Completion press conference of new movie "Mugen no Juunin"

The completion press conference of new movie "Mugen no Juunin" was held on 15 February which was attended by the director Miike Takashi and cast members Kimura Takuya, Sugisaki Hana, Fukushi Souta, Toda Erika and Ichihara Hayato. The movie which will be shown in cinemas from 29 April, was shot mainly in Kyoto between November 2015 and 17 January 2016 when news of SMAP's impending disbandment first broke on 13 January. This led to an influx of the media to the shooting location so as to catch a glimpse of Kimura and interview him. Although Kimura did not comment specifically on this topic, he expressed gratitude to the staff and cast for their great teamwork and that he was glad to be a part of Miike's team.

The movie which is based on the manga by Samura Hiroaki, features Kimura in the leading role of a samurai Manji who is renowned for having killed 100 people and becomes immortal when a mysterious old lady gives him eternal life.  One day, he is engaged by a young girl named Asano Rin (Sugisaki) to be her bodyguard and take revenge against Itto-Ryu which is a group of skilled swordsmen. He accepts the job reluctantly because Rin looks similar to his late younger sister.

In the scene where Kimura had to fight against 300 people with his right eye concealed, he went ahead with the filming with no-stand-in. During the filming, he slipped on the gravel and suffered a serious injury to his right knee's ligament so he had to get painkillers injected in order to continue with the shoot. Having seen that the director continued with his work despite suffering a fracture in his right ankle during the filming, Kimura was impressed with his dedication and wanted to continue with the filming. Even during scenes which did not involve him, Kimura was always on the set and even brought massage machines to give massages to the cameramen.

After the filming concluded, the cast exchanged their LINE account details so as to stay in touch with one another. However, Kimura found that Ichihara did not even read, not to mention respond to his messages which made him quite puzzled. When they met before the press conference, Kimura found out that Ichihara's previous phone was spoilt and he changed to another type of phone thus this was why Ichihara did not respond to Kimura's messages. In response, Ichihara commented that he had never met any leading actor like Kimura who showed so much consideration to everyone around him and even spent time for the sake of others instead of thinking of himself. As such, he was thankful to Kimura's actions which made the latter blush in embarrassment.

Source: Nikkansports 1 /  Nikkansports 2 / Sanspo