First-day-screening event of new movie "Ramen Kuitee!"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Ramen Kuitee!" was held at Shinjuku Musashinokan on 3 March which was attended by the director Kumagai Yuuki, music director Oh Joon Sung and cast members Nakamura Yurika, Aoi Wakana and Ishibashi Renji. The movie is based on the same-titled Internet manga by Hayashi Akiteru that has achieved more than 1 million page views to date on "Moai" since February 2015.

This heartful story describes how four people find renewed hope in life through their love for ramen. Akahoshi (Katagiri Jin), a cuisine commentator, is lost on the highlands of Kyrgyzstan and about to die when he screams to declare his desire to eat Seiran's ramen before he dies. He musters his last ounce of energy in order to save himself and head towards Seiran. At the same time, Akashi (Ishibashi) the owner of a ramen restaurant, has no desire to continue with the shop after his best partner i.e. his wife passed away. Marie (Nakamura), a senior high school student and the granddaughter of Akashi, is driven to commit suicide due to some groundless rumours about her circulating online and her best friend's betrayal. When Marie survives the suicide, the goal of taking over her grandfather's ramen shop becomes her new purpose in life and she tries to learn the ropes from him along with her buddy Kojima (Aoi) after they reconcile. Co-stars include Takuma Takayuki, Morio Yumi, Mizuhashi Kenji, Kataoka Reiko, Nagaoka Tasuku and Kuroba Mario.


When the audience was asked about their thoughts after watching the movie, they exclaimed that they felt hungry which Aoi revealed jokingly that she was also hungry. The director then suggested that everyone could go and have some ramen before going home.

In preparation for the filming, Aoi and Nakamura went for ramen making training where Aoi was in charge of the strainer. She reflected on how it seemed easy on the surface but the strainer was very heavy. Coupled with the weight of the noodles, she practised until she had tenosynovitis. Nonetheless, since she loves ramen a lot, she found it enjoyable to be able to go through this training.

As for reuniting with Nakamura since they last met during the filming, Aoi said that Nakamura still remained the same which led the latter to tease her if she meant it in a good way. Ishibashi who played a legendary ramen restaurant's owner, he said that it was difficult to learn the skills of making ramen and had to "threaten" the director not to shoot his hands and just focus on his face during the filming.

To celebrate the 21st birthday of Nakamura who turns 21 on 4 March, 17 O'Clock who sings the theme song for the movie, appeared on stage with a ramen-shaped cake to spring a surprise on the birthday cake. She then revealed that her manager had accidentally blurted out the surprise during the event beforehand which led the audience to laugh at this unintentional revelation.

Sources: Natalie / Eiga.com