[translation] Yamapi in Kindai, August 2008
I have feelings of great respect for doctors.
I think I would almost want to be a doctor in another life.
Putting aside whether I am in it or not, when I'm reading the script, I find myself unable to stop.
Aizawa Kousaku-- a flight doctor cadet. After gaining experience at a regional emergency room, he came to Shouhoku Emergency Center to become a flight doctor. Very knowledgeable about medicine and calm under pressure, he is very confident in his own skills. He has even spent entire nights when he wasn't on shift at the center, waiting on patients in critical condition. "The emergency center has fewer staff members in the middle of the night, so I can maximize my time with all of the most critical patients. I want to watch over those patients more closely than anyone else." With phrases like, "sudden changes are chances to improve my skill," he is unscrupulously willing to take large degrees of tension just to polish his own skills. However, that obsession with technique gives him a worrying persona, and creates misunderstandings with the people around him. His lonely upbringing would be the cause.....
---When you were first offered a role in this drama, what did you think?
I'm 23 right now, but I didn't ever think I would play the role of a doctor at this age. I felt a lot of pressure. But I think that this drama will be one that people of many ages can enjoy.
---Did you know about the existence of flight doctors?
I did, I did! I happened to watch a documentary about them, and the doctor introduced there was actually at the set with us. But a lot of people don't know about them... they're a special type, but one with a dramatically higher rescue rate... it's an amazing system.
---Incidentally, were you ever attracted to the idea of being a doctor?
I never thought I wanted to be one, but I have been attracted to the idea, or rather, I respect doctors a lot. It's a profession that affects everyone at least once, and may even save my life one day (in the future). I also think it's amazing that they know so much about how the body works. It's an honor to be able to experience being a pseudo-doctor through this acting role. I almost want to study to be a doctor in another life. I always had an interest in living things and anatomy-- when I open books about medicine or body systems, I just keep reading. To prepare for this drama, I learned a lot of medical vocabulary and we had some rehearsals to learn about what is where in the body, and it's a lot of fun.
---"Code Blue" seems like a drama that children or younger people will watch and think, "I want to be like that!"
Yes, that's exactly it. Right now, there aren't enough doctors. I hope that this will inspire young people to aim to be doctors because the story is easy to relate to-- it's about the exploits of young doctors. I think that it's a really interesting drama. Regardless of whether or not I'm in it, when I'm reading the script it's easy to get hooked.
---Do you have any similarities with the character Aizawa Kousaku?
Ummm.... there aren't many (laugh). Kousaku is really aloof, and he chose the emergency center because he wants to keep improving himself by confronting more and more difficult cases. Apparently, the things you normally experience after one year of working at a regular hospital come at you within a month in the speed of an emergency room. I am not quite that ambitious (laugh). Well, we share the same hatred of losing to anyone, but Aizawa is very extreme. Even so, I can understand his feelings really well. In terms of confronting things with all of your strength, I can relate easily, and I think we're similar. (During the interview, the rain gets worse.) ...ah, this is off-topic, but when it rains, even your feelings start to get kind of muggy, huh (laugh).
---Do you have strategies for relaxing when the weather falls apart during filming?
Apparently, your feelings start to dampen when it rains because of atmospheric pressures. It's easier to feel active when the atmospheric pressure is high. There's a sympathetic nervous system and a parasympathetic nervous system, right? The balance between them is affected by the pressure... being able to study things like this are my favorite part about this drama (laugh).
---Playing the role of a doctor, what do you think is the most important thing to doctors?
Putting treatment for patients aside as the main condition, I believe that the heart and the body are closely connected. So, in caring for the heart, I think that it's extremely important to engender in patients a feeling of wanting to get better.
Scans from watchful21 at this post.
Kousaku is such an uncommon name nowadays that I find it really strange/annoying to see it again in this drama. Why is the universe creating links between Yamapi and Kame. Yamapi and Jinnnnnnnnnn forevar >(
/end ridiculousness
The drama sounds interesting, although perhaps less light-hearted than I tend to prefer. Yamapi, apparently, plays an ass! :D