Tori said he doesn't think Lee Sang-il is tough. Instead, he thinks the opposite. He said Dir. Lee always give actors proper direction and checks how much preparation is done. If he can do that exactly, he gets OK right away.
Tori: I feel like things I've done in the past that I thought useless were useful in the actual performance because Dir. Lee Sang-il pays attention to whether I'm doing those things or not & he values even the smallest details. I'm glad I trusted him because he noticed me. I'm happy (at Rurou no Tsuki filming). It was as if I kept doing things that had nothing to do with the role. People might ask is it worth this much time and effort every time. But that's what I've always wanted to do, so I just kept on working. It's what you don't see on camera that's important. If I don't have a firm understanding of these things, I can't dive into the world that Dir. Lee is depicting.
I want to work on works that I can really offer with confidence. I'm not going to take a break but change the pace and focus more on my work. I'd like to have gained acclaim overseas by 40. Not appearing in foreign films but have more of my JP films seen by ppl overseas. I've done some projects that I thought were turning points in the first half of my career. Perhaps in 2-3 years, I want to come across a work that makes me feel that way again, but by then, I need to be able to handle it better.
Q: Have you enjoyed the response from Last of the Wolves and Intolerance?
Tori: No, I haven't. I was so busy filming.
Q: LEVEL2 draws a lot of female viewers to Yakuza films.
Tori: It's cuz (Suzuki) Ryohei-san's casting was a success! I'm glad to win Yokohama together with him.
Q: You having the leading role dramas in a single season was a topic.
Tori: I thought seeing "Tori Matsuzaka" twice a week would be too stuffed. Since I had already finished filming KokoBoku, I tried to make a slight difference in the way I approached the role for AnoKiss. In both cases, the character was pathetic, so I had to make sure that I provide a different kind of patheticness. 😅 It's not often that I play a role while thinking about that. I'm pleasantly surprised they both were very well received.
I'm glad KokoBoku is just 5 episodes. It has a lot of punch, so if it's 10 episodes, it might have been too much. I was really surrounded by all the heavyweights. While I was just standing around, tremendously interesting performances going on in front of me. They show me so much more than the script, I just have to be there. I thought to myself, "How much of their performances can I take in?" I was blessed to be in an environment.
In AnoKiss, I worked with two very talented actors, Kumiko Aso and Arata Iura. Aso-san has cool sex appeal and Arata-san has gentle sex appeal. By switching the two, we can see two different kinds of sexiness at the same time, which was a perfect match. It was so wonderful to be able to enjoy the roles and sexiness that the two of them created together right in front of me. Iura-san was so cute.
Q: Congratulations on your Best Actor Award at 43rd Yokohama Film Festival. Now, you've won all individual awards.
Tori: Thank you very much. It's been 10 years since I won Newcomer Award, so it's very moving. I was very happy to receive Best Picture for "Intolerance" as well.
Q: "Intolerance" is also a highly acclaimed film.
Tori: I think Intolerance is completely the director's achievement. I thought (Keisuke) Yoshida is amazing. After watching the preview, I strongly felt that I was lucky to be in a film with such taste.
Q: I think Matsuzaka-san's exasperation in Intolerance is great.
Tori: Hahaha! Interesting! The script was very realistic. It was structured in such a way that anyone would be frustrated by this process. the emotion of frustration is the key and it's a very delicate element.
Q: Matsuzaka-san was wonderful. (*2nd time cueing 🤣)
Tori: I'm so glad you thought that. The triangle between Arata Furuta and Shinobu Terajima was also very frustrating. And I can't take out my frustration on people like the characters played by those two. That's the point. When you're stuck in a situation where you can't take out your frustration, you get even more frustrated, so you end up taking out your frustration on trivial things. I came to understand that very well.
Q: The way you expressed that was superb. (*3rd Time cueing 🤣)
Tori: Dir. Yoshida's stance was, "Please go ahead and act as you like" so I was able to act freely. I thought that "Intolerance" is a familiar madness. It's a dark film, but it's a story that could be right next door.
____________INTERVIEWER GIVES UP___________LOL
Tori: Like The Journalist/KokoBoku, I want to continue to work on the projects that throw stones at the world. I want to make them available. I want to create a genre where ppl who have seen can voice out their opinions to each other and recommend "I want you to see this." Of course, I like entertaining movies, but as I've gotten older, I feel my interests have changed. I think I like films with a lot of ambiguity. Maybe, I want to think about 'this and that' after watching a film. It's a big thing to be able to feel my own opinion again.
Q: Last year, you said 働 (work) as your kanji, how about that?
Tori: I've really worked too much. I want to have some spare time this year so 据 (situate/settle). In my 20s, I was desperate to become famous, to get into film industry. I did various things. Cuz of that, I think I can broaden my span in 30s. All thanks to Naito-san (N-mane). I'm going to settle this year with promising collaborations. Think it's finally time for that.
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