Highlights from the interview of the directing team for "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" - Best Directing in the 122nd Drama Academy Awards

Here are some highlights from The Television's interview with the directing team i.e. Tsukahara Ayuko, Fukuda Ryosuke, Hayashi Satoshi & Fukawa Ryosuke for "Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo" which won the Best Directing category in the 122nd Drama Academy Awards:

• The filming of the drama took as long as six months. Prior to that, another month was spent on sourcing for a suitably-sized location and building the open set of Hashima Ginza somewhere in Gunma Prefecture. As such, it was challenging and time-consuming to keep shuttling between Tokyo and Gunma during the filming period.

• Due to the dangers of filming in the Hashima of today due to the poor condition of its buildings and structures, they could only film in specific areas that were open to the public tours. As such, they approached the ex-residents for input on how to design the interior parts of the buildings and rebuilt these in the Midoriyama Studio.

• As there are many ex-Hashima residents who are still living, they had to make sure that the scenes set in Hashima were as accurate as possible. It was a relief for them to get feedback from these ex-residents who were impressed with how the staff managed to replicate the scenes from back then.

• The scenes on Hashima during the Showa era were created through CG. 

• The team praised the lead actor Kamiki Ryuunosuke for being a very cheerful person who could slip into his two characters Teppei and Reo with ease as soon as filming began. He also contributed ideas and exchanged views with the staff for various scenes such as when Teppei confessed his feelings to Asako. Even when the team had some challenging requirements, Kamiki was also able to meet these without difficulty. From the beginning, he could already understand what the script wanted and obviously put in a lot of effort to build his characters before the filming began.

• With regard to viewers' feedback that Teppei's life after leaving Hashima was so sad, the team explained that this had to do with the time setting of the story i.e. soon after the end of World War II. As depicted in Ep 4, the sins of the adults i.e. the generation of Teppei's parents were passed on to their children i.e. Teppei's generation in various ways. In order to break this cycle of tragedy, Teppei's position in the story was meant to be the person who took on the sins when he left Hashima so that the children of future generations could lead peaceful and happy lives. As to whether Teppei was happy with his life or not, that would be something which only he could have an answer to despite how others may feel sad for his fate. Especially as shown in the final moments of the last episode, Teppei had lived in a house facing the sea and Hashima so this could be interpreted as having some moments of happiness despite his harsh fate.

• While this drama was ultimately entertainment, the team also saw that it provided a starting point for conversations and thinking about history, be it about the war or the coal mining industry or Hashima based on their recent thanksgiving trip to Nagasaki after filming ended. There were also other important messages in the story such as the value of family relationships, the passion of the older generations passing on to the current generations and taking conscious steps to change our lives for the better.

• With regard to the scene when Shinpei (Saito Takumi) shot a gangster to save Rina (Ikeda Elaiza) in Ep 5, they didn't want to show him as a hero who saved a damsel in distress. This was because the sin of his action ended up being borne by Teppei who had to leave Hashima as a fugitive and also led to other people's lives being affected as a result. In addition, considering that Shinpei had participated in the war as a soldier and had experience shooting people to defend himself, his action could also be considered as a natural reaction rather than a calculated move to save Rina. There was also a message to be conveyed that using violence to counter violence would just result in an endless loop and downward spiral as seen by what the Araki family had to shoulder after Shinpei's death.