Rough translation of WUS & Kitagawa Keiko's blog about HERO 2
WUS
Last night Captain answered some questions about HERO 2, and one of which is exactly what most fans have been wondering about, kind of a hot topic :P So I thought I'd share his answer with you.
*This is very roughly translated. And I'm not 100% sure about my translation, so as always plz feel free to correct any mistranslation you find :P*
Q: Captain said before that you don't want to do a sequel of a drama. Please tell us your feeling when there's a talk about the sequel this time. Please talk about it frankly.
A: Certainly I did say that I don't quite like doing a sequel. But by saying a single word like "I don't like it!" at my own discretion will mean that I will not do it, it can't be such a silly thing. (In other words, the fact that he said he doesn't like it doesn't mean he won't do it.) This project is concerned with a lot of staffs and also cast who will step their feet into the filming site freshly. There're people who're extremely looking forward to doing HERO once again, aren't there?
Meeting with all the staff once again, when I saw that Fukuda-san who's in charge of the script enjoyed himself so much in writing down the story, such a thing like "I don't want to do it" is just the same as "disliking food without having tried it" only to find after trying that after all it's tasty.
While enjoying themselves so much, everyone (staff) laughed in front of the monitor. On the first day (of shooting), it's especially embarrassing. There're 2 producers for this drama, and 1 of them was a senior high school student when the previous series was on air. Isn't it great?
From this Q&A, I guess it quite settles that Captain didn't quite like the idea of doing HERO 2 at the beginning. But he's professional enough to not think about his own wish only, but also have to consider people around him. So, in the end he gave in upon seeing how enthusiastic everyone is about the project.
When the rumor about the possibility of HERO 2 first broke into public, I was quite surprised to see that some fans kinda had doubt in him and seemed to believe the rumors that he was so desperate to get his crown as the King of Drama back, so he wanted to do HERO 2. And there're some fans who thought that he seemed to be in a depressing mood most of the time on TV because as a "hate to lose" person, he's upset that he's not the King of ratings anymore. *what a joke! :P*
I know that nobody knows how the real Kimura Takuya is like. But having seen him through all these years, I can only wonder if it's still not obvious enough that he's the type who enjoys challenging new tasks and moving forward. Desperately clinging onto his past success is just not him at all to me. If he's so concerned with ratings more than anything else, a project like Ando Lloyd wouldn't have been realized in the first place as he himself said before the drama was on air that it's a big challenge as this is not sth. to watch on TV. It's more suited to a big silver screen. Also, because of the drama genre, the target audiences are not as broad as general dramas. And if he's so full of himself as a King, I don't think he would accept such a minor role in int'l projects like 2046 or I Come with the Rain. I felt he did those projects b/c he wanted to gain new experiences meeting up new people and working with renowned int'l directors.
So I'm happy to hear him talk about his true feelings about this project from his very own mouth, and not through rubbish tabloids, which I'm personally not a fan of. :P
I was very disappointed with this project at the beginning for obvious reason that I feel he's pressured to do things he doesn't want to do (as FujiTV and Johnny's are in a desperate situation about ratings right now). And I also don't want FujiTV to destroy the original drama and tarnish HERO's success. But I guess he might be right in saying that after all it's just like "kuwazugirai". We're feeling so negative and thought it's gonna be a sure fail without even giving it a chance yet. So yeah I guess we should just wait and see. At least I really like HERO series 1 (I prefer a comedic style like this that focuses more on timing, camera angle and use of background music than exaggerating facial expressions/acts by characters), so there's a possibility that I might enjoy HERO 2. So ganbatte, staff-san, please prove to us that we all are so wrong in being so against this project! :P
And Captain seems to be having fun at the filming site and enjoying working with the team so much. So, I can only support and wish him all the best. Looking forward to meeting you again, Kuryu Kohei of 2014! ^^
Oh! and one more thing, he said we're not gonna see that famous Down jacket in HERO 2. It's July after all! LOL! Kuryu must be such a _amn crazy guy to wear that jacket during summer....haha
Kitagawa Keiko's blog
(source: http://official.stardust.co.jp/keiko/diary/index.html#14042601 blog entry "近況など" on 2014/05/02)
In summary, she said that to get a chance to partner with Captain in getsuku is a big task that's like a dream any actress is longing for. (a little too exaggerating here though :P) She was totally dumbfounded when she first heard the news, like is this for real? The chairman (of FujiTerebi?) said he wants HERO 2 to be a new drama that matches with the current era. The other day she had a shooting with Captain, Kohinata-san and Yashima-san at Josai branch office. And she felt goose bump like "uwaa, this is HERO!" Cast & crew already became like a warm team with strong sense of unity. She feels "This is a Kimura Takuya's drama."