Akari Takaishi plays the heroine in the NHK Asadora drama "Bakebake" (Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM and other times). In the 17th episode (broadcast on October 21st), Toki (Takaishi) visits Tokyo in search of her runaway husband, Ginjiro (Kanichiro), and meets Nishikori Yuichi, played by Ryo Yoshizawa. Hashizume Kuniomi, the production manager for this series, spoke about the reasons for casting Yoshizawa and the appeal of his acting.
◇Why did you choose Ryo Yoshizawa?
"Bakebake" is based on the story of Koizumi Setsu, the daughter of a fallen samurai from Matsue, and her husband Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn), and depicts the heroine, who loves ghost stories, going about her everyday life with her foreign husband.
This will be Yoshizawa's second appearance in a Asadora, following "Natsuzora" in the first half of 2019. Hashizume, who also served as a producer on the show, said, "I first worked with Yoshizawa on 'Natsuzora', and then we also worked together on the historical drama 'Seiten wo Tsuke'. He's a really trustworthy actor, and I've always seen up close how stoic he is in his character development, to the point that I feel like there aren't many people who do it as well as he does. I'm simply impressed by how top-notch he is."
Nishikori Yuichi, played by Yoshizawa, is modeled after Nishida Sentaro, a great man from Matsue during the Meiji period. He was Matsue's most brilliant student and was nicknamed "Daibanjaku" (Great Standing Stone). He worked as an English teacher at Matsue Junior High School and supported Heaven (Tommy Bastow), who came to Matsue as a foreign teacher. He became deeply involved with Toki and Heaven.
Regarding the model for the character, Nishida Sentaro, Hashizume explains, "He's someone any fan of Yakumo Koizumi knows."
"Without him, Yakumo would never have met Setsu, he would never have stayed in Japan, and he would never have produced so many works... He is like a hidden protagonist. Nishikori, who is modeled after such a person, is a very important character, and although the story is billed as a story about a married couple, I think it is actually a story about three people, including Nishikori. As one of the main characters, I wanted to ask someone I could really trust to play him, so I asked Yoshizawa."
◇What kind of person was Nishida Sentaro, the model for the character?
Nishida Sentaro is known as a saintly man and a leading educator, who assisted Yakumo Koizumi. As Hashizume read through the remaining materials, he felt that "he had many shortcomings, and it seems he often felt frustrated when things didn't go his way, and he was someone who tried to achieve something but couldn't."
"In the materials, he is portrayed as a saintly man, but in reality he has a dark side. When I first spoke to Yoshizawa, I told him that I wanted to portray his human side, the part of him that gets tossed around by all sorts of things. Why is he working as an English teacher in Matsue despite being such an excellent English teacher? I intend to unravel that in the film, but I told him that I wanted him to portray a character with a lot of depth and with a lot of different circumstances."
Nishikori was born into a poor family and was unable to continue his studies, so he made up his mind to move to Tokyo, but he reveals, "I've asked Yoshizawa to play a character that doesn't give off a sense of sadness."
"His fun, light-hearted acting is wonderful, but I also think it's great to see Ryo Yoshizawa being led around by the nose (laughs). Yoshizawa-san is a really good-looking guy and a good actor, but I think he really shines when he plays a comic relief role like that."
◇ Ryo Yoshizawa puts all his effort into learning English to prepare for his role
In the 17th episode, Toki follows Ginjiro to a boarding house in Tokyo, where he meets Nishikori. Looking back, he said, "I created this scene in consultation with the scriptwriter, Fujiki Mitsuhiko."
"The fact that Nishikori was in Tokyo is consistent with Nishida's historical facts. I don't think he actually met Setsu and the others, but from the historical documents I got the feeling that 'something like this might have happened,' so I thought it would add depth to the story later on if he met Toki here, and so I added some originality to it."
From now on, Nishikori, who has become an English teacher, will often be seen speaking fluent English, but Yoshizawa says that he was not originally very good at English.
"I really want Yoshizawa to be able to speak English. I would like him to use this as an opportunity to learn English and then take off to Hollywood. So, when we were casting him, I asked him, 'Why not use this as an opportunity to do that?'"
Upon receiving the offer, Yoshizawa was full of enthusiasm, saying, "I want to practice my English." He immediately asked Shioya Kosho, a leading English instructor, to teach him. Yoshizawa has been studying English with Shioya about three times a week since before filming began.
"He's not the type to show his efforts in public, so I don't know for sure, but it seems he spends all his time shadowing, even in the car while traveling. I've also heard that he dedicates all his free time to studying English. His English ability is at a completely different level compared to when he first started studying. I think it's partly because he has a good ear, but I'm impressed by the sheer amount of time and effort he puts into it."
