First-day-screening event of new movie "River's Edge"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "River's Edge" was held at TOHO Cinemas Shinjuku on 18 February which was attended by the director Yukisada Isao and cast members Nikaidou Fumi, Yoshizawa Ryo, Morikawa Aoi, Uesugi Shuhei, SUMIRE and Doi Shiori. The story is based on the same-titled manga by Okazaki Kyoko set in the 1990s where Nikaidou plays the lead character Wakagusa Haruna, a senior high school student while Yoshizawa plays Yamada Ichiro who attends the same school as Haruna and is bullied by her ex-boyfriend Kannonzaki (Uesugi) for being a gay. After saving Ichiro from the bullying, he reveals to Haruna that he and Yoshikawa Kozue (SUMIRE), Haruna's junior, a student model suffering from eating disorders, had discovered a dead body on the river bed. At the same time, Haruna's friend Rumi (Doi) is pregnant but doesn't know who the father is while Yamada's friend Tajima Kanna (Morikawa) is in love with him even though he doesn't feel the same way. Just then, another dead body appears.

Yukisada, Nikaidou and Yoshizawa attended the screening of the movie at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival days earlier as the film was featured as the opening movie in the Panorama Category. Reflecting on the experience, Nikaidou said that the atmosphere was very lively and she felt really happy to be able to take part in the film festival through this movie. Yoshizawa who attended a film festival for the first time, commented that the event felt like a joyous festival to him and it was interesting to see so many movie lovers gathered.

Yoshizawa revealed that it had been about 3 years since he was first approached by Nikaidou when she asked if he knew about "River's Edge". As such, for the movie to be finally ready to be shown to everyone, he had a strange and emotional feeling on this day and hoped that as many people could watch this movie. The director also talked about how Nikaidou was the one who initiated the production of this movie and how passionate she was about this. Coupled with various miracles like Ozawa Kenji singing the theme song for the movie and the film being featured in Berlin, he hoped that this series of miracles could be conveyed to the audience.

Sources: Eiga.com / Natalie