First-day-screening event of new movie "Hibana"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Hibana" was held at TOHO Cinemas Skara on 23 November which was attended by the director Itao Itsuji, original novel's author Matayoshi Naoki and cast members Suda Masaki, Kiritani Kenta, Kawatani Shuji and Miura Masaki. 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 over a 10-year period.


Suda reflected on the filming which was both memorable and happy to him so Tokunaga would be a character he wouldn't and couldn't forget. Kiritani echoed his view about the movie's release but it was sad that they would not be able to gather again so easily after this day even though they had become so close. He then poked fun at Suda's choice of words i.e. happy and memorial and asked if they should use those as the lyrics for a song in future. However, Suda joked that those words were so tacky and that the song would probably be a flop.

The director then said that as Matayoshi is his comedian junior, things between them were slightly awkward as he felt like he was making a movie by using the latter's ideas. However, Matayoshi left it all to him so he could devote his utmost and put in 120% of his effort to make the movie without any reservations. Matayoshi then followed up by saying that he doesn't reread the novels he wrote but when he read it again after watching the movie, he was very satisfied with the final product and wished that he could have included some of the scenes from the movie into his book back then. As such, the movie was not a direct reproduction of the novel but rather a new form of the story sculpted by Itao who revealed that he had read the novel 10 times before filming the movie.

Miura then stated that this movie is his 100th to date so it was especially memorable for him. Kawatani commented that he wasn't sure if anyone would watch him in this movie when he got the role and was brimming with tears in his eyes when Itao said that he was the first to be chosen to be in the cast line-up and that he was the key person to bring the comedic performances to life in the movie.

At the end of the event, Kiritani called upon everyone to support this movie so that they could do at least three thanksgiving events which would give them the opportunity to gather again. Suda agreed with this suggestion and tried to promote the movie as one which would bring laughter and tears to the audience.

Source: Eiga.com