Completion screening event of new movie "Sakamichi no Aporon"

The completion screening event of new movie "Sakamichi no Aporon" was held at EX THEATER ROPPONGI on 5 February which was attended by the director Miki Takahiro and cast members Chinen Yuri, Nakagawa Taishi, Komatsu Nana, Nakamura Baijaku and Mano Erina. The movie will be released in cinemas from 10 March.

The story features Chinen as the lead character Nishimi Kaoru who is a shy 1st-year senior high school student and has to move to Sasebo, Nagasaki to live with his relatives after his father passed away. He meets his classmates Kawabuchi Sentaro (Nakagawa) who is feared by others for appearing to be a scary delinquent and Mukae Ritsuko (Komatsu) who is Sentaro's childhood friend and comes into contact with jazz piano which he grows to love. On the other hand, Kaoru finds himself caught in a love triangle as Ritsuko likes Sentaro who is in turn in love with Fukahori Yurika, a 2nd-year student in the same school.

Although this is Chinen's first leading role in a movie, he said that everyone was very warm and supportive so he enjoyed the filming a lot and they even had fun playing badminton together. As for playing the piano for the first time, he revealed that after practising for about 2 hours during the first session, everyone heaped praise on him which made him feel confident and enjoy the subsequent training more than he expected.

Meanwhile, Nakagawa who plays the drum in the movie, said that although he was interested in the drum and had played it in the past, playing the jazz drum was a totally new experience and he was really worried about being taken off the cast because he couldn't do well during the first practice. Subsequently, as he stayed in touch with Chinen, he grew even more nervous as he found out how far the latter had progressed and heard the director praising Chinen. Nonetheless, Nakagawa was glad that he managed to pull through and handle the drumming scenes in the movie at the end.

Komatsu revealed that Chinen and Nakagawa were very excited during their filming at Sasebo and seemed to be so close terms that she wondered what was going on between them. This led the audience to squeal as the two of them clarified that there was nothing special going on. Komatsu then added that the two of them were able to help each other improve during the filming and they were so engrossed in the music playing scenes that they didn't stop even when the director shouted "cut".

During the event, there was also a birthday surprise for Komatsu who turns 22 on 16 February. She was thrilled to hear the birthday song played by Chinen and Nakagawa and expressed her thanks to everyone for the early celebration.

Source: Natalie