Singer Kazuo Funaki (80) appeared on Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's long-running talk show "Tetsuko's Room" (TV Asahi) broadcast on August 18th. He talked about his memories with actress Masako Izumi, who passed away in July at the age of 77.
Funaki made his debut in 1963 with "Koukou Sannensei." At the time, teen films were in full swing, and he co-starred with Izumi in many of them. They called each other "Funaki-kun" and "Mako-chan," and he recalled, "I shot six films with her between the ages of 19 and 21. It felt like I was with Mako-chan for a third of the year."
"Mako-chan was someone who would often make mistakes (laughs)," said Funaki. "For 'Northern Town,' we went on location to the north. When it was time to start filming and they called out 'Ready, set, go!', Mako-chan (who only appeared from behind) said, 'I'm sorry, Funaki-kun! I forgot all my lines. So I'll adjust them during the dubbing, so could you just take a break from my lines and say them all for me?' (laughs)."
That day, when Funaki returned to the inn, he revealed, "I told her, 'That's terrible, Mako-chan.' (Izumi) said, 'Well, I'll buy you a 'finance coffee' when we get back to Tokyo (laughs).' He treated me to coffee."
"She wasn't someone who thought much about how she was as an actress or what kind of actress she wanted to be in the future. She also had a rather boyish personality. She was very neat and tidy, so I didn't have to worry about her."
When he heard the news of Izumi's passing, Funaki said, "I couldn't help but say 'Huh?'" He sighed, "It felt like dozens of question marks were going through my body, and tears just started flowing out of my eyes and wouldn't stop. At that point, I didn't feel any sadness or anything like that," he said. "She was the only person who would call me Funaki-kun, so I feel a little lonely..." he added.
