Japan premiere event of new movie "Ikari"

The Japan premiere event of new movie "Ikari" was held at Tokyo International Forum on 14 September which was attended by the director Lee Sang-il and cast members Watanabe Ken, Moriyama Mirai, Matsuyama Kenichi, Ayano Go, Hirosue Suzu, Miyazaki Aoi and Tsumabuki Satoshi. The movie which is based on the novel by Yoshida Shuichi, begins with an unresolved murder case where the character "ikari" written in blood was left at the crime scene. One year later, sightings of the possible criminal surface in Chiba, Tokyo and Okinawa where one of the three mysterious men who appear at these places is suspected to be the criminal who has undergone plastic surgery to change his looks. This leads to the exploration of the theme of trust among people. In the Tokyo arc, Ayano and Tsumabuki play a pair of gay lovers who live together where the latter is a salaryman but the former has no fixed residence. In the Chiba arc, Watanabe and Miyazaki play the roles of father and daughter and she is dating his subordinate at work who has an unknown past (Matsuyama). In the Okinawa arc, Moriyama plays a man who lives on a deserted island while Hirose plays a young girl who admires him.

Watanabe commented during the event that the time has finally come for the movie to be released and he marveled at how gentle the director had become which he didn't realise when they last worked together on the movie "Yurusarezarumono". He also admitted that this is the first time that he had been moved to tears by a movie which he appears in.

In order to prepare for the filming, Ayano and Tsumabuki lived together for some time. Ayano revealed that he treasured the time they spent together and he owed it to Tsumabuki for helping him to play his character. In return, Tsumabuki commented that it was also the same for him. After watching the movie, he thought that there were a lot of things people chose to ignore in their daily lives for one reason or another but they should probably face up to some of these issues as depicted in the movie.

Sources: Oricon / Nikkansports / Eiga.com