"1122 Good Couple" Director: Rikiya Imaizumi & Screenwriter: Kaori Imaizumi I called home during filming to confirm [Director's Interview Vol. 419]

The manga " 1122 (Good Couple) " has caused a stir among married people, with some saying, "I don't want my wife to read this" and "I want my husband to read this" for its depiction of the real feelings of modern married couples. This millennial Marriage Story is currently being exclusively distributed worldwide as a serial drama on Prime Video. The live-action version was directed by Imaizumi Rikiya. And this time, the screenplay was written by his real-life wife, Imaizumi Kaori, in a surprising combination that makes you think, "I never thought of that!"

In creative work like film and TV drama production, conflicts are inevitable at times, but how is it working together as a director, a scriptwriter, and as a married couple? We spoke to the two of them.

Synopsis of "1122 Good Couple"

The wife, Aihara Kazuko (Takahata Mitsuki), is a web designer. The husband, Aihara Niya (Okada Masaki), works at a stationery manufacturer. They are a close couple who can talk about anything like friends. Even though they don't have sex or children, their relationship is fine... but... We have a "secret" - that is, the husband spends the night of the third Thursday of every month with his girlfriend. After seven years of marriage, the couple has decided to allow extramarital affairs in order to maintain a good relationship. Niya has a "girlfriend" that is also approved by Aihara Kazuko. We want to deliver this real life story of a couple in their 30s to everyone who doesn't give up on "being together". At first glance, they seem to have a twisted and special relationship. But what happens after the story that ends with them getting married and "happily ever after"? This is a story that continues the "happy ending" of "marriage".

Index

• The husband directed and the wife wrote the screenplay.
• Screenwriting with differing opinions
• Character creation by actors
• Call home during filming to check
• I want to do it again together

The husband directed and the wife wrote the screenplay.

Q: I heard that Director Imaishi suggested that you be the scriptwriter. How did you feel about that?

Kaori: I definitely wanted to try it.

Q: Have you received any work offers from Director Imaishi before?

Kaori: This is my first time.

Q: Was it fun working with you?

Kaori: That's right. I haven't been involved in this kind of production for about 10 years, so it's nice to be able to rely on them.

"1122 Good Couple" by Rikiya Imaizumi (director) and Kaori Imaizumi (screenplay)

Q: When adapting the original work, did Director Imaishi have any requests for Kaori?

Rikiya: No, I haven't said anything. When I make a movie or drama based on an original work, I don't write it myself, and I often ask Kaori Sawai, who I worked with on " Love is Hard " (2019) and " Undercurrent " (23), to adapt it. But this time, my wife quit her job and stayed home, and I thought it would be interesting to do it as a couple, given the subject matter.

Producer Junko Sato is an old acquaintance of mine, and she was my boss when I was working part-time at a movie theater. She's the kind of person who knows everything from when I was struggling to make a living, so I asked her, "Would it be interesting to work with my wife?" It was my wife's first time writing a commercial script, so I wasn't sure if she could do it, but she had read the scripts of the movies I'd made and looked at the edits, so I said, "I think we could do something." Then she said, "If you say you're going to do it, I'll ask you."

But before that, although it didn't come to fruition, my wife had worked with Mr. Sato on a small plot (a summary of the overall structure and flow before the script was written) and a script, so maybe that trust was also a factor. I'm sure that came first, right?

Kaori: No, "1122 Good Couple" came first, and I wrote the plot first and then decided whether I would write the screenplay or not.

Rikiya: So "1122 Good Couple" came first?

Kaori: After I wrote the plot for "1122 Good Couple," Sato-san read it and asked me to help him with the plot for another work. So "1122 Good Couple" came first.

Rikiya: So my wife wrote a plot and had Mr. Sato check it. He thought that he could trust it, and he was in charge of the script. I didn't give him any particular instructions, like "I want to do this" or "I want to do that." First, I let him write it as he wanted, and then we made adjustments from there.

Screenwriting with differing opinions