Completion screening event of new movie "Ankoku Joshi"

The completion screening event of new movie "Ankoku Joshi" was held at Shinjuku Wald 9 on 21 February which was attended by the novel's author Akiyoshi Rikako, the director Yakumo Saiji and cast members Iitoyo Marie, Seino Nana, Tamashiro Tina, Kojima Riria, Taira Yuna and Chiba Yuudai. The other lead Shimizu Fumika was absent from the event following her retirement and renouncement announcement recently. The movie will be shown in cinemas from 1 April as scheduled.

The film describes how Shiraishi Itsumi (Iitoyo) the Madonna of an all-girls' senior high school fell to her death under mysterious circumstances with a lily bell flower in her hand which leads to suspicion falling on the five members of the literature club which Shiraishi set up for having caused her death. After taking over the reins, Sumikawa Sayuri (Shimizu) who is Shiraishi's best friend, organises a regular reading session where she engages the rest of the members to talk about Shiraishi's death and the five of them take turns to expose who is the true culprit by mixing lies and truth during the discussion.

The director Yakumo revealed that when he read the novel, he was so excited about it thus prompting his intention to make a movie on it. As such, he was confident about the final product made from the hard work of the staff and cast. Since the cast is largely made up of young actresses, the actresses revealed that the atmosphere felt as if they were indeed in an all-girls senior high school where they did things such as taking videos, dancing "Gangnam Style" and sharing beauty tips together. Upon hearing this, Chiba who was not included in those activities, remarked dejectedly that he knew nothing about what they did. The director then chipped in to reveal that the girls even ate dried shredded cuttlefish which led Iitoyo to exclaim that he shouldn't say that since it will affect their images.

When asked about what dark side they have in their characters, Iitoyo said that when she last worked with Yakumo in the drama "MARS Tada Kimi wo aishiteru", he was very nice and gentle towards her. However, he was very demanding and harsh this time so there were times when Iitoyo tried to avoid meeting the director by arranging for staggered starting times during the filming. Yakumo then joked that Iitoyo was trying to smear his name which led her to remark that she doesn't feel scared of him anymore and likes him a lot now.

Before the start of the event, the host explained that Shimizu was absent as informed by her agency. Although the cast did not speak about Shimizu proactively during most of the event, Iitoyo and Yakumo revealed their thoughts about her towards the end. Iitoyo expressed regret that Shimizu was not there with them and said that even though she does not know how the latter thinks of her, Iitoyo likes Shimizu a lot and they had both pledged to work hard for the movie. As such, Iitoyo hoped that everyone can see their hard work through this film. Yakumo also had nothing but praise for Shimizu who he said was very hardworking and thought a lot about her character so as to make the movie better.

Sources: Eiga.com 1 / Eiga.com 2 / Oricon