An.an 2018.1.17 - Matsumoto Jun
I figured that, since today is Valentine's day, it would be appropriate to have Matsumoto talking about chocolate. An interview in which we also learn that MJ has favorite types of water... Jun, how??
As usual, credits are on the pics, which you can all find here. For the text that you see on the pics, I inserted the translation in the image description. I hope it's ok!
"Well, I'm indeed in charge of a chocolate brand!", Matsumoto Jun says while laughing.
The CM he did for chocolate, packed with his charm, is certainly popular. In Shitsuren Chocolatier, a cool drama serial which started in January 2014, he played the role of a chocolatier. During the filming, he had the opportunity to learn the art of chocolate-making from professionals:
"When I tried to practice at home the chocolate tempering (the setting of the temperature to melt the chocolate and then solidy it again), it was smelling incredibly good and sweet in the room. At the time, I could do tempering without even measuring the temperature! I can't do it anymore at all... "
"I feel nostalgic about that period", Matsumoto says about the time he was filming Shitsuren Chocolatier, a time during which he was "together with chocolate".
Holding on to the "Nostalgia" thread, we ask him to look back on his first memory of Valentine's day.
I received my first Valentine's gifts during kindergarten. It was from a girl I was friend with.
"I was friend with a girl of my age, whose parents were owning a sweets shop. At this shop, they were selling my favorite type of chocolate... I was in kindergarten when, for Valentine's day, they offered me some for Valentine's day. I ate so much of it that I had nosebleed! To have such a memory as a first Valentine's day memory... (w)."
Time went on after that mirthful "incident", and we jump to 2003. At the time, Matsumoto was filming Kimi wa Petto, and for Valentine's day, he apparently gave chocolate to Koyuki (Koyuki Katô).
"I was crazy about a certain type of chocolate, at the time, and since I was playing the role of a pet, offering her chocolate... I thought that it was perfectly fitting to our kind of relationship! Now that I think about it, the 'Gyaku-choco'* trend was just starting, then. Koyuki's reaction was like: "Valentine's day, in reverse ?", but she remembered it, and when years after, we met again, she said that it had left a deep impression on her.
As for me, I often eat chocolate when I'm working on something for which I really need to push myself hard, like for meetings about the concerts or concert rehearsals, and take a break. It's like Miyama and his sweets, I guess."
If I'm working on something for which I really need to push myself hard, during breaks, I eat chocolate.
Miyama is the main character of 99,9% Keiji Senmon Bengoshi SEASON II, the drama starting in January 2018 in which Matsumoto is playing the main character. Miyama Hiroto. Miyama, a very fussy lawyer who, maybe in order to be able to use his full intellect to solve cases, NEEDS supplies of sweets. With a rucksack on his back even though he's wearing a suit, telling again and again old man jokes that leave everyone around cold as ice, Miyama is a lawyer who, in order to solve cases, is chasing the truth of the 0,1% cases that can be pleaded.
"I was happy to hear people say that they wanted to see more, and when the staff and actors said that they wanted to do it again and made it a reality, I was also frankly happy. Even if I say 'the filming is hard', I'm feeling calm about it. Feeling that we are making this together, it's an incredibly comfortable sensation. I'm having fun."
When I wake up in the morning, I open the curtains and look at the day's weather.
"I don't have any particular method to release stress... I don't sleep until I absolutely can't take it anymore, so I never had problems to fall asleep. When I have free time, or when I'm on the road between two jobs, I relax by reading a book, or drinking hot coffee or black tea. When I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth, drink the type of fresh water or hot water I'm into at the moment, I open the curtains, and look at the weather. I like when the weather is clear. I look at the sky, and think: 'Today too, I'll be filming...'. It's nice when, in winter, the air is crisp and dry..."
*Gyaku-choco : In Japan, the tradition is that for Valentine's day, girls are giving chocolate to boys. « Gyaku-choco », which literally means « reversed-choco », is the chocolate which is given by boys to girls for Valentine's day. It was a new trend that was instituted for commercially purpose.