Actor Mio Imada Takashi, the husband of the heroine Nobu (Imada), in the Asadora drama "Anpan" (NHK General TV, Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM and others), starring Takashi Yanai. Takumi Kitamura played Takashi for about a year and said, "Next year will be the 20th anniversary of my acting career, and it feels like this is the final reckoning of that." He talked about his current state of mind as filming has wrapped up, and his thoughts looking back on the shoot.
◇When you feel down, "watch Takashi Yanase"
"Anpan" is based on the married couple Takashi Yanase(1919-2013) and Nobu (1918-1993). It tells the story of how the two met, overcame all sorts of obstacles, and arrived at "Anpanman," the embodiment of "unreversible justice." It is a "story of love and courage" that will fill you with the joy of living.
Kitamura, who wrapped up filming on August 22nd, said with a laugh, "This past year has been a really long period of time, and I've also grown a year older. I felt like I hadn't been depressed for a long time, but ever since I started playing Taka, I've become really depressed."
"The role had such a big impact on me that when I felt down, I would look at Takashi Yanase. He's a really cheerful person, so I would get energy from him and then it became a part of my daily routine to face the role of Takashi Yanai."
◇Shooting a Asadora is a "luxurious time"
Looking back on the approximately one year of filming the Asadora, Kitamura said, "I spent each day becoming one with the character. The feeling that acting was a natural thing made me realize once again how luxurious my time was."
"Throughout the day, I spend more time acting. After a year of that, speaking through a voice actor feels much more neutral to me. It was an experience I'd never had before."
Kitamura says that as an actor, he has always been conscious of looking at the set from a bird's eye view and viewing the role he is playing objectively rather than subjectively.
"While I valued objectivity in this way, there were many times over the course of a year when I found myself being subjective. I also had the successful experience of creating some great scenes during those moments, and I think it was a very meaningful and luxurious year. It's rare to have the opportunity to act with people of such a wide range of ages in one production, from child actors to people in their 70s, so it was a time that helped me develop."
◇ Mio Imada, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and RADWIMPS "rediscovered"
Kitamura-san had a very meaningful time filming "Anpan." He often worked with people he had worked with before, and he revealed, "It was a big deal for me to meet them again."
Kitamura has previously worked with Imada, who plays Nobu, in the "Tokyo Revengers" film series (directed by Tsutomu Hanabusa), and this marks their sixth collaboration in "Anpan." This marks the first time that he has worked with Satoshi Tsumabuki, who plays Taka's "comrade-in-arms" Yagi, in 17 years, since the 2008 film "A Classroom with a Pig" (directed by Tetsu Maeda). He also appeared as a child in the music video for "Cell Phone," a 2010 song by the rock band RADWIMPS, which provides the theme song for the film.
"Next year will mark the 20th anniversary of my acting career, and through this production I was able to reunite with many different people, to the point that it felt like a bit of a reckoning. There were many times when I thought, 'It's been a while since we last met,' and that experience has become a treasure to me once again."
