Behind-the-scenes of FujiTV Autumn 2022 drama "silent" - Interview with its scriptwriter Ubukata Miku and producer Murase Ken

Mantan Web did an interview with the scriptwriter Ubukata Miku and producer Murase Ken of FujiTV Autumn 2022 drama "silent" where they shared behind-the-scenes information about the production process. Instead of translating the entire article word-for-word, I have chosen the key points for the purpose of this post:

* Murase who had produced dramas such as "14-sai no haha" and "Itsuka kono koi wo omoidashite kitto naiteshimau" in his career, explained why they decided to make this drama. In the current world where diversity is the new buzzword, they wondered if it is really true that people have indeed embraced this concept and thought that it would be a good idea to do something on this theme. From then, he approached the scriptwriter Ubukata about making a love story between the hearing-impaired and those who can hear.

* When Ubukata got the proposal, she didn't want to write a story where the couple meets and falls in love when one of them is already deaf. As such, the setting became that of two people who were already in love from the beginning, later came to face a situation of hearing loss and then reunited after some time.

* The story was written specifically with Kawaguchi Haruna and Meguro Ren in mind. Kawaguchi was chosen because Ubukata felt that she enjoys the support of female viewers and comes across as unpretentious so would be able to convey Tsumugi's thoughts as it is. As for Meguro, the fact that he is from the popular group Snow Man and has shown a lot of potential as an actor was why Ubukata wanted to choose him. 

* As for Murase's impressions of the leads, Kawaguchi struck him as someone who stood out with grace and beauty even when she was surrounded by many stars during last year's NHK Kouhaku for which she was the host. Having made her debut in a FujiTV drama and coming full-circle to taking on the Kichou role in NHK's Taiga drama "Kirin ga kuru" and later becoming the Kouhaku host, he could see the progress she had made over the years and the aura that came with this built-up confidence in her achievements. As for Meguro, despite being from a popular group Snow Man, he found Meguro to have an unique charisma and is an actor who is not quite like the typical image of Johnny's artists especially after he saw Meguro in "Kyoujou II".

* When the announcement for the drama came out, it soon became much talked-about and the number of followers on its social media accounts passed the 200,000 mark even before the OA. Currently, the number of followers have exceeded 500,000. Murase commented that this amount of attention was rare for a drama which hadn't started its run and saw that as a reflection of the anticipation for the cast and the desire to see Kawaguchi and Meguro as the lead couple. This made the cast and staff members even more determined to make a drama that could meet these expectations.

* Ever since the first episode, the story has firmly captured the attention and interest of the viewers with its moving lines, the songs that appear in the drama and the relationships between the characters. Murase commented that the lines spoken in this drama are all very realistic and likely to be heard in real life so they don't come off as fake or staged. As such, he believed that this was why they resonated with the viewers. The cast had also praised the script for its excellent lines.

* One key theme that is depicted throughout the drama is how some things never change even when changes are taking place everywhere. As such, instead of focusing on the story developments, the script emphasizes the emotions and feelings of the characters and how they would react when things happen. This then makes the viewers interested and concerned about what would happen next which is very important to a drama series.

* Despite this drama being Ubukata's first work, Murase was full of praise for her and said that her script had both the quality of a veteran and the freshness of a newbie.

* Besides the amount of attention paid to the story, the beautiful visuals were also a key focus area for this drama. Instead of getting the drama's director Kazama Hiroki to take charge of the teasers, they got CM director Ota Ryo to handle these so as to get a fresh perspective on catching the viewers' attention in a very short time (CMs are usually less than a min long so you need to get the viewers' attention very quickly). The monologues spoken by the leads in these videos were written by Ubukata. In addition, many of the staff who work on this drama are those who typically work in the CM field rather than dramas. Fortunately, the end product turned out so well that everyone including the staff were full of praise for it.

Source: Mantan Web