First-day-screening event of new movie "Mugen no Juunin"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Mugen no Juunin" was held at Marunouchi Picadilly on 29 April which was attended by the director Miike Takashi and cast members Kimura Takuya, Sugisaki Hana, Fukushi Souta, Ichihara Hayato, Toda Erika, Mitsushima Shinnosuke and Ichikawa Ebizo. The movie is based on the manga by Samura Hiroaki and 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. Fukushi plays Anotsu Kagehisa who is the leader of Itto-Ryu and Manji's rival while Ichihara plays the role of Shira who is a killer belonging to Mugai-Ryu that is a rival of Itto-Ryu so he joins forces with Manji to fight against Anotsu. Toda Erika appears as Otonotachibana Makie who is a female swordsman in Itto-Ryu very much trusted by Anotsu while Ichikawa plays a top-grade swordsman named Shizuma Eikuu.

Ichikawa revealed that he bumped into Kimura at Tokyo Station a few days ago and was surprised by the encounter since he was shocked to hear someone shouting his first name and thought that some weirdo must be out to find trouble with him. In response, Kimura jokingly said that as this was the first time when Ichikawa joined the promotional campaign, the latter must be very eager to please the audience with these "revelations".

When asked who they felt was like a person with eternal life, Kimura cited Ichikawa as being always prepared and carefree to do the things he wants. On the other hand, Ichikawa chose the director for being able to walk even after suffering a fracture in his leg and teased him for the injury even though he was just standing at that time and wasn't involved in the action scenes which the cast did. Miike then related that he was too absorbed in watching an action scene which Kimura was doing and suffered such a big injury just because he slipped.

As for the question about getting an indefinite break which was in line with the Golden Week holidays currently going on, Kimura replied with a wryly smile that being on indefinite break would be the same as being out of a job but to put a positive spin on this, he thought that there are many places he has never been to before even within Japan so it will be nice to visit them during a long break.

Sources: Eiga.com / Oricon 1 / Oricon 2