Why was Koji casted as Mamoru in 'Ride Ride Ride'?
Director Kuwano Tomohiro with Koji and Tsurumi Shingo
Production Work ⑦ - The Casting
For 'Ride Ride Ride' starring Seto Koji, appeared with him Hakamada Yoshihiko, Usuda Asami, Makita Sports, Sugawara Daikichi and Tsurumi Shingo, each of them with a very individual personality and own charme. These 6 share a common feature, they all have appeared in one of my produced dramas so far. Seto-san and Hakamada-san have been in the Taiga drama 'Gou', Tsurumi-san and Usuda-san were in the Asadora 'Umechan Sensei' (with Usuda-san in the 'Umechan Sensei TV Special' too) and Sugawara-san and Makita-san in 'Amachan' - I was allowed to work together with them during the last 3 years. Because it would become very long to talk about the reasons why I casted each one of them, let me only talk about Seto Koji-san here.
Seto-san took on the part of Mori Ranmaru in 'Gou'. Ranmaru was a young general and followed Oda Nobunaga as his Kinju*, he died together with Nobunaga during the Honnoji incident. Seto-san´s play in this scene of the Honnoji Incident was truly magnificent. I still remember how I got goosebumbs on the movie set during Seto-san´s last war cry, as he jumped straight into Mitsuhide Akechi´s army, risking his life. Seto-san himself is an immense bright person, but during the waiting time on set he was very silent, shy even. To me he seemed to understand the feelings of Ranmaru, who continued to follow Nobunaga in silent accordance. The filming continued from morning until night without a break, it´s not possible to stay into such a role like this and to perform it with just ordinary fortitude. I thought that it was because it´s been continuously, but the last war cry during the Honnoji incident was beyound acting and he proved to possess that power.
This time, the protagonist Mamoru is a man who carries a trauma from an incident that occured in the past and shuts himself off in his own shell. For Mamoru the daily contact to the positive Nasu Venga-team members is bringing his trauma to ache. When I was thinking about who would receive this role to play, I first and foremost wanted "no falsehood". I thought that Mamoru´s pain wouldn´t come across to the television viewer, unless it is an actor that becomes Mamoru himself and lives him. This was the moment Seto-san´s face appeared in my mind.
by Kuwano Tomohiro,
Director and executive Producer
( Original Post)
Toyokawa Etsushi as Nobunaga Oda and Koji as Ranmaru in 'Gou'
Notes:
* A kinju and kosho were in the Warring States Era of Japan varlets, sons of nobles sent by their parents as attendants to other warlords for the purpose of a good education and training to become future Samurai. The particular titles kosho (小姓) and kinju (近習) differ somewhat in their nature and rang. So were kosho like bodyguards for their master and ordered by them to do miscellaneous errands. A kinju (literally meant learning closely) had the same responsibilities, but was a lot closer to his master - a very rare position not every Daimyo was able to fill, because it had to be somebody he could truly trust. Even though he was still a pupil to his master himself, a kinju was part of their lord´s inner cirlce and in a position to offer advice.