“Pumpkin and Mayonnaise” Pay attention to the genius manga artist “Kiriko Uokami” who continues to be loved by the movie director!

Asami Usuda really wanted to play Tsuchida

Kiriko Yumeno's comics have a lot of blank space, the background is omitted, and everything except the characters is often white. Because they do not refer to a specific place, there is a lot of room for the reader to enter the world. However, when making it into a movie, it is not possible to leave those blank spaces as they are, so Director Tominaga has tried various ways to flesh them out. One wonderful change was Tsuchida's occupation. In the original work, she was an apparel shop assistant, but in the movie she is set to work at a live music venue, and because she is well-versed in the current live music scene and indie bands, she gives credibility to Seiichi's endless anxiety about his current situation. Also, Asami Usuda's appearance as Tsuchida, who is dedicated to working behind the scenes, checking the equipment and keeping an eye on the live music venue, is cool. In the original work, Tsuchida is led by chance and is absorbed in reuniting with his old lover Hagio, as if he is running away, but with Usuda's performance, it seems like Tsuchida's will is drawing him to reunite with Hagio.

"Pumpkin and Mayonnaise" (C) Kiriko Uobai/Shodensha, 2017 "Pumpkin and Mayonnaise" Production Committee

When Director Tominaga was choosing the role of Tsuchida, he placed great importance on the fact that the character resembled Yunon's drawings, and that's when he decided on Usuda. Usuda, who loved the original work, also wanted to play Tsuchida, but the various conditions for production were not met, and the project was stalled for several years. Then Usuda took the matter to the producer she worked with on "Sex and Zenreishon," and things moved forward at a rapid pace. She plays a woman who is overly involved in the relationship with Seiichi, played by Taiga, like an older sister or a mother, and shows off her cool new self to her old lover Hagio, played by Odagiri Joe, which is different from the weak woman she was before. Weakness and strength, stubbornness and innocence, cunning and sadness. Usuda generously shows the instability of a woman approaching 30, swayed by conflicting emotions. In 2017, she played multifaceted women in director Ishikawa Kei's " The Idiot Record " and Jeong Yi-sin 's stage production "For All Aprils," and it could be said that she came across "Pumpkin and Mayonnaise" at the peak of her career.

Text: Yuka Kinbara (Kinbara Yuka)

Movie journalist. Currently writing for many media such as ``Kinema Junpo'', ``Soen'', ``Kettle'', and ``Haha no Tomo''. Her books include ``Broken Girl'' (Film Art Publishing), which examines girlhood and violence in movies. He has also contributed to ``100 American Films of the 1990s'' (Gijutsu Shimbunsha) and ``Asian Film Forest'' (Movie Map of the New Century) (Sakushasha). His works include ``Actors File Satoshi Tsumabuki'', ``Actors File Masatoshi Nagase'' (both published by Kinema Junposha), and ``Legendary Film Art Directors x Yohei Taneda'' (Space Shower Network), for which he was in charge of long interviews and composition.

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Pumpkin and Mayonnaise

Distribution: S.D.P.

(C) Kiriko Uobai/Shodensha/2017 “Pumpkin and Mayonnaise” Production Committee

Original story: Kiriko Yumeno "Pumpkin and Mayonnaise" (Shodensha Feel Comics)

*Information at the time of article publication in November 2017.