The original interview can be found here. Corrections and comments are most welcome. Thanks to Chuks and Satomi for translation help. Only the last 1/4 of the interview left to go, if I can tear myself away from Ryu ga Gotoku Ishin. Click on the translation tab for the previous parts.
Sakamoto: Once I saw the actual thing, I could
write according to the images that I saw and did not have much resistance (to
the difference between the images in Sakamoto's mind and the actual thing).
Therefore, I cannot enjoy watching first episodes every time.
Abiko: In the fifth
episode, there is a long scene where Otake Shinobu-san speaks by herself for
close to 10 minutes. This is an incredible scene. Since you did not go the
shooting location might have not known about it……
Sakamoto: No, I only heard
about it later. Otake-san went to the location in a flash, did the difficult
scene and quickly went back home. (laughs)
Abiko: Was it done in
one shot?
Sakamoto: Of course
it was in one shot. It’s like that every time. Just before that scene was shot,
Otake-san was jokingly quarrelling and having fun talking with everyone. When
it was time to start, she got into character immediately.
Abiko: Although this
scene wasn’t done in one cut, did you use multiple cameras at the same time?
Sakamoto: Yes. We
used a similar set up for Kazama’s scene in episode 8. Incidentally, in that
scene where the interior of the house was actually a studio set, any scene
featuring the entranceway to outside was actually at the Nagano location shoot.
When Otake-san was rehearsing she said ‘After Kazama-san leaves the house, I
have to go after him.” So Otake-san had to see him off not just from the inside
of the house.
Abiko: So, she had to
go the Nagano location shoot.
Sakamoto: Exactly. If
we did not shoot the outdoor scenes with Otake-san in Nagano, it would be
inconsistent but Otake-san could not make it to Nagano for scheduling reasons
so she was told, “Otake-san please don’t go outside”. So they were shooting the
big fight (between Otake-san and Kazama-san) and straight after “Ok, cut!”,
Otake-san in a flash went outside the house set and said, “from here its
Nagano…” with a twinkling smile. She really is a monster! (laughs)
Abiko: (laughs) In spite
of that, you wrote it the long lines because it was Otake-san?
Sakamoto: Yes,
because it was Otake-san. Although I’ve seen Otake-san act in plays, I wanted
to see a different sort of acting from her on television. When I think of
plays, the main thing is always long lines. I actually write a lot of lines
similar to a play but that was too much for me.
Abiko: So, did Otake ask
for the lines?
Sakamoto: No, no. It
was the producer who wanted the long lines. Of course, I did not write the long
lines thinking that they would be able to be broadcast on television. Starting
from the scene where Otake-san leaves the house and says, “You killed my
daughter” to going to the lake, along the way I was thinking what sort of
emotions are there in first half and wrote that in the script…. I thought the first
half was really interesting but if we cut the second half, it won’t make any
sense, so we put more weight on the second half.
Abiko: After
rewatching that long line scene, although Otake-san was the only one speaking, the
people in the background still have to act. I think that it must have been
difficult for them to act when they can’t speak and can only listen. Just in
case, there were cuts in the scene so was it done in one shot? Was it shot in
the flow? I’m interested to know.
Sakamoto: For
television doramas, outside of location shoots, everything is basically done in
one shot. The shootings outside were done piece by piece. Naturally there are
no long shoots in television doramas. However, people working on the show were
nervous. At the time of submitting my first and second drafts, Otake-san was informed
that there were long dialogues. After the script was delivered, were flipped
through the pages and were surprised that there were a lot of long, continuous
dialogue in it but I heard that Otake-san did it like there was nothing to it,
as usual.
Abiko: It’s not really that important a scene but
after reading the script I’m interested and stuck a tag on this part. In the
last episode, Eita’s and Mitsushima Hikari’s characters went on a date. They
were talking about where they wanted to go for vacation and Mitsushima said she
wanted to go to Easter Island. When she was asked, “What do want to do there?”,
Mitsushima-san said, “The Moais to..” (Easter Island statues) She’s was talking
about Eita’s face, wasn’t she?
Sakamoto: Aaa…. Was
she?
Abiko: Eh? She
wasn’t?
Sakamoto: No she
wasn’t. (laughs)
Abiko: Its about
something else?
Sakamoto: She wasn’t
thinking about anything in particular. (laughs)
Abiko: But,
Mitsushima-san glanced at Eita’s face when she said Moai and said “It’s a
secret” and laughed.
Sakamoto: That’s the
type of person she is. That is Futaba’s role. She’s interesting because she
stops herself before she says something.
Abiko: That’s right.
That’s right.
Sakamoto: Actually, I
don’t know. (laughs) Maybe Mitsushima-san thought so when she was doing that.
My assumption is tha the Futaba that Mitsushima portrays liked the Moai since
she was a kid and just wanted to see the Moais. That’s probably what she wanted
to say when she stopped at “Moais to…”
Abiko: Ehhh… Aa, I’m
glad I asked.
Sakamoto: You should ask
when you have a chance. The explanation might not be what you were expecting.
(laughs)
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