First-day-screening event of new movie "Over Fence"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Over Fence" was held at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo on 17 September which was attended by the director Yamashita Nobuhiro and cast members Aoi Yu, Matsuda Shota, Mitsushima Shinnosuke, Kitamura Yukiya and Matsuzawa Takumi. Unfortunately, the lead actor Odagiri Jo was absent as he was away in Cuba for the filming of another movie "Ernest". In place of him was a real-size photo panel which was carried by Mitsushima onto the stage. Matsuda revealed that he was the one who suggested making this panel and the staff promised that it would look nice since the movie was filmed in 4K but he joked that the image quality looked too coarse to be considered nice.

Matsuda also read an apology letter from Odagiri who said sorry for being unable to attend the first-day-screening event which is unheard of in the industry. However, he called upon everyone to take this in the positive light and said that having the lead absent might bring some novelty to the standard first-day-screening events so he believes that he is leading the charge for a change. This led everyone to burst out laughing to which Matsuda commented that Odagiri must be happy that his message had the intended effect. Odagiri also mentioned an interesting incident while they were in Hakodate for the filming where he was at a restaurant and ordered kani miso soup and the owner gave him another bowl of simple miso soup as a free gift. so he was wondering what he should do with two bowls of miso soup. As for his thoughts on the movie, Odagiri commented that there were times when things didn't make sense to him but he still felt happy during the filming and was impressed by how well it had turned out. Aoi revealed that Matsuda had been practising how to read Odagiri's letter while they were at the backstage and was relieved for him that this had gone well without hitches.

Aoi also echoed the view that she likes simple stories about happiness and said that she had learnt a lot from Odagiri during the process. She also joked that the audience can see Odagiri's photo panel that they made the film on a relatively tight budget so she called upon them to spread the word and promote the movie.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by the late Sato Yasushi, describes how a lonely man who was divorced tries to restart his life. The film will be shown in various film festivals with the first being at the Busan International Film Festival in October.

Sources: Eiga.com / Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi