Actor Mayu Hotta plays Mayu Mayama, the perpetrator of a murder at the National Civil Service Examination venue, in the TBS Sunday Theatre drama " Mikami Sensei " (Sunday 9pm), starring Tori Matsuzaka . In the 9th episode, broadcast on March 16th, Yuzuru was visited for the first time by his mother Yuko Takako Tokiwa. We asked her about the behind-the-scenes interview scene and stories with her co-stars.
◇ It's a lonely battle even at the scene.
The drama is an original "great reversal education revival story" in which Takashi Mikami (Matsuzaka), a Ministry of Education bureaucrat with a desire to change education in Japan, takes the podium at a private high school and leads an 18-year-old high school student living in the Reiwa era while standing up to authority. The script is written by Roba Shimori, who will be teaming up with Matsuzaka for the first time since the film "The Journalist" (2019). Kazutaka Iida, who has been in charge of popular Sunday Theatre dramas such as "VIVANT" (2023), is the producer.
The filming was basically done in sequence (following the flow of the script). Therefore, Yuzuru, played by Horita, was the first to commit the crime and enter the detention center, where he confronted Mikami (Matsuzaka), Kanzaki (Daiken Okudaira), and his mother, Saejima Yuko (Takako Tokiwa), in the visiting room.
"The scene in the visiting room was also shot in order, so I met with Mikami Sensei just the two of us, and then Kanzaki came. In episode 9, I finally got to meet my mother. Even in the scenes at home, my character is a recluse, so Mikami Sensei told me, 'I know what it's like to fight a lonely battle,' and I felt that I was fighting a lonely battle on set, too."
◇ Co-starred with Tori Matsuzaka in a Asadora 8 years ago. "I hope I can show how I've grown, even just a little."
The first time she faced off against Matsuzaka, who played the role of a superior officer, she co-starred with him in the NHK Asadora drama series "Warotenka" eight years ago in the latter half of 2017.
"I worked with Matsuzaka-san on 'Warotenka' when I was a teenager (Hotta-san was 19 at the time), so it's very emotional for me to be able to work with him again in a different way after so much time has passed. When we were on 'Warotenka' I had just started to appear in the series and there were many things I didn't understand, so this time I approached the role hoping that I could show that I have grown even a little. Matsuzaka-san has not changed since 'Warotenka' and I got the impression that he is someone who is always level-headed and really cares about those around him."
Since we were in the separated space of a visiting room, and were in the positions of perpetrator and visitor, it was difficult to communicate during filming...
"We were in a separate room called the visiting room, and of course we were filming, so we could communicate once we left the room, but I was afraid that if we communicated normally, I would lose focus, so this time I couldn't really talk in depth," she said. However, she continued to have a "gentle impression" of Matsuzaka, saying, "When we wrapped up filming the other day, he said to me, 'Thank you so much for playing such a difficult role,' and we shook hands. I was glad that he had been watching me all this time."
◇ Daiken Okudaira, who plays Kanzaki, "shifts between boyishness and adulthood"
Regarding Okuhira, who played the role of Kanzaki, whom she next faced, she revealed, "Of course, I had seen his works such as 'MOTHER' (the 2020 film in which Okuhira starred), so although I am older than him, my impression of him was that he is someone who will have to take on the role of acting in the world of showbiz." She also said, "From our generation's perspective, he was one of the people I would have been happy to work with someday."
After working together with him this time, he said, "I was honestly happy, and his demeanor makes him look much more mature than his age (Okuhira is 21 years old). It may be that it's because of Kanzaki's character, but he's a perfect match between boyish and adult-like."
"When I actually talk to the students I think he seems like a boy his age, but when he is concentrating on his work or when I see him communicating on an equal footing with not only us but also with people who are much older than him, I get the impression that he is so calm that I wonder if I was able to talk this much with people older than me when I was that age. He really is a person of indeterminate age, who seems to move between the very important roles of a boy and an adult man," he said.
◇The mother-daughter confrontation begins with an important scene. After filming, Takako Tokiwa
In episode 9, she had a scene with Takako Tokiwa, who played her mother, Saejima Yuko.
"I'd always wanted to meet her, but the way the story progressed meant that she wouldn't be able to meet her mother for a while...In fact, in the final episode there is a very touching scene between me and my mother, and after I met her, filming started with that (important) scene. So, filming with the two of us started with a pretty intense scene, but Tokiwa-san is also a really gentle person, and even though it was the first time we met, it didn't feel like the first time we met..." he said, revealing that he had the impression that she was very friendly.
"During filming, she understood that I was concentrating and tried not to talk to me too much, but after we finished the important scene, she said, 'It was so delicious!' when she received a gift from (Hotta), and the staff made curry for her. She was so innocently happy about it, more than anyone else, and it was really cute. I was able to see a different side of Saejima-san from her role this time."
◇Which character do you sympathize with? "Nominate" the two students who play them
These three are the main cast members with whom she has scenes together, but when asked which characters she felt a strong sympathy for looking objectively at the drama as a whole and which characters she is looking forward to seeing more of, she pondered, "Each of the students have such unique personalities..." she then answered, "It's not a character, but personally, I really like the face of Juri Kosaka(who plays Shinonome Atsushi). Every time she appears, I watch her and think, 'I want to have a transparent face like that.'"
In terms of the characters, she said, "I really like the character of Sakurai Michiru (a student played by Riko Nagase). She seems a little cold, rejecting everything and always saying, 'Please start class,' but inside she is very warm-hearted. Once you block things out at the beginning, they don't move forward any further, but I think it is because of that character that Mikami Sensei's words 'think,' which are the keyword of the work, really come alive. This character quickly blocks everything and only looks at himself, but thanks to Mikami Sensei he starts to think and act for himself, so I really like that character."
"Mikami Sensei" is a new project that he is working on again with the staff he met when working on "Anti-Hero," which Hotta says became one of his most important works. According to Hotta, the staff are "people who can talk passionately about what kind of works Japan should create in the future, and what kind of things we need to create to compete with the world."
With a spirited staff and a detailed script with a strong message, "Mikami Sensei" is sure to become a "milestone" in the future. I'm already looking forward to the final episode (broadcast on March 23rd).
