Shinya Kote appears at the premium night event for the film "Beethoven Fabrication"

Actor Shinya Kote attended the red carpet and premium night event for the film "Beethoven Fabrication" (directed by Kazuaki Seki, scheduled for release on September 12th) held in Tokyo on August 20th. He looked back on the filming, which he says he underwent intensive violin training for.

Kote, who plays Spanzig, the concertmaster at the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, reveals, "About three weeks before filming began, I received the violin because there was a scene where I had to play it, and from then on I carried the violin case with me wherever I went to film. I practiced a lot."

"Even during breaks in filming, I would play the violin in the dressing room while watching videos. They prepared a separate room for me, and I would move to that room during breaks in filming, where my teacher was waiting for me, and we would review how to play, and I practiced as hard as I could," he said, revealing his hard work. However, he seemed disappointed, saying, "(When I saw the finished product) I wasn't in it at all. It was so shocking."

Nomaguchi, who played the role of assistant conductor Umlauf, was also barely on screen, just like Kote. He said with a wry smile, "I practiced conducting so much that I thought my arms might fall off, but when I saw the actual film, if I blinked at the wrong time, I would be completely out of the picture..." He then called out to the audience, "Please don't blink (when watching this scene). If you do, it's over," drawing laughter.

When Kote said, "After watching the preview, I ultimately decided that close-up shots of me were absolutely unnecessary, even though I had practiced so much...", Director Seki listened to him apologetically, but added, "Everyone is in the shot in the long shot."

The event was also attended by Yuki Yamada, Furuta Arata, Sometani Shota, Fuju Kamio, Maeda Oshiro, and Ozawa Yukiyoshi.

This live-action film is based on Shiho Kagehara's historical non-fiction book "Beethoven Fabrication: A Famous Producer Lies" (published by Kawade Bunko). The film focuses on the scandal surrounding the alteration of Beethoven's phrasebook by Schindler, who served as Beethoven's secretary and wrote his posthumous biography.

Yamada stars as Schindler, a loyal secretary who, driven by a sense of mission to protect his idol Beethoven, played by Furuta, struggles to transform him from a "vulgar, dirty old man (truth)" into a "divine genius musician (lie)" after his death.