Actor Junichi Okada appeared at the Netflix lineup announcement event "Next on Netflix 2025" held in Tokyo on February 12th. Okada, who played three roles in the series "Ikusagami" (directed by Michihito Fujii, streaming starts in November), including the lead role, producer, and action planner, expressed his confidence in this work, saying, "I put a lot of effort into the look."
The original work is a series of novels of the same name written by Shogo Imamura, a period novelist who has won numerous awards, including the Naoki Prize, and set in the Meiji era, at the end of the samurai era. In the middle of the night of 1878 (Meiji 11), 292 skilled patriots gather at Tenryu-ji Temple in Kyoto, hoping to win a huge cash prize. They are told the rules of the game, in which they compete to grab the wooden cards that have been distributed to each person, and whoever makes it to Tokyo will receive the cash prize. The protagonist, Shujiro Saga (Okada), decides to participate in the game in order to save his wife and child from illness... and so the story unfolds.
During the talk, Okada often compared him to director Akira Kurosawa, saying, "Kurosawa shot 'Rashomon' at 39 and released it at 40," "When Kurosawa made 'Seven Samurai' at 44, people initially said it wasn't a period drama," and "Kurosawa's favorite phrase was 'Is that cool?' I heard he said that a lot," and showed sympathy for the master's filmmaking. Now 44 years old, Okada revealed that he had "decided to start working as a producer 30 years after my debut," revealing that this time he played three roles, took the lead on set, and filmed with great attention to detail.
The talk was also attended by 38-year-old director Fujii, who was nominated by Okada. While revealing the difficulties he faced with the 300-person scene, he said, "I'm grateful for the opportunity to fight through without turning my eyes away from evolution or running away," and Okada called on viewers to "feel the talent of young Japanese creators."
