The characters we played are just like ourselves

Yamada: Playing the role this time, difficulties were.…..non existent!

Murakami: Basically I am just like that. I felt like I can just get into the role [as myself].

Kanichiro: That's right.

Yamada: Kanichiro is just like the character of Kohei! You are very shy. Nijiro is not afraid of anything, just like Shota. I played Atsuya, and along with Shota and Kohei, we were able to keep the atmosphere between us intact within the film.

Murakami: Because Atsuya was like an older brother! Our relationship in real life felt like that as well. Obviously, I didn’t mean Yamada-kun is like Atsuya (laughs).

Kanichiro: Everyone was really suited to their respective roles. Although there were things I came across after I read the script, I wanted to try and play the role just as I was.  [We can] simply use [our] natural and friendly relationship [during filming].

Yamada: It didn’t feel like we had discussed and created this, right? We did have 3 days of rehearsal time.

Murakami: Oh yeah. Every morning, we gathered and rehearsed. That was the daily routine.

Yamada: While we cherished the “just as it is” atmosphere between the trio, it was our homework to make the "air" [between us] resemble people who grew up together; that we sounded natural and not like we were reading from the script, right?

Murakami: Although we weren’t told directly that we had to “work on the atmosphere between the trio”, there was an "atmosphere to create the atmosphere" (laughs).

Kanichiro: Surely (laughs). I was shy, so I thought I could not get to that place. But since Yamada-kun and Nijiro were able to do it, I was worried.

Yamada: So scary! Don’t worry about it (laughs).

Kanichiro: That's it (laughs).

Murakami: But in reality, there were only a few staff with us at the rehearsal. Even the manager was requested to go outside.

Yamada: It was such that we could concentrate. But you were like "are we doing all this?" (laughs).

Murakami * Kanichiro: (Laugh).

Yamada: Because I did not remember how far we went [in the script], there were a lot of “wait a moment” on location (laughs).

Murakami: All of a sudden, it felt like a rehearsal.  The concept of “script reading” had thus far been destroyed (laughs).

Yamada: In addition, although not much was shown in the movie, the director had also conceived the trio’s backstory.

Murakami: For us as well, we thought about our origins properly, right?

Kanichiro: Yeah. Even for those who will watch the movie, it may be interesting to think about the kind of persons these three guys are.

Murakami: You cannot think of us as just the bad guys. We have our own justification for what we did.

Yamada: I think it is also the charm of the work that the story connects more and more from there.

The great times the trio spent together in Oita

Yamada: In Tokyo, we were filming inside the grocery store, then in Oita, we were pretty much filming all the running scenes, right?

Murakami: It is true (laughs)!

Kanichiro: I don’t think I have physical strength, so I am not really good at running. So I thought I might annoy these two.

Yamada: That's it! I remembered that.  There was a video of Kanichiro sleeping soundly with his mouth open during breaks in filming (laughs).

Murakami: I was sound asleep for sure.

Yamada: When I saw that figure, I thought it was really Kohei (laughs).

Kanichiro: I did not notice!

Yamada: By the way, Nijiro also slept with his mouth open ... (laughs).

Murakami: My eyes were open too (laughs).

Yamada: Even during the off time, our camaraderie did not change.

Murakami: Kanichiro and I went out several times in Tokyo, but Yamada-kun was busy and could not go.

Kanichiro: So, for the first time since Oita, we are going out to eat together as a trio.

Yamada: While we were shooting in Oita, I went to eat with the team. Ono Machiko-san got this "older sister!" vibe, it was a great time.

Murakami: There was one time when Kanichiro and I went to eat at a soba restaurant, we bumped into Yamada-kun there by chance!

Yamada: Well I thought "That’s a familiar voice", and it were these two (laughs).

Kanichiro: The three of us ate soba together. It was very tasty!

The story’s key point is "Letter".  What letter [did you receive] that left a strong impression on you?

Yamada: Do you two get letters from your parents?

Murakami: I do occasionally. They are mostly from my mother. When I studied abroad, when I left home, when I worked, when I reach milestones of my life, etc. Because she has a lot to say (laughs).

Yamada: Do you write letters yourself?

Murakami: In Japan, people become adults when they are 20 years old, right? Well, I was 18 years old when I graduated from high school, and I felt like I [already] became a member of society. So on my 18th birthday, I did not wait for the first "congratulations" to arrive.  I sent an email saying “Thank you for giving birth to me"!

Kanichiro: That's nice.

Yamada: That's a good son!

Murakami: Only then (laughs). My father replied with a very simply "Congratulations”. From my mother, I got an incredibly long, poetic email. I got two emails, but basically it was my mother who sent me a letter.

Kanichiro: Me too.  I only received letters from my mother, I have not gotten many letters from other people.

Yamada * Murakami: That's right!

Kanichiro: My mother also has many things to say, and she sends me a letter every year for my birthday.  While they are filled with rather long sentences, the content almost does not change from year to year (laughs).  But I'm happy anyway.

Yamada: Do you have that letter?

Kanichiro: I think so!

Yamada: You respond like a comedian (laughs).

Kanichiro: ...... I think that it is somewhere in the room (laughs)!

Yamada: Of course I got letters from my parents too, but I also received a letter from Suzuki Kyoka-san, who played my mother in the drama "Risou no Musuko”.  It was addressed to "Son". I was very happy since the letter did not say "To Yamada-kun” but "To Son".

Murakami: That's amazing!

Yamada: Sometimes, when we occasionally met, she would go "Oh son~!".  At that time, I was about 18 years old and now I am 24 years old, and I am happy to see that she still sees me as “her son”.

Kanichiro: Is that so!

Yamada: So, I still feel like I am [her] son.  Because I got the letter when we cranked up, I have not yet been able to reply. I’d definitely reply to the letter if I have the chance.

Excerpt from TV Guide 10.2017

I am skipping the rest of this crosstalk since it is basically a rehash of the above.

If you write a letter ...

Yamada: "Nijiro turned 20 years old, let's go drinking." I'm not good at alcohol, right?

Murakami: I still don’t know the taste of alcohol. Therefore, I want to eat delicious food for the time being.

Yamada: That's cute. I guess I like yakitori.

Murakami: Well, I like yakiniku or yakitori. Then I would like to go to Yamada-kun's house.

Yamada: I wonder if we will talk about something bad (laughs).

Kanichiro: I want to talk about something bad. Talking about games.