First-day-screening event of new movie "blank13"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "blank13" was held at Cinem@art Shinjuku on 3 February which was attended by the director Saito Takumi and cast members Takahashi Issei, Kanno Misuzu and Lily Franky. The movie which will be released nationwide from 24 February, is based on the true story of broadcast writer Hashimoto Kouji about how a father who had gone missing for 13 years, was unable to mend ties with his estranged family. It was only until his death that his family members find out the truth about what happened during these 13 years from those who attend the father's funeral. Takahashi plays the lead character Hashida Koji while Lily plays Koji's missing father. Kanno plays Koji's mother while Matsuoka Mayu plays Koji's girlfriend. Saito himself plays the eldest son of the Hashida family.


Saito commented that he felt the pressure and weight of his position as the director and that he was not particularly creative, innovative nor had leadership abilities. As such, he saw himself as the connection baton between Hashimoto's concept and the audience. Despite so, the project which started off as chit chat, became such an elaborate project with a wonderful cast so he felt as if he had used up all his good luck in this lifetime in this movie. Saito said that he was just a young boy who loved movies and going to cinemas so he wouldn't have the guts to say that he had the talent to shoot movies. However, many miracles happened at various stages and hoped that everyone would be able to see how the god of movies had favoured him in making this a reality.

Takahashi began by saying that Saito was too humble and that the latter had done a lot as a director so he was glad to be working under his direction. Before the filming, they had discussions about the movie so it was a first for him to set aside time to do so. As for Kanno, she said that her deepest impression during the filming was Saito's happy face because he seemed to be really thrilled about making the movie so she felt assured that this movie would turn out to be good. Last but not least, Lily joked that Saito was great in making his portrait displayed at the funeral look so good and that he never experienced something like this before.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sponichi / Eiga.com / Natalie