Actor Kentaro Sakaguchi attended the Japan premiere of his starring movie "Sunflower on the Board" (directed by Naoto Kumazawa), which opens on October 31st, held in Tokyo on October 16th. He was praised by Ken Watanabe, with whom he is co-starring for the first time, and he blushed and said, "I'm happy."
In this film, Sakaguchi plays the genius shogi player Kamijo Keisuke, while Watanabe plays the serious gambling shogi player Higashimei Chongqing. Regarding his impression of Sakaguchi, Watanabe praised him, saying, "We have a lot in common. He's very open-minded and really loves working on set, and he loves the production and the staff, so it's fun to go to the set. That's why I want to go to the set with him. He's a rare actor with that kind of sensibility."
"I'm happy," said Sakaguchi with a shy smile, as she looked back on her time working with Watanabe. "Meeting him made me realise he's a very light-hearted person. Before I met him, I thought, 'That's Ken Watanabe!' But when I actually met him and acted with him, there were moments when he was nonchalant, and there were also moments when I felt he was very grounded. In a good way, it made me realise once again that 'This is the kind of person Ken is'."
The event was also attended by Kuranosuke Sasaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Mahiro Takasugi, Takuma Otoo, Fumiyo Kohinata, and director Naoto Kumazawa.
The film is a human mystery, live-action adaptation of the novel of the same name (Chuokoron-Shinsha) by Yuzuzuki Yuko, known for works such as "The Blood of Wolves." A mysterious skeleton is discovered in the mountains. The clue to solving the case lies in a rare set of shogi pieces, of which only seven exist in the world, discovered alongside the body. The suspect is Kamijo Keisuke, a genius shogi player who suddenly appeared on the scene and became an instant sensation. During the investigation, the existence of Tomei Shigeki, a man who lived in the underworld of gambling shogi, emerges as an important person with knowledge of Tomei's past. What happened between Tomei and Tomei? Tomei's mysterious upbringing is revealed, and it turns out to be an unimaginably brutal one...
