Actress Ai Yoshikawa attended a press conference on July 17th for the TV Asahi drama series "Stay as a Great Detective" (Fridays at 11:15 PM), which premiered that same day. She spoke about her impressions of Eiji Okuda, who plays her grandfather.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Masateru Konishi, which won the 21st "This Mystery is Amazing!" Grand Prize. It is an "armchair detective mystery" woven by Kaede (Yoshikawa), an elementary school teacher who loves mysteries, and her grandfather (Okuda), a former elementary school principal who suffers from Lewy body dementia but brilliantly unravels mysteries when the topic comes up.
Appearing in a yukata, Yoshikawa commented, "I'm so happy that we can finally share this work with everyone." She mentioned that there is a 50-year age difference between her and Okuda, who plays her grandfather, and said, "He is a really generous person, and he treats me like his granddaughter. And I can talk to him as if he were my grandfather, so I'm having a lot of fun filming every day."
Meanwhile, Okuda revealed, "It's a bit startling when you hear there's a 50-year age difference," and recalled, "I actually have two granddaughters, a sixth-grader and a fourth-grader, but when I first met Yoshikawa, I was thinking, 'So these are my granddaughters. Aren't they wearing armor? Take that off!' But then I just melted away. Maybe I had a stern expression on my face. But as we talked, I became more relaxed, and I melted away like ice cream."
In response, Yoshikawa smiled and said, "At first, I really didn't know what kind of person he was, so I was worried about what I would do if he was a very quiet person, but he talks a lot, so I'm really happy. He really turned into ice cream in an instant."
Keito Tsuna, Yuri Tsunematsu, and Aloha Takamatsu and Yu Yoshizawa from the dance and vocal group "Bullet Train" also attended the press conference.
