“During the filming of ’The Final’, I had a hairstyle that resembled Tomoe-san with the intention of directing. How was Kaoru?”
Kasumi’s Answer:
“Kaoru was very beautiful. From Tomoe’s point of view, Kaoru was innocent, honest and had things that Tomoe didn’t have. And I thought that she was a very dazzling person.”
Takeru Satoh recalls when he received the first offer (role of Kenshin) 8 years ago, he had doubts about doing it.
Takeru:
I had read the original story and watched the anime, so my first thought was, “Can I really do it? ”
but when I met the film production team, and seen the action scene demonstration video, I thought that if I put in the effort, it might be possible to make a live-action film. I remember that the moment I saw that video, I was turned on and ready to do it.
Dir. Ohtomo:
Anyway, we considered several conditions for the success of this project, and as someone who makes film, I know how high the hurdles are for live-action adaptations of Manga, and since it’s Rurouni Kenshin.
As for the action, his eyes changed color when he saw our video, and he was so determined that he even said, “I’ll quit acting if I can’t do it (the action isn’t cool)”
After that, I started to think about how to take a nationally popular original story and turn it into a genuinely appealing film from a variety of perspectives. It was like I didn’t even have time to feel the pressure.
5 years since the 2 last films.
Dir. Ohtomo:
Memories of hard shooting in the past amplify the further away you get. The further away you get from the memory, the more it amplifies. That’s why you start thinking about stepping in again and making something even more amazing.
Takeru:
From the moment I stepped into “Kyoto Inferno” and “The Legend Ends”, I knew I couldn’t not do an episode from Kenshin’s past. So I had a sense of duty to do it, although I couldn’t die until I had shot it.
Of course, I have a sense of duty to make these films a hit, but to be honest, even if I didn’t have that, I would still be happy to have completed these films with this quality and with almost the same staff and team from the first films.
