Motoki Nakazawa will be appearing in the film " I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai " (directed by Sakashita Yuichiro, set to premiere on November 14th), his first collaboration with Kyoko Yoshine and Takahashi Kaito. He also made a strong impression as Chihiro in the NHK Asadora drama "Anpan," which aired its final episode in September. Nakazawa, who sees this work ("Anpan") as "a rival for me going forward, and I need to find roles and works that surpass it," reflected on the challenges he faced in "I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai."
◇What I kept in mind while filming "I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai"
"I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai" is based on the novel of the same name, which is the debut work of Kimijima Kanata. It tells the story of Sakadaira Riku (Yoshine) and Mizumura Manami (Takahashi), a man and woman who have been body-swapped for 15 years. It begins in the summer of their first year of high school, when Sakadaira Riku and Mizumura Manami fall into the pool together and end up body-swapping. While harboring a secret they cannot tell anyone, the two experience turning points in their lives, including going to college, first love, getting a job, getting married, having a child, and parting ways with their parents. However, in the summer of their 30th year, Manami tells Riku, "I think I might have figured out how to go back to normal."
Nakazawa, who plays Riku's best friend, Junichi Tazaki, is 25 years old and was born on February 20, 2000, in Ibaraki Prefecture. He attracted attention in the October 2023 TBS Sunday Theatre drama "Gekokujo Baseball Players," and will play his first lead role in the TV Tokyo drama series "Hidamari ga Kikoeru" (I Can Hear the Sun), broadcast in 2024 (co-starring with Kobayashi Toranosuke). In the Asadora"Anpan," he played Chihiro, the Takashi Yanase brother who had a major influence on Takashi Yanase (played by Takumi Kitamura ), the model for Takashi Yanai , the creator of "Anpanman."
Nakazawa said that he felt "an atmosphere not often found in other works" from the film " I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai."
"Even though the time was painful and frustrating, they acted with consideration for not only the person they swapped bodies with, but also for the other person's friends and family, and I felt that there was a real human kindness and warmth running through their hearts."
Nakazawa, who played Tazaki, only had four days to film, but on set he was conscious of the "sense of discomfort that only Tazaki could feel" towards Riku and Manami, whose bodies had still been switched.
"There's a sense of discomfort towards the two that only Tasaki can understand. I think it really comes down to nuance, but it was difficult to express how something is different. So I thought I'd go for a more neutral approach. Without thinking too much about it, I wanted to give the nuance that someone who has known the two for a long time would feel that something is off. If I was too conscious of it, it would come out too much, and I didn't want people to think, 'He's saying this knowing that they've been switched,' so I tried to go for a more neutral approach. But being more neutral is actually more difficult. How much of the character's personality comes out, and if I don't bring it out enough, it becomes too much of myself."
◇The "positioning" of the popular "Anpan"
Tazaki reunites with Riku and Manami at a high school reunion. He then invites Riku's Manami to a bar. Nakazawa revealed, "Acting drunk was also difficult."
"I had to act like, 'I'm not drunk,' but I also had to look like I was drunk. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but that was the hardest part."
You can really feel Nakazawa's "attention to detail" in wanting to get to the very details.
"I wanted to get to the bottom of it and wonder if it was really good enough, but at the same time, we only had a limited number of days to shoot. I got inspiration from the original work and discussed it with the director, but I think that was also a challenge."
Nakazawa's thoughts on the film are, "I think each viewer will have their own way of interpreting it."
"I would be happy if people could think about the kindness and consideration shown to others, and the meaning behind the title ' I Kimi no Kao dewa Nakenai,' after watching the film."
Finally, we asked about the positioning of the popular "Anpan."
"The filming period was long, and I put a lot of effort into preparing to play Chihiro, including getting in shape, so I think that whenever I look back on it in my acting career, I'll think of it as a big project. It was a turning point for me, and I feel that I need to find roles and projects that surpass this one, so I think of it as a rival for me in the future."
※The "taka" in Kaito Takahashi's name is pronounced "hashigo-daka"
