Completion screening event of new movie "Hibana"

The completion screening event of new movie "Hibana" was held at Tokyo International Forum on 8 November which was attended by the director Itao Itsuji and cast members Suda Masaki, Kiritani Kenta, Kimura Fumino, Kawatani Shuuji and Miura Masaki. The movie will be screened in cinemas from 23 November 2017.


The film which is based on the 153th Akutagawa Award-winning same-titled novel by comedian duo Peace's Matayoshi Naoki, is directed by Itao Itsuji. The story describes how Tokunaga (Suda), a struggling comedian meets his senior Kamiya (Kiritani) who has a strong belief in what he does and tries to overcome the gap between his ideals, talent and reality. Kimura Fumio plays Kamiya's girlfriend Maki.

When asked about how he prepared for playing a comedian, Suda said that it wasn't very difficult but he needed the affirmation from the director to tell if he was doing fine and believed in Kawatani who plays his comedic partner in the movie to be able to help him make people laugh. In response to this, Itao said that despite the huge age difference between Suda and Kawatani i.e. Suda was born in the same year when Kawatani made his debut in the comedic duo 2cho Kenjuu, the two of them looked convincing enough as classmates of the same age. He also praised Suda for being very courteous, respectful of his seniors and a wonderful actor.

On the other hand, Kiritani whose comedic partner in the movie is Miura, revealed that they practised a lot at places like Yoyogi Park or the karaoke before the filming began. As they were told that they needed a more realistic environment to ignite that comedian instinct, they actually performed in front of the junior comedians and staff at Yoshimoto Hall so as to get feedback on how they fared. Miura joked that they practised too much but expressed admiration for Kiritani's dedication and seriousness in getting things right for his role. Kiritani then commented that he used to dislike Miura when they worked together in a movie more than 10 years ago so he was aghast to see the latter's name in the cast list upon getting the script. However, after going through so much together in this movie, the two of them grew to like each other a lot.

Kimura who dyed her hair gold to play Maki, said that this was done at the order of Itao even though she had never bleached her hair before. Itao then explained that he was concerned initially that Kimura may have some legal obligations to maintain a certain image due to her many CM deals so she had to approach her clients to ask if they were OK with her dyeing her hair. As such, he was amazed and impressed by how she took this role seriously which led Kimura to comment that everyone in the cast and crew all had the same dedication and passion devoted to this movie.

Source: Eiga.com