More 2018.07 - Nino's 'It'
I'm on a roll; have another one ♥
Enjoy!
- - - - -
It {一途}
As we’ve entered the 10th year of this series, we take the opportunity for a little makeover and renewal. As always, we continue to evolve, no matter where wholehearted paths may lead.
Chapter 115
Choices
As if a spotlight were trained there, he stops beneath a cherry blossom tree buried in flower petals. “I managed to go cherry blossom viewing after all, huh?” He’s addressing the staff, and he adds, “although it’s during an interview, so it’s for work, after all”, with a wry smile. It seems as he’s currently filming for the drama ‘Black Pean’, he’s in full work mode with no time for things like enjoying cherry blossoms.
-The character you play in the drama, the surgeon Tokai Seishiro, gives an impression of coming to the rescue when all around him is in a crisis. Incidentally, has Ninomiya-san himself ever fallen into such crises?
“Hmm. Not really. Never been in such chilling situations, either. (laughs) In terms of work, I’m in such a unique position, too. There aren’t really many crisis-level challenges.”
-Even in a first-time role like this?
“Sure, playing a surgeon character for the first time may sound like an incredible challenge, but that’s not necessarily so. First-time challenges are things you find a solution for from things you’ve done before, and if you bear the responsibility for it, it pretty much sorts itself out. But don’t you think it’s much harder if you do have prior experience? Like playing a highschool student role for the 10th time or something (laughs). To that effect, say if right after playing Oda Nobunaga in a commercially broadcast drama, you play Oda Nobunaga in a Taiga drama, then in a movie next... Even if the way they cut it or the way it’s portrayed is different, if you just constantly play Oda Nobunaga, you’ll start wondering what to do about it, right? That’s the real challenge, isn’t it?”
-So in actual fact, you’ve never played the same role before.
“I haven’t. Of course, in terms of human psychology, you tend to fall back on the same people for the same things, right? I’d actually like to try it, though. People worry too much (laughs).”
It’s because people take on too much that they start to worry.
-Ninomiya-san isn’t a worrier?
“I’m not. But it’s not like I’d look at a natural worrier and tell them, ‘my way of doing things makes it amazingly easy, try it!’ (laughs) ”
-What’s a method of avoiding worry?
“It’s a matter of intuition, but it’s like if I’ve got too much on my plate, I’ll cast aside some of the stuff I’ve got. In the simplest terms, try not to hold on to everything. People try to take on too much, so that’s why they end up worrying, right?”
-Is ‘casting aside’ also linked to ‘giving up’?
“I think of it as being inevitable, so it doesn’t give me grief. ‘Giving up’ is intuitively the same thing as ‘holding on’. If you keep on dwelling on on something and you keep on looking at it, it’ll end up being the target of regret. Of course, whether you hold on or give up is one thing, but it becomes a matter of ‘when will I ever use this?’ That’s probably the same as (phone/computer) apps that you’ve not touched in months.”
-So the capacity we hold on to to doesn’t change?
“It can change. If you’re constantly facing what you’re holding on to, that is. For example, a song that took 3 minutes to record in the past can now be done in 10 seconds. Processing speeds have increased, right? We have about the same growth rate as computers. Since the data processing speed has increased, the capacity can increase, too. So intuitively speaking, I think we can do it too. But you end up thinking the capacity can increase endlessly.
“I always say this, but like in the time of instant cameras, were there people that took pictures of things like the sky or their meals? It’s the same with drama sets. In the past, there used to be a record-keeper who’d manually note down the placement of everything in a scene, but we’re now in an era where the assistant director just snaps a photo with their phone. If you compare those of us who’ve seen the transition from film to digital with the current generation, there’s clearly greater capacity now, right? That’s not to completely invalidate everything we’ve done before. We can’t catch up to flow of the people right now who are coming up with greater things than we could ever have imagined, but we’ve got to get used to it. But while that capacity increases, I think our ability to choose also deteriorates.”
-Do you have any regrets about the choices you’ve made so far?
“In terms of my own decisions, I don’t really have any regrets. It’s my own life, after all. To ask if I just don’t feel the appeal is tricky, isn’t it? To those who don’t see the appeal yet still have their hands full, it’s like, ‘it’s better to feel it than not, but I’ve still got what I have, so I guess I don’t really need to’ (laughs).”
-So you don’t have a single photo of the sky or your meals on your phone?
“Pretty much! The closest thing would be screenshots from during PazuDora (Puzzle & Dragons). They’re for when I want to brag to other people. Like, ‘that alone got me a billion!’ (laughs)”
- - - - -
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. The drama he’s starring in, ‘Black Pean’ (TBS, Sun 21:00- ) is currently airing. The movie ‘Killing for the Prosecution’ is scheduled to hit screens on 24th August. When told that his drama co-star Aoi Wakana-san spoke highly of Ninomiya-san in another interview, saying he was really nice, he replied, “Really? That’s strange. Well, if Wakana-chan says so! (laughs)”
- - - - -
|| Words / Matsuyama Kozue || Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Makeup / Uchida Minoru || Stylist / Iga Daisuke (band) ||
- - - - -
f o o t n o t e s
>> The title is a four-character idiom, 取捨選択 (shushasentaku)
>> This is the first article in the series not written by Yoshi Rei.
Not sure if I managed to capture it in translation but the new writer's style seems a bit less lyrical than Yoshi Rei's style...
Enjoy!
- - - - -
It {一途}
As we’ve entered the 10th year of this series, we take the opportunity for a little makeover and renewal. As always, we continue to evolve, no matter where wholehearted paths may lead.
Chapter 115
Choices
As if a spotlight were trained there, he stops beneath a cherry blossom tree buried in flower petals. “I managed to go cherry blossom viewing after all, huh?” He’s addressing the staff, and he adds, “although it’s during an interview, so it’s for work, after all”, with a wry smile. It seems as he’s currently filming for the drama ‘Black Pean’, he’s in full work mode with no time for things like enjoying cherry blossoms.
-The character you play in the drama, the surgeon Tokai Seishiro, gives an impression of coming to the rescue when all around him is in a crisis. Incidentally, has Ninomiya-san himself ever fallen into such crises?
“Hmm. Not really. Never been in such chilling situations, either. (laughs) In terms of work, I’m in such a unique position, too. There aren’t really many crisis-level challenges.”
-Even in a first-time role like this?
“Sure, playing a surgeon character for the first time may sound like an incredible challenge, but that’s not necessarily so. First-time challenges are things you find a solution for from things you’ve done before, and if you bear the responsibility for it, it pretty much sorts itself out. But don’t you think it’s much harder if you do have prior experience? Like playing a highschool student role for the 10th time or something (laughs). To that effect, say if right after playing Oda Nobunaga in a commercially broadcast drama, you play Oda Nobunaga in a Taiga drama, then in a movie next... Even if the way they cut it or the way it’s portrayed is different, if you just constantly play Oda Nobunaga, you’ll start wondering what to do about it, right? That’s the real challenge, isn’t it?”
-So in actual fact, you’ve never played the same role before.
“I haven’t. Of course, in terms of human psychology, you tend to fall back on the same people for the same things, right? I’d actually like to try it, though. People worry too much (laughs).”
It’s because people take on too much that they start to worry.
-Ninomiya-san isn’t a worrier?
“I’m not. But it’s not like I’d look at a natural worrier and tell them, ‘my way of doing things makes it amazingly easy, try it!’ (laughs) ”
-What’s a method of avoiding worry?
“It’s a matter of intuition, but it’s like if I’ve got too much on my plate, I’ll cast aside some of the stuff I’ve got. In the simplest terms, try not to hold on to everything. People try to take on too much, so that’s why they end up worrying, right?”
-Is ‘casting aside’ also linked to ‘giving up’?
“I think of it as being inevitable, so it doesn’t give me grief. ‘Giving up’ is intuitively the same thing as ‘holding on’. If you keep on dwelling on on something and you keep on looking at it, it’ll end up being the target of regret. Of course, whether you hold on or give up is one thing, but it becomes a matter of ‘when will I ever use this?’ That’s probably the same as (phone/computer) apps that you’ve not touched in months.”
-So the capacity we hold on to to doesn’t change?
“It can change. If you’re constantly facing what you’re holding on to, that is. For example, a song that took 3 minutes to record in the past can now be done in 10 seconds. Processing speeds have increased, right? We have about the same growth rate as computers. Since the data processing speed has increased, the capacity can increase, too. So intuitively speaking, I think we can do it too. But you end up thinking the capacity can increase endlessly.
“I always say this, but like in the time of instant cameras, were there people that took pictures of things like the sky or their meals? It’s the same with drama sets. In the past, there used to be a record-keeper who’d manually note down the placement of everything in a scene, but we’re now in an era where the assistant director just snaps a photo with their phone. If you compare those of us who’ve seen the transition from film to digital with the current generation, there’s clearly greater capacity now, right? That’s not to completely invalidate everything we’ve done before. We can’t catch up to flow of the people right now who are coming up with greater things than we could ever have imagined, but we’ve got to get used to it. But while that capacity increases, I think our ability to choose also deteriorates.”
-Do you have any regrets about the choices you’ve made so far?
“In terms of my own decisions, I don’t really have any regrets. It’s my own life, after all. To ask if I just don’t feel the appeal is tricky, isn’t it? To those who don’t see the appeal yet still have their hands full, it’s like, ‘it’s better to feel it than not, but I’ve still got what I have, so I guess I don’t really need to’ (laughs).”
-So you don’t have a single photo of the sky or your meals on your phone?
“Pretty much! The closest thing would be screenshots from during PazuDora (Puzzle & Dragons). They’re for when I want to brag to other people. Like, ‘that alone got me a billion!’ (laughs)”
- - - - -
Kazunari Ninomiya
Born 17th June 1983 in Tokyo. The drama he’s starring in, ‘Black Pean’ (TBS, Sun 21:00- ) is currently airing. The movie ‘Killing for the Prosecution’ is scheduled to hit screens on 24th August. When told that his drama co-star Aoi Wakana-san spoke highly of Ninomiya-san in another interview, saying he was really nice, he replied, “Really? That’s strange. Well, if Wakana-chan says so! (laughs)”
- - - - -
|| Words / Matsuyama Kozue || Photography / Emori Yasuyuki ||
|| Hair & Makeup / Uchida Minoru || Stylist / Iga Daisuke (band) ||
- - - - -
f o o t n o t e s
>> The title is a four-character idiom, 取捨選択 (shushasentaku)
>> This is the first article in the series not written by Yoshi Rei.
Not sure if I managed to capture it in translation but the new writer's style seems a bit less lyrical than Yoshi Rei's style...