The NHK morning drama series "Omusubi" starring actress Hashimoto Kanna (General TV, Monday to Saturday, 8:00 am and others) will enter its fifth week on October 28th. The "About that day" in the title of the week refers to the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake that occurred in the early morning of January 17th, 1995 (Heisei 7). Yui (Hashimoto) was six years old at the time. Her older sister Ayumu (Naka Riisa) is set to be 14 years old, and the Yoneda family ran a barbershop in Kobe at the time. There have been several morning dramas that have depicted earthquakes in the past, but "Omusubi" uses NHK's meticulous research to portray the earthquake and the evacuation centers more realistically than ever before. We spoke to production manager Usagawa Takashi and Matsuki Kensuke, who directed the fifth week, about the scenes surrounding the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, which show the production team's "seriousness."
◇The feelings of 100 victims are "100 different ways" and the theme is "don't pretend to understand"
When depicting the Heisei era, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake is an essential part. In this production, we decided to portray it head-on, and spent a lot of time on research and preparation.
Director Matsuki was an elementary school student living in Fukuoka at the time. "Honestly, all I remember is seeing the Hanshin Expressway collapse on TV, so I felt a little sorry that someone like me had to face it," he said.
Matsuki was confused, thinking, "After all, only victims can understand the feelings of those who suffered from the earthquake," and "If there are 100 victims, there are 100 stories, and each person feels completely differently," but "when I looked for common ground, I realized that even if they are the same victims and the same family, it is not easy to share the grief," and he said, "I had the Yoneda family embody that."
Matsuki was deeply moved when he recalled, "While filming, I was moved by the sight of Hashimoto, who was born after the disaster, trying so hard to talk about it with such trepidation. I thought there must be some meaning to making a drama."
Usagawa, the production manager, was a first-year high school student at the time. "I went to the hospital to get a vaccination, and saw a picture of smoke rising from the TV there."
"I was a high school student at the time, and I had the impression that something terrible was happening. During the Great East Japan Earthquake, I actually felt the shaking in Tokyo, but there was also a part of me that couldn't do anything. Because I could only be a bystander in both cases, I wondered if there was something I could do for myself, and I thought that at the turning point of 30 years (from the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake), I could connect it to the future."
When depicting the earthquake, Usagawa also said forcefully, "No matter how much research you do, you can't understand all the feelings of the victims. There are really 100 different feelings. However, I thought it was important to continue to think, 'I still want to be there for them, I still want to understand,' and that's what I've been doing up until now. The theme at the scene was not to pretend to understand, and not to stop trying to understand."
◇Inviting the people involved to the scene for a 'surrounding interview'? A realistic portrayal of life in evacuation shelters
Regarding the depiction of the disaster itself, Matsuki said, "When considering that the disaster victims will also be watching, I felt that delicate consideration was necessary, so I made a conscious effort to use subtitles and other things."
What's more, this time, the life of the disaster victims in evacuation shelters was portrayed realistically.
"We had school teachers, city hall staff, and local leaders who were managing the evacuation shelters at the time come to the site, and the staff surrounded them and interviewed them to find out, 'What was the situation like at that time?' What was the situation three hours after the earthquake? Were the curtains open at this time? Was there a stove? Was there a notice on the wall? Was there any glass falling off? We asked them all, one by one, following the chronology," he revealed.
When asked what impressed him during the interview, Matsuki excitedly said, "Relatively soon after the earthquake, there was a strong desire to do something about the evacuation shelters with their own efforts, and I was very impressed by the ingenuity and wisdom they came up with."
"They made their own rules right away, gathered their own food, and acted on their own before aid arrived. On the fourth or fifth day after the disaster, they made a list of names, banned shoes in the rooms, and divided the rooms into sections with cardboard boxes. I was really moved by the episodes, and included them in the drama."
◇Some cast members became more positive after the disaster, saying, "Let's do what we can."
Chiyoko Ando, who played the woman handing out rice balls at the evacuation center, was actually a victim of the disaster in Kobe, and her daughter received rice balls from a volunteer woman. She said she felt it was fate that she was cast in this drama. Ando now tells stories about the disaster in Kobe, and works as an actor and voice actress.
Matsuki said, "I got to know Ando early on in my research. After the disaster, he didn't know if his daily life would continue like this in the future, so he started acting and voice acting in his late 30s with the mindset that he wanted to do what he couldn't do before and what he could do. Hearing about his positive attitude, I thought he was a wonderful person." He continued, "When the script was finished and we were deciding who to cast for the role, I remembered Ando's personality. I felt like we were destined to be together."
When Ando was cast, she said, "When she read the script, she told me that it reminded her of that time and it brought her to tears. I asked her to cherish those feelings and act accordingly."
The fifth week depicts the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, a turning point in the story. It will be interesting to see how it connects to the subsequent developments.
