Commemorative event to mark the release of new movie "Manhunt"

The commemorative event to mark the release of new movie "Manhunt" was held at TOHO Cinemas Shinjuku on 17 February which was attended by cast members Fukuyama Masaharu, Sakuraba Nanami and Ikeuchi Hiroyuki. The movie directed by John Woo which was released from 9 February, accumulated about 113,000 visits and box office takings of about JPY 139m in 4 days.

The film is a remake of the 1976 hit movie "Kimi yo Funnu no kawa wo watare" (You who crosses the river of wrath) which starred the late Takakura Ken and was the first foreign movie shown at China in 1978 after the Cultural Revolution. In the original film, Takakura played a prosecutor who was chased relentlessly by a police officer for a crime he did not commit. However, in the remake, the setting of the character will be changed to that of a lawyer who will be played by Zhang Hanyu. On the other hand, Fukuyama takes on the role of Yamura, the police detective who was played by the late Harada Yoshio in the original movie.

With regard to the action and gunfight scenes featured in the movie, Fukuyama said that this must have been his No.1 character with the highest combat powers. As he had never held a gun prior to acting in this movie, he was not used to it and had to practice walking around with the fake gun even at home before the filming started so as to adapt to its presence. In addition, Fukuyama also got a license to drive a water motorbike and remarked that he was taken aback when he saw the river which he had to film the scene in because it was such a dark green colour. When he searched online for information on the river's water quality, he found that it was OK for people to enter it. However, on the day of the filming, he wondered if the online information was for real because the action team which went into the river first to do the test scenes reported seeing dead fish in the water.

During the event, the actors also talked about how different John Woo's movies were in terms of scale. Ikeuchi expressed his surprise to hear that the director wanted real bullets to be used for the gunfight scenes when there were extras standing in for the cast so as to make it more realistic. Fukuyama also echoed his amazement because this was the first time he heard about it. He also asked Sakuraba about how she was called back to do the filming again. She revealed that she finished the filming the first time and returned to Tokyo but was called back to do the filming one month later. There was also once when she went to Osaka and didn't get to film a single scene so had to return to Tokyo. Ikeuchi chipped in to say that he was offered a role to chase after Fukuyama initially but just one week later, he found that his role became a baddie who did not appear in the original version of the script. Fukuyama commented that the scenes in the script kept changing as the filming progressed.

Sources: Natalie / Eiga.com