First-day-screening event of new movie "Boku no Ojisan"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Boku no Ojisan" was held at Marunouchi TOEI 1 on 3 November which was attended by the director Yamashita Nobuhiro and cast members Matsuda Ryuhei, Maki Youko, Kudo Kankuro and Onishi Riku. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Kita Morio, features Matsuda as a part-time lecturer at an university who is a loafer staying with his nephew Yukio's family. When Yukio has to write an essay titled "The adult around me" for his homework, he decides to write about his uncle and how the latter falls in love at first sight with Inaba Eri (Maki), a American-Japanese when they meet in Japan. On the spur of the moment, Ojisan brings Yukio along when he follows Eri to her hometown in Hawaii so as to woo her. Part of the filming was done at Hawaii for two weeks in November last year.

Matsuda commented that although his charater is usually lazy, he actually has the ability to spring into action immediately. As the filming progressed, he grew to love his character more and was getting more excited so this movie has become a favourite to him. As for his co-star Onishi, Matsuda praised him for being at the centre of the movie despite his young age and "grumbled" that everyone's attention was on Onishi rather than himself.

Meanwhile, Maki said that her character Eri is a very cheerful person so she did have doubts if she could play this character since her image is rather different. As such, she did suspect at one point if she was somewhat like the 7th choice actress to play this role. Despite so, she still accepted the offer readily as she had never played the Madonna in a movie. In response to her remark, the director said that she was definitely not the 7th choice actress as she imagined herself to be. When asked about her thoughts about a loafer guy like Ojisan, Maki commented that although there will be financial problems, she doesn't dislike such people. As she had to play a Japanese living in Hawaii, she had to put on makeup to show a tanned complexion and say long lines in English as well.

As a gesture of appreciation to Onishi who had gone on an intensive promotional schedule for the movie, Matsuda and Maki presented a pair of air tickets to Hawaii to him. Onishi was surprised and at a loss of words when he received the present. Upon seeing this, Kudo who plays Onishi's father in the movie but was not in Hawaii for the filming, "hinted" to Onishi that he didn't go to Hawaii last year with them.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi / Oricon