"Hirugao" holds world premiere at the 19th Il Far East Film Festival in Italy

The movie "Hirugao" starring Ueto Aya and Saito Takumi held its world premiere at the 19th Il Far East Film Festival at Udine, Italy on 24 April as it is taking part in the film festival's competition category. Besides the leads, the director Nishitani Hiroshi also attended the screening to meet the 1200-strong audience. Before the screening, more than 600 people gathered outside the theatre.

Ueto greeted the audience in Italian and said that she was very happy to be at the screening and hoped that the forbidden love depicted in the movie will make a deep impression in the audience's hearts. Due to the differences in Italian and Japanese culture, she was especially eager to find out how the audience would react to the movie's theme. Saito who was attending this film festival for the second time (the previous time was in 2016 for the movie Koudaike no Hitobito), spoke in Italian as well and expressed his joy to be able to return to this film festival and thanked everyone for coming. After the screening, there was a standing ovation of more than 5 minutes and the actors were swarmed by fans who wanted to take photos with them and get their signatures. The following day after the screening, the cast travelled to Venice for the PR shooting of the movie where they rode a water taxi and explored the colourful streets of the city.

The movie will be shown in Japan from 10 June and continues three years after the end of the drama series. The winner of the Grand Prix will be announced on 30 April.

Sources: Sanspo / Eiga.com