First-day-screening of new movie "Death Note Light up the NEW world"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Death Note Light up the NEW world" was held at Shinjuku Picadilly on 29 October which was attended by the director Sato Shinsuke and cast members Higashide Masahiro, Ikematsu Sousuke and Suda Masaki. The movie continues 10 years after the end of the original movies screened in 2006 featuring Fujiwara Tatsuya and Matsuyama Kenichi as Yagami Light / Kira and L respectively. Back then, the two hit movies made a total of about 8 billion yen. In the sequel, 6 Death Notes are scattered around in the human world thus plunging it into new chaos. Higashide plays Mishima who is an investigation officer in the Death Note task force while Ikematsu plays L's successor Ryuuzaki and Suda plays Shien, a cyber terrorist who worships Kira. Prior to the screening of the movie, a drama SP "Gyakushuu no Tensai" was shown via NTV on 28th October.

Higashide revealed that he saw the SP at home and had been feeling pressurised all this while even during the 3-month filming period. For example, he was worried that the new movie might not be able to match up to the success of the original movies especially since the story deviates quite a lot from the original. However, with the realisation that they were inheriting such a great legacy from their seniors, they tried their best to take on the challenge. Higashide also commented that upon seeing the audience's smiling faces today, he felt slightly relieved. As the story is full of consecutive surprises, he urged the audience to rewatch the movie if there is anything which they didn't understand during their first viewing.

It was also revealed that during the filming, the actors would gather at Higashide's room to drink together. Even though there was a lot of tension during the filming due to their rivalry in the story, they were able to relax at night through these drinking sessions.

When asked if there was anything which they think they are better at compared to their two co-stars, Suda who appeared in a white outfit, said that he's probably the No.1 when it comes to compatability with wearing white clothes. As for Ikematsu, he revealed that the speed at which he gets out of bed is probably the fastest while Higashide said that he probably has the metabolism rate since he's very prone to sweating.

As the event took place before Halloween on the 31st, the trio also gave out snacks to their audience as they walked around the seats. Suda commented jokingly that when he was giving out the snacks, he was surprised by the audience's enthusiasm as some of them actually stretched their arms and placed their hands into the box which he was carrying.

In line with the Halloween theme, the cast were asked who they would like to transform into where Higashide said that he would like to become Ikematsu since he has the strongest sex appeal so he wants to borrow the latter's sexiness and go outside to drink. However, Ikematsu replied plainly that he hardly goes out anyway. When asked the question of who he would not want to become, Ikematsu gave Higashide's name and explained that the latter is very tall so he thinks that his world will become entirely different as a result to which Suda joined in by joking that even though he thinks the same way as Ikematsu, he also wants to take part in the Paris Fashion Week (Higashide used to be a model and appeared at the 2006 edition which also was when he first got to know his wife An before they worked together in the morning drama "Gochisousan").

During the event, Ikematsu and Suda appeared to be quite subdued and answered questions in a rather plain manner which made Higashide remark worriedly that they shouldn't respond in such a lukewarm manner since this was the movie's first-day-screening after all.

Sources: Nikkansports / Oricon / Yomiuri Hochi / Sponichi / Eiga.com