Keita Machida attends "10DANCE" release commemorative event

Actor Keita Machida attended the release commemoration event for the Netflix movie "10 DANCE" (directed by Keishi Otomo, released worldwide on December 18th) held in Tokyo on December 17th. He spoke about his struggles trying ballroom dancing for the first time in the film, and his impression of the dancing of his co-star Ryoma Takeuchi.

The film is based on the hit manga "10DANCE" (Kodansha) by Inoue Sato, which depicts the passion, fighting spirit, anguish, jealousy, and love of two men who are passionate about dance. Two professional dancers, Suzuki Shinya (Takeuchi) and Sugiki Shinya (Machida), who are complete opposites in every way, decide to train together to take on the ultimate dance competition, "10DANCE," in which they dance a total of 10 dances, including five standard and five Latin dances. Despite their fierce clashes, the two are eventually driven by their love for each other...

Machida, who once aspired to become a professional dancer, recalled the time when he received the offer and said, "I gave up on the path to becoming a professional dancer quite some time ago, so I thought that maybe this would help me to get rid of some of the feelings that I hadn't been able to process. I also thought that by having someone like this perform, it might make the viewers think, 'That might be pretty cool,' or 'I'll try my best too,' and it might light a fire in something that had been smoldering inside them, so ultimately I decided to do it for myself and so I decided to participate."

However, this was her first time trying ballroom dancing. When asked if her past dance experience came in handy, she quickly replied, "It was all meaningless." "Nothing made any sense, nothing at all (laughs). I was in despair," she confessed. She revealed that she and her partners, Shiori Anna Ishii, went to watch a competition in which the world's top dancers were competing, and said with a wry smile, "Wow, it was despair. We thought, 'This is what we're going to do?'"

Takeuchi recalled, "After watching the competition, we all went out to eat, and it was a gloomy time (laughs)." Machida reflected, "But at the same time, there was a sense of expectation and excitement. If we could do this, something amazing might happen. The excitement and despair were mixed together the whole time."

Machida praised Takeuchi's dancing, saying, "Takeuchi really has no experience in dancing. I don't think anyone watching this would ever think that." He continued, "The scene where (Takeuchi) dances on stage for the first time is linked to his first time dancing in front of an audience. When I saw that, I was really moved. Since it was his first time, I wanted to go see it live, so I watched from the side (of the stage), but it was amazing."

Director Keishi Otomo also attended the event.