"Asakusa Kid" Theatrical Company Solo Director The story of Beat Takeshi and his master who has been longing for is made into a movie with his own script [Director's Interview Vol.168]

The movie was made into a movie thanks to the passion of director Hitori Gekidan.

Q: In the first place, it seems that this work was made possible due to the passion of director Hitori Gekidan, but how did that happen?

Hitori: When I was given the opportunity to film my first film, `` Raise of the Blue Sky '' (starring Hiroshi Oizumi, 14 years old), I was already enjoying making movies and thought, ``I want to make a second film right away!'' So I wrote some screenplays. But none of it felt right. That's because no matter what I was writing, `` Asakusa Kid '' kept flashing in my head, and I realized that I wanted to photograph ``Asakusa Kid.''

But there is no reason for me to film ``Asakusa Kid,'' and there is no reason to make ``Asakusa Kid'' into a movie now. But if in the future someone other than me were to make a film out of Asakusa Kid, I wouldn't be able to regret it. I started writing the script, thinking that it didn't matter if it didn't work, I'd do something that would allow me to say, ``I did as much as I could.''

So, I followed the contacts of a producer I knew, had it read by various people, approached various distribution companies, kept getting rejected, passed around, and finally got it picked up by Netflix. . I really have nothing but gratitude to Netflix. I have already canceled all other subscriptions (lol)

Netflix movie “Asakusa Kid” Director Hitori Gekidan

Q: What did you find difficult about writing the script?

Hitori: The most difficult thing was deciding how many elements from the original work to include. There are so many episodes that if you packed them all together it would be a 10 hour movie. It's a question of how much to remove from the original work and what to focus on, but I think the most important thing is human relationships.

Of course there are episodes about Master Fukami (Hiroshi Oizumi) and Takeshi (Yuya Yagira), but there are also other human dramas such as Master Fukami's wife Mari (Honami Suzuki) and the dancer Chiharu (Mugi Kadowaki), which are carefully described. I intended to write it.

Characters of the legendary comedian Sensaburo Fukami