"I'm glad it was Hokkun" from the original author and director Makoto Shinkai, and "I was able to overcome the hurdle that I was scared of"

Hokuto Matsumura of the popular group SixTONES attended the completion report meeting for his starring movie "5 Centimeters per Second" (directed by Yoshiyuki Okuyama, scheduled for release on October 10th) held in Tokyo on August 27th. He revealed that director Makoto Makoto Shinkai told him, "I'm really glad that Hokuto was chosen to play the lead role" in the live-action film adaptation of the 2007 anime film of the same name.

For Matsumura, who was originally a fan of the original work, this is his first film in which he plays the lead role. When he learned from the proposal that he would be playing the lead role, "the first emotion that came to mind was fear." He recalled, "I felt excited that this was going to be a real person, but at the same time I felt a mysterious fear. Then, when I turned over the next page of the proposal, I was overcome by fear at the thought that I would be playing the role of Takaki, a character I had admired."

He said he watched the first screening with director Shinkai and said with a relieved expression, "I was worried about how Takaki, who I wanted to see, would turn out, but (the director) said to me, 'I'm really glad that Takaki is Hokkun.' He helped me overcome the hurdle that I was afraid of."

The film depicts the protagonist Tono Takaki's 18-year journey through life, from his youthful days in elementary school when he met a transfer student named Shinohara Akari and developed a bond with her, to his high school years on Tanegashima after he was separated from Akari upon graduation from elementary school, to his youth as he nears the age of 30, when he works as a systems engineer in Tokyo and feels a vague sense of stagnation and frustration.

It was also announced that the film will be officially entered into the Open Cinema section of the 30th Busan International Film Festival.

The event was also attended by Mitsuki Takahata, Nana Mori, Yuto Ueda, Noa Shirayama, Aoi Miyazaki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, and director Okuyama.