"The Beginning of the Sea" (Mondays at 9pm) is a Fuji TV drama series starring Meguro Ren of the popular group "Snow Man". The carefully woven story, with its many touching lines, detailed psychological portrayals, and well-crafted settings, has been a hot topic. We spoke to producer Murase Ken about his commitment to choosing lines, saying, "I'm always conscious that there are many different types of people, and I send out Miku Ubukata's scripts to the world."
◇Screenwriter Miku Ubukata is "a person of rare talent"
The drama is a completely original work that reunites the team behind "silent," which featured screenwriter Ibukata, director Kazama Taiki, producer Murase, and Meguro, and is themed around the love between parents and children. The story follows Tsukioka Natsu (Meguro) who is suddenly informed that he has a 6-year-old daughter, Umi (Izumiya Sena), with his late ex-lover, Nagumo Mizuki (Furukawa Kotone), and his current girlfriend Momose Yayoi (Arimura Kasumi) and the people around him.
Regarding Ikukata's script, with whom he has teamed up again for this film following "Silent" and "My First Favorite Flower," Murase said, "Ikukata is a person of rare talent. From the many words she chooses, the ones she chooses are the best, so neither I nor the director often have to say, 'Let's do it like this' and make corrections."
When asked about his commitment to lines, he prefaced, "Because people with all kinds of ways of thinking are watching the drama, I'm not that scared that what I want to say won't be conveyed or understood," and revealed, "However, I always tell them to stop using expressions that can be misunderstood. It's fine if the thing I'm aiming for or what I want to say doesn't get across, but if it's going to be taken differently, I always talk to Ikukata about that."
"When you portray people's hearts so carefully, if at one moment it's taken differently, the character's emotions can all look different after that. I'm very conscious of that, and when there's a line that really bothers me, I always discuss it with them, saying, 'Maybe it's going to be taken this way,' or, 'If that's the case, let's rethink this line.'"
◇Creating a work with the idea that "all kinds of people" are in mind
As he creates lines in this way, Murase says that there is a "certain word" that he holds dear.
"In 'Silent', the protagonist Tsumugi Aoba (Haruna Kawaguchi) utters the words 'There are only a few of them,' and I take these words very seriously when I create dramas."
This line appears in episode 7 of 'Silent'. After learning that people who have always been able to hear often communicate by speaking out loud, rather than using sign language, Tsumugi asks Sakura Sou (Meguro), who has become deaf, why she doesn't speak out. Tsumugi reflects, "I just assumed that there were a lot of them, and that that was normal. So I got curious and asked Sakura why. There are only a few of them, aren't there? There are."
Murase said, "As depicted in 'My Favorite Flower,' everyone wants to make assumptions. We want to make assumptions based on preconceptions and knowledge, but that's not the case, and there are also people who are not like that. I think that one of the themes that Ubukata depicts is that there are many different patterns and many different people. I always keep in mind that 'there are so few', and I accept Ubukata's scripts and send them out into the world."
In fact, throughout the broadcast, viewers have been saying things like, "The lines really hit home," and "Each line is so careful and gentle that it sometimes makes you think," proving that the production team's attention to detail has been conveyed. There is only one episode left of this drama, which is an unusually long 12-episode series. We want to savor this delicate story and watch it to the end to find out what developments await Natsu and Yayoi.
