Marika Ito plays Haruko Kiuchi in the NHK evening drama "Someday, in Zero Gravity's Sky" (General TV, Monday to Thursday, 10:45 p.m.). The drama is a second coming-of-age story about women in their 30s who aim for space with a "microsatellite." Haruko is a single mother who works at the local city hall and is unsociable but at heart is kind and attentive to the small details. Ito spoke about the drama and her role.
◇ He is the same age as Haruko and her friends, and is "just at the age where he's starting to face reality."
The drama features four girls from the astronomy club who, in high school, shared their dream of "going to space together." As they grow up and go their separate ways, they suddenly reunite with their forgotten dreams. "If we had a micro-satellite, maybe even we could aim for space today..." Encouraged by their "older selves," they begin their second youth.
Kiryu Aso plays the main character, Mochizuki Asuka, Morita Nozomi plays Hibino Misato Morita, whom Asuka reunites with, Katayama Yuki plays Mizuhara Shu, a friend of Asuka and Hikari's in the astronomy club, and Ito plays Kiuchi Haruko.
Haruko is a serious and steadfast rationalist, but when it comes to the things she loves, she has the boldness to charge straight ahead like a rocket, and sometimes she gets too excited and her strange switch flips on. When she was a student, she was interested in space architecture, but she became pregnant while in university, and is now a single mother with an elementary school-aged son. She is now focusing on her son's education so that he can pursue what he loves in the future.
Ito, now 29 years old, is the same age as Haruko and the others, and is "just at the age where you start to face reality." What impression did he have of the story?
"As the pressures of being a working member of society begin to weigh on them, they begin to see the reality around them more clearly than pursuing their dreams. They gradually begin to understand what they are truly good at and what field suits them. It's the age when they start to understand the path they should take. But this drama is about a man who, having gained experience as a working member of society, suddenly looks back and reconsiders the grandiose 'dream of space' he had as a teenager. I was really drawn to the story, as the title suggests, about four people being freed from the 'gravity' that had once gripped them."
◇What's important is whether you can cherish and love yourself as you are now
Like Haruko in the film, Ito met up with a high school friend for the first time in over a decade shortly before filming began.
"Just like Haruko and the others, we had a gap in our relationship, but strangely enough, the moment we met, we were transported back to those days. We were relieved to see that neither of us had changed, but we also had the experience of working adults and the 'adult perspective' we had cultivated in our respective places, so there was a lot we could talk about at this time."
They've each experienced a lot, given up or given up on things, but they've also come to accept themselves, including that... Ito recalls being "very happy" to be reunited at such a time.
"I thought this feeling was similar to the feelings of the four astronomy club members who reunited at the age of 30."
On the other hand, Haruko in the play has a child during her university years and struggles as a single mother, a situation that Ito has never experienced in her life. She revealed that when it came to playing the role, "at first I thought it would be difficult."
"However, even though my path has been different from Haruko's, when I look back on my own life since graduating from high school until now, I think that the past decade or so has been a time for me to affirm the process I've gone through, including all the good and bad times. I think what's important is whether I'm able to cherish and love who I am now. I feel like I've learned that through the works and creative projects I've been involved in up until now. As a single mother, Haruko's path must have been difficult and she must have been doing her best, but she is alive and well today, and has a son, Take (Suzuki Ruki), whom she loves. From my own perspective, I started by affirming and loving the Haruko I had been up to that point. It was a very precious time."
◇When you look up at the sky, you think, "That light might be a satellite."
The drama does not depict Haruko's life from the time she graduated from high school to the present, but Ito says that from her perspective, Haruko as a high school student and Haruko at 30 are "basically the same."
"She's earnest, but she's also very straightforward about the things she loves and believes in. When she was in high school, she even skipped class to see the total solar eclipse, and that same spirit and straightforwardness hasn't changed even as an adult. Haruko's focus is primarily on her son, Take, and on her down-to-earth 'life.' I think she's lived her life suppressing the feelings she had as a high school student, when she was crazy about space. But I'm sure if there was space-related news on TV, she would stop doing her housework and watch it, and on nights when the stars were clearly visible, she would look up at the sky."
When Asuka and the others asked Haruko if she wanted to pursue her satellite dream once again, she was very hesitant, but it was her son Take who ultimately gave her the push she needed.
"Takeru saw through Haruko's feelings about space, which she had kept to herself until then, and told her, 'If that's what you want to do, then go ahead and do it.' Those words made her realize that her son had been paying more attention to her as a mother than she had thought, and that she had learned something from Takeru, which made her decide, 'I have no choice but to go for it.' I think it's a wonderful father-son relationship."
As I played the role of Haruko and learned about the process of building artificial satellites through the story, I began to look up at the sky and think, 'That light could be an artificial satellite.'
"There are not only stars in the sky, but also many artificial satellites floating about carrying people's dreams. I think there is something very romantic about that. Why do Haruko and the other four pour so much passion into that small cube that will burn out in just two years? I want you to feel that. I would be very happy if this drama can encourage viewers to be a little more courageous and think, 'It's okay to start anything at any age.'"
