that it made me wonder if the staff will be alright. The level of commitment that they had because they wanted to create something great was amazing.

I love manga and anime too, and I do read all kinds, but I’m one of those who are against live action adaptations. Because often enough, they are unable to bring out the worldview of the story and it makes me sad to watch it. But with regards to this time’s live action adaptation, I think that they were able to do something really great with it, and perhaps it might receive the words “I’m glad that it got a live action adaptation” from people who love this manga. That much I am confident of, and I think that it’ll turn out to be a work of high quality.

Director Takeuchi is a person who can perfectly execute outrageous works

ー What is your impression of Director Takeuchi, and how do you feel about his direction?

My stance as an actor is to properly reproduce the world view that the director wants to create. To grasp what the director seeks, and put my all into finding a way to exceed that. And this time as well, that’s that to impress Takeuchi-san. From the first day, I could already feel that this person is someone who will definitely create something interesting, so I wanted to respond to that person’s feelings.

I really, really like Takeuchi-san as a director. He’s outrageous, he’s crazy. But he can clearly see the pictures, and he knows compromise too. The pace of the movie is good too. He’d get angry if I say this, but Takeuchi-san looks normal (smiles). But I’m exceptionally impressed by how he is capable of perfectly executing outrageous words despite his normalcy. Like, this person is great.

This movie has a separate story that is going on at the same time as the original story, but the tempo is really good. As expected of Takeuchi-san, I’m struck with admiration for him.

While having tears in our eyes, the grown-ups passionately delivered lines that barely had contentー. It was exceptionally dumb, and exceptionally interesting

ー Please tell us a highlight or your favourite scene.

The costumes and the sets, the sense of scale and so on; in any case, the attention to detail is amazing, so there are a lot of things that I’d like people to pay attention to. Performances where I’m playing with myself do turn up here and there too, so I’d like people to take note of that too. To the extent where it might seem like I’m playing with myself too much (smiles).

A scene that left an impression on me that I particularly like is the scene where people from each branch of Saitama are gathered and roused up. The way the tension builds from having no motivation to the point where everyone’s fired up enough to roar “Let’s go!” is impressive. When reading the lines, there really isn’t much content there. Honestly, the lines are nothing special, but the grown-ups, including myself, delivered a superbly passionate performance. While actually having tears in our eyes, you know. That was exceptionally dumb, and exceptionally interesting.

In that scene, most of the actors came from Saitama too, and in areas where the camera didn’t capture, they were talking about their area’s good and bad points. Like, “In my area, we have this!” and so on. I was listening to them, like “Huh, I see”, but that was interesting too.

Shouldn’t you be digging up your Saitama LOVE and appealing its goodness to others!?

ー Lastly, please leave a comment for the citizens of Saitama

Since I played this role in this movie, there have been quite a number of people who came to me, asserting “I come from Saitama too” (smiles). Coming into contact with people from Saitama, I thought, there sure are are lot of Saitama citizens who make fun of Saitama themselves. There are even those who would be happy when they get teased. Shouldn’t you be digging up your Saitama LOVE and appealing its goodness to others!?

From there, to grow to love Saitama more, it might be good to think a little more seriously about city planning. The more convenient a city you build, the more it would be no different from other places, and it might become a place without any special characteristics. The city itself has effective and convenient facilities along with other things as well but those other things are rather half-hearted, so I think that the only way would be to scale-down.

It’s inconvenient, but try and cultivate something that only your city has. Perhaps it’ll become a feature and attract people. For example, closing a town from traffic for half a week and only allowing horses to be ridden in it, and so on. If that happens, I wonder how many people it’ll gather from around the country. That remains to be seen. I wonder if the town will be revitalised because of that. Simply spending money to build something new won’t revitalise a town. There are many things that can be done without the need to spend money. I’d like you to try harder.

Source: mrs.living.jp

Translation:GACKT ITALIA Team

Translation © GACKT ITALIA

by SaiKaiAngel