TV Pia March 2014 - Sakurai Sho "The Other Side" Translation
Actor Sakurai Sho shared with us some stories regarding his starring movie, Kamisama no Karute 2. He also talked about thoughts and memories related to movies. Eh? What was it with Nino and toilet? Read more to find out.
[The other side]「I want the viewers to lose their guards and come to watch it thinking that it is “a gentle and peaceful movie”.」
Sakurai Sho in [Kamisama no Karute 2]
THE OTHER SIDE
The movie [Kamisama no Karute 2] in which he was cast as the lead actor was released recently.
This time, we turned the spotlight to actor Sakurai Sho, and ventured to approach the other side of the movie.
[Kamisama no Karute] portrays the harsh condition of medical service in rural areas, and the conflicts faced by the young doctors in that situation. Continuing from the previous work, Sakurai Sho played the role of an eccentric internist, Ichito.
My attachment to the first movie was really strong, so when the talk of making the sequel came up, honestly, I felt a little reluctant. However, director Fukagawa (Yoshihiro)’s intention to create a different movie altogether instead of a sequel had pushed me to receive the job. In the end, I could sincerely say that it was a good thing for me to appear in this movie.
This time, the director let me do what I thought was best. When I tried doing some gestures that the previous Ichito would never do, such as putting my hands in the pocket, the director said “It’s OK”. Different from the previous work, I think I was able to show the Ichito who had matured a little bit.
The line said by Ichito’s wife, Haruna (Miyazaki Aoi), in the opening scene, “When you’re having a hard time, Ichi-san can sometimes forgets the fact that I’m here beside you,” was quite shocking. To Sakurai himself, are there any words or memories that come to mind when he’s facing difficulty?
Well…, after all this time, I still remember the time when I was filming for [Kisarazu Cats Eye] or [Yoiko no Mikata]. It occurred at the same time as my university examination, so I had no time to sleep, I was really doing all I could. Strictly speaking, my schedule now might be busier than it was at that time, but the fact that I “also managed to overcome such extremely difficult time”, has supported me until now.
By the way, at the press conference for the release, Emoto Akira commented on director Fukugawa’s extraordinary passion, saying “He’s abnormal”…
Yeah, he’s abnormal indeed (laugh). Of course I said it as the ultimate compliment, you know? That he was able to draw out so much by adding colors to the outlook portrayed in the previous movie, I think such rich imagination was exceptional. Though this was hardly noticed on the location, it was really amazing how he could produce something totally different even though the casts and setting were almost completely the same.
Emoto-san’s comment, on the other hand, was slightly different. I think maybe he also meant something like “what a movie freak”. There was this one time when we were chatting, and Emoto-san got shocked by the enormous number of movies that the director watched. The conversation between these two movie maniacs wasn't a world that I could enter anymore (laugh). If we’re talking about actors, I actually like Sean Penn, I keep thinking that I want to age as well as he does. Even so, it’s not like I have watched all his movies. I also can’t particularly mention something like which director whose works had influence on me.
「It was also in the cinema that I got to see my mom’s tears for the first time.」
Since we’re doing an interview regarding a movie piece, please share with us if you have any memories related to “movies”.
If we’re talking about memories related to movies, the first thing that comes to mind is when I went to watch [Deep Impact] with some fellow Johnny Jr.. Nino (Ninomiya Kazunari) kept on going to the toilet, it made me distracted…. (laugh). Ah, also, I went to watch [Hachiko Monogatari] with my mother when I was small. When I saw my mom who sat next to me crying crazily, I remember I was quite shocked. Apart from the fact that it was the first time I saw my parent crying, because I was so young, I didn’t understand which part of the movie that made her cry like that.
Unexpectedly, I don’t get recognized when I go to cinema, because everyone is looking at the movie, right. But I haven’t been able to go for a long time. The last time I saw a movie was when I did the shooting for this [Kamisama no Karute 2] in Matsumoto city, it was [Les Miserable]. But I want to go! Lately, I’m interested in [Zero Gravity] and [Eien no 0], two movies with “connection to zero” (laugh). The other day, though it was not in the cinema, I re-watched [West Side Story] on the flight back from Sochi. I thought, this movie was really amazing after all.
As for the charm of watching movies in the cinema, Sakurai said that there is an extraordinary feel that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.
It applies to concerts as well. If I have to express in words, isn't it rare that you get a chance to concentrate to something for two hours in a somewhat confined situation, but it’s actually a good thing. If we’re talking about this movie, the majestic scenery of Nagano is also one of the movie’s unique charm. The snowy mountain landscape is really beautiful! That was my first time ever seeing a “snow horizon”. The hike up the mountain was not tough at all, it felt like camping (laugh).
Even though it looks like a gentle movie at a glance, but some of the themes presented are actually quite heavy. I want the viewers to lose their guards when they come to watch the movie. If you come expecting to watch a peaceful and gentle movie, I think there will be a lot of things you’d find propelling about it.
Translator's note:
This article has a little more “weight” compared to the other translations I did before. This article feels more editorial in a sense. I was troubled by some parts of this interview, I kept on trying several different phrases to be able to convey the exact same nuance that Sho meant. It’s also interesting to note, that Sho was talking in casual speech during the interview. He also used “ore” to refer to himself, as opposed to “boku”, which he usually used in Arashi interviews. As a result, it feels more masculine and gives out a different image of him. Instead of the proper, PG rated member of Arashi, we get a glimpse of Sakurai Sho, man and actor. I’m not sure I can properly convey such feeling, but as you can see in the photos, the way he talked was a match to the hot, confident, and somewhat macho pictures of him shown on that page.
Comments are <3. Let me know which part of this interview that you like the most.
And as a service, enjoy some smoking hot close-ups from the magazine.
(If anyone's interested, I'll try to scan with better resolution tomorrow.)
[The other side]「I want the viewers to lose their guards and come to watch it thinking that it is “a gentle and peaceful movie”.」
Sakurai Sho in [Kamisama no Karute 2]
THE OTHER SIDE
The movie [Kamisama no Karute 2] in which he was cast as the lead actor was released recently.
This time, we turned the spotlight to actor Sakurai Sho, and ventured to approach the other side of the movie.
[Kamisama no Karute] portrays the harsh condition of medical service in rural areas, and the conflicts faced by the young doctors in that situation. Continuing from the previous work, Sakurai Sho played the role of an eccentric internist, Ichito.
My attachment to the first movie was really strong, so when the talk of making the sequel came up, honestly, I felt a little reluctant. However, director Fukagawa (Yoshihiro)’s intention to create a different movie altogether instead of a sequel had pushed me to receive the job. In the end, I could sincerely say that it was a good thing for me to appear in this movie.
This time, the director let me do what I thought was best. When I tried doing some gestures that the previous Ichito would never do, such as putting my hands in the pocket, the director said “It’s OK”. Different from the previous work, I think I was able to show the Ichito who had matured a little bit.
The line said by Ichito’s wife, Haruna (Miyazaki Aoi), in the opening scene, “When you’re having a hard time, Ichi-san can sometimes forgets the fact that I’m here beside you,” was quite shocking. To Sakurai himself, are there any words or memories that come to mind when he’s facing difficulty?
Well…, after all this time, I still remember the time when I was filming for [Kisarazu Cats Eye] or [Yoiko no Mikata]. It occurred at the same time as my university examination, so I had no time to sleep, I was really doing all I could. Strictly speaking, my schedule now might be busier than it was at that time, but the fact that I “also managed to overcome such extremely difficult time”, has supported me until now.
By the way, at the press conference for the release, Emoto Akira commented on director Fukugawa’s extraordinary passion, saying “He’s abnormal”…
Yeah, he’s abnormal indeed (laugh). Of course I said it as the ultimate compliment, you know? That he was able to draw out so much by adding colors to the outlook portrayed in the previous movie, I think such rich imagination was exceptional. Though this was hardly noticed on the location, it was really amazing how he could produce something totally different even though the casts and setting were almost completely the same.
Emoto-san’s comment, on the other hand, was slightly different. I think maybe he also meant something like “what a movie freak”. There was this one time when we were chatting, and Emoto-san got shocked by the enormous number of movies that the director watched. The conversation between these two movie maniacs wasn't a world that I could enter anymore (laugh). If we’re talking about actors, I actually like Sean Penn, I keep thinking that I want to age as well as he does. Even so, it’s not like I have watched all his movies. I also can’t particularly mention something like which director whose works had influence on me.
「It was also in the cinema that I got to see my mom’s tears for the first time.」
Since we’re doing an interview regarding a movie piece, please share with us if you have any memories related to “movies”.
If we’re talking about memories related to movies, the first thing that comes to mind is when I went to watch [Deep Impact] with some fellow Johnny Jr.. Nino (Ninomiya Kazunari) kept on going to the toilet, it made me distracted…. (laugh). Ah, also, I went to watch [Hachiko Monogatari] with my mother when I was small. When I saw my mom who sat next to me crying crazily, I remember I was quite shocked. Apart from the fact that it was the first time I saw my parent crying, because I was so young, I didn’t understand which part of the movie that made her cry like that.
Unexpectedly, I don’t get recognized when I go to cinema, because everyone is looking at the movie, right. But I haven’t been able to go for a long time. The last time I saw a movie was when I did the shooting for this [Kamisama no Karute 2] in Matsumoto city, it was [Les Miserable]. But I want to go! Lately, I’m interested in [Zero Gravity] and [Eien no 0], two movies with “connection to zero” (laugh). The other day, though it was not in the cinema, I re-watched [West Side Story] on the flight back from Sochi. I thought, this movie was really amazing after all.
As for the charm of watching movies in the cinema, Sakurai said that there is an extraordinary feel that you wouldn’t get anywhere else.
It applies to concerts as well. If I have to express in words, isn't it rare that you get a chance to concentrate to something for two hours in a somewhat confined situation, but it’s actually a good thing. If we’re talking about this movie, the majestic scenery of Nagano is also one of the movie’s unique charm. The snowy mountain landscape is really beautiful! That was my first time ever seeing a “snow horizon”. The hike up the mountain was not tough at all, it felt like camping (laugh).
Even though it looks like a gentle movie at a glance, but some of the themes presented are actually quite heavy. I want the viewers to lose their guards when they come to watch the movie. If you come expecting to watch a peaceful and gentle movie, I think there will be a lot of things you’d find propelling about it.
Translator's note:
This article has a little more “weight” compared to the other translations I did before. This article feels more editorial in a sense. I was troubled by some parts of this interview, I kept on trying several different phrases to be able to convey the exact same nuance that Sho meant. It’s also interesting to note, that Sho was talking in casual speech during the interview. He also used “ore” to refer to himself, as opposed to “boku”, which he usually used in Arashi interviews. As a result, it feels more masculine and gives out a different image of him. Instead of the proper, PG rated member of Arashi, we get a glimpse of Sakurai Sho, man and actor. I’m not sure I can properly convey such feeling, but as you can see in the photos, the way he talked was a match to the hot, confident, and somewhat macho pictures of him shown on that page.
Comments are <3. Let me know which part of this interview that you like the most.
And as a service, enjoy some smoking hot close-ups from the magazine.
(If anyone's interested, I'll try to scan with better resolution tomorrow.)
