Ueno Juri’s New Year’s Interview for “Gou ~Hime tachi no Sengoku~”
Today actress Ueno Juri had a New Year’s interview session for NHK’s upcoming 50th taiga drama “Gou ~Hime tachi no Sengoku~“.
It is Ueno’s first time appearing and starring in a period drama ever and thus quite a big challenge and memorable step for her. “Every day I’m using up all of my power for the filming,” she said.
In the drama Ueno portrays the main character “Gou”, the third daughter of Oichi, the younger sister of Oda Nobunaga and Azai Nagamasa. Gou, her two sisters and her mother ended up living with Nobunaga after Nagamasa was forced to commit seppuku after the constant sieges by Nobunaga. Later she married Tokugawa Hidetada who became a shogun. Her son Iemitsu became a shogun as well, while her daughter married the Emperor of Japan. Gou’s two sisters also married very powerful men.
Ueno about the role, “One of the producers told me that Gou’s life was like water. She did meet a lot of different people, did visit to a lot of different places and did have a lot of different thoughts. Her way of life was very flexible and always changed according to the current situation. It might not be the way I live my life, but I still think it was a wonderful life. I hope you will enjoy it as much while watching the drama and become fascinated by all the people we are going to meet through Gou.”
She also talked about some similarities between her and Gou: “Just like her I am the youngest of three sisters. I think the environment and the organization of a family has a big influence on your life. When you leave home you start to discover things you would like to do by yourself and just do them. As the youngest of 3 sisters or brothers you don’t think about the responsibilities. Gou also started to just do her own thing since childhood.”
Ueno also acted out the some of the childhood days of Gou. “The prejudice of her being a princess quickly disappeared,” she said. “After understanding her feelings you start to become very close with her. I’m going to play her through various ages, from childhood to marriage to being a mother. While following the story one by one, a lot of scenes become fun memories for me. All of them show the growth of Gou and will probably help me a lot when I’m going to portray her adult days.”
Further, there is the pressure of it being the 50th taiga drama of NHK. “I can feel the responsibility and pressure. I have a very strong desire for it to become an absolutely great drama that is going to make everyone happy. My goal simply is it to become a great drama. The plot is packed with a very deep story and it’s going to start off right away with the first episode. There is a big range from funny to serious moments throughout the story. Even people who don’t know a lot about history, princesses and military commanders will be able to enjoy this drama thanks to all the emotions and interesting elements,” Ueno appealed to the viewers.
“Gou ~Hime tachi no Sengoku~” is based on an original novel written by Tabuchi Kumiko, who wrote it merely for the purpose of the drama. She penned the script for the drama as well. In the past, she also was responsible for the script of the very popular 47th taiga drama “Atsuhime” (2008) staring Miyazaki Aoi.
NHK is going to premier their 50th taiga drama on January 09th, 2011. The first episode will be 73 minutes long.
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source: TOKYOHIVE