First-day-screening event of new movie "Shinobi no Kuni"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Shinobi no Kuni" was held at TOHO Cinemas Roppongi Hills on 1 July which was attended by the director Nakamura Yoshihiro and cast members Ohno Satoshi, Ishihara Satomi, Suzuki Ryohei, Iseya Yuusuke, Chinen Yuri, Tatekawa Danshun and Makita Sports. In this movie based on the novel by Wada Ryu who is also the scriptwriter, Ohno plays the role of the No.1 ninja in Iga during the Warring States era named Mumon who seems to have something missing in him that makes him appear less perfect as he should be. He appears lazy and is disinterested in the battle between the samurai led by Oda Nobunaga's second son Nobukatsu (Chinen) and his Iga clan. To make things worse, his wife Okuni (Ishihara) constantly nags him for not earning enough money. However, when the time comes for the battle modeled against the Tensho Iga no Ran in 1578 and 1581, Mumon is drawn into it against his own will.

Ohno greeted the audience at the beginning of the event where he thanked them for coming to support them. As the movie was shot last summer, he was feeling so hot then but had to hide the discomfort from the heat while acting in the movie. Since it had been six year since Ohno took on a leading role in a movie, he revealed that it felt like he had been accumulating his feelings for this day especially it took a whole year for the movie to be ready to be seen in cinemas.

As for Ishihara, she commented that the action scenes are so exciting that even female viewers will find it interesting to watch. With the release of the movie, this also marked the end of their promotional campaign so Ishihara revealed that she was a bit sad about it but was glad to have chipped in to help with promoting the movie along with Ohno who was doing much of the work.

Chinen who had viewed Ohno as his idol even before joining Johnny's Jimusho, revealed his joy when first told about being able to act in this movie with Ohno that he actually felt happier about this collaboration than when he made his debut as a Hey! Say! JUMP member. Upon hearing this, Ohno joked that Chinen shouldn't say such things in public as he will get scolded by their agency later and would prefer that he keep such thoughts in his heart.

In line with the theme of the movie, the cast were asked the question of whose minds they would like to infiltrate like a ninja. Ishihara revealed that she would like to enter Ohno's mind to find out what kind of person he is because even after spending so much time together during the filming and promotional campaign, she still couldn't fathom how he is like. For example, they appeared on a variety programme to cook some dishes and had so much food. The following day, Ishihara asked Ohno if he was still feeling full when he said nonchalantly that he had already digested the food long ago. Ishihara also commented that Ohno seems to be so fit that he doesn't need any ice packs or massages after doing tough action scenes and is as good as new the following day after a night's sleep. Even with a slightly hunched back and bad posture, Ohno doesn't seem to have any ailments like shoulder or back ache too. Upon hearing this, Ohno replied jokingly that he should probably go for a check-up at a hospital just to satisfy Ishihara's curiosity. On the other hand, Ohno cited Suzuki as the person who he wanted to infiltrate into and see whether he is as "perverted" as his character in the movie "Hentai Kamen". Suzuki then "protested" that Arashi members were all too into the movie and stressed that he doesn't wear his underwear on his head like the Hentai Kamen character.

Sources: Nikkansports / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon 1 / Oricon 2 / Eiga.com