<h3>Positive Reactions on SNS to the Release of &#8220;Tokyo Revengers 2&#8221; Starring Kento Nagayama</h3>
 The arrests of celebrities such as Kento Nagayama and Ennosuke Ichikawa have continued. Whenever an actor is found to have committed an illegal or tortious act, the fate of the film in which he or she appeared is always brought up.
 WOWOW announced that it would cancel the broadcast of three movies and one drama series in which Nagayama appeared, and replace them with other productions. The NHK historical drama &#8220;Hikaru Kimi e&#8221; to be broadcast next year was also cancelled after Nagayama&#8217;s agency declined his request to appear in the drama.
 However, the movie in which he appeared, &#8220;Tokyo Revengers 2: Halloween in Blood &#8211; Decisive Battle,&#8221; was released on June 30 as scheduled.
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 Film writer Hinataka said, &#8220;The film was reshot and re-edited.
 The film was released without reshoots or re-editing, and was a solid hit. After the arrest of Kento Nagayama, the production committee announced on the film&#8217;s official Twitter page that &#8220;after much discussion, we have decided to release the film,&#8221; and the response on Twitter was mostly positive.
 On the other hand, the release of the film version of &#8220;Emergency Room the Final,&#8221; in which Ichikawa plays an important role, has been postponed. The NHK historical dramas &#8220;FURIN KAZAN&#8221; and &#8220;Kamakuradono no 13-nin,&#8221; in which he appeared in the past, have been suspended.
 Although the fate of &#8220;Emergency Room&#8221; is currently unknown, there have been movies and dramas in the past that have been put on hold or were feared to be put on hold due to the arrest of the actors who appeared in them.
<figure id="attachment_322563" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322563" style="width: 1016px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="60c02aac"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/2deab983988e9534c55ebf60c1603cb9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322563" class="wp-caption-text"> Tokyo Revengers 2: Halloween in Blood &#8211; Decisive Battle&#8221; was released as planned (PHOTO: Shinji Hasuo)</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Manabu Oshio, Pierre Taki, Yusuke Iseya&#8230; Drug use itself is a &#8220;victimless crime.</h3>
 The movie &#8220;So We Were Waiting for Morning,&#8221; which was scheduled to be released in February &#8217;10, has been put on hold after its star, Manabu Oshio, was arrested the previous year for violation of the Narcotics Control Law and other charges. Another film in which Oshio appeared, &#8220;Kidnapping Rhapsody,&#8221; was in danger of being cancelled, but director Hideo Sakaki himself substituted for Oshio and reshot the film for release.
 In 2007, Pierre Taki was arrested on suspicion of violating the Narcotics Control Law, and his film &#8220;Mahjong Nomad 2020&#8221; was released uncut.
 Following Pierre Taki&#8217;s arrest, director Kazuya Shiraishi and Toei&#8217;s president (Noriyuki Tada) held a press conference to announce that the film would be released as planned. At the beginning of the film, we also put out a message of refusal, saying, &#8216;The suspect Pierre Taki, who was arrested for violation of the Narcotics Control Law, is in the film. 
 Pierre Taki was also in a film titled &#8220;Isozumi Banon,&#8221; in which he appeared, and &#8220;Anna and the Snow Queen,&#8221; in which he dubbed the voice, was released after replacing the voice actor.
<figure id="attachment_322564" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322564" style="width: 688px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="e5d53872"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/13932b36a5c18475eeb7b66889dd34a9.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322564" class="wp-caption-text"> Pierre Taki was arrested for violation of the Narcotics Control Law in 1919.</figcaption></figure>
 The following year, in 2008, Yusuke Iseya was arrested on suspicion of violating the Marijuana Control Law, but &#8220;Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro&#8221; in which he appeared was released without reshoots or re-editing. However, the film was marred by scandals involving Kentaro Ito in a hit-and-run incident and Brother Tom in a moral harassment affair, as well as scandals involving other members of the main cast.
 Yusuke Iseya is reportedly going to return to acting in a movie to be released next year. Looking at the public reaction, I feel that he is being forgiven. 
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 A violation of the Narcotics Control Law is, so to speak, a victimless crime. I think there is no doubt that the world is becoming increasingly aware that it is wrong for a movie to be canceled because of drugs. 
<figure id="attachment_322565" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322565" style="width: 2574px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="01d61653"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/ae500e9a72c414fd30e92c54e30ecffe.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322565" class="wp-caption-text"> Yusuke Iseya was arrested for violation of the Marijuana Control Law in 2008.</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" I will not tolerate sexual assault."></div>
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<h3>Hirofumi Arai, Yuta Takahata&#8230; &#8220;Sexual Assault Will Not Be Forgiven</h3>
 In the past few years, there has been a conspicuous pattern of films facing the danger of being cancelled due to the issue of sexual assault.
 Such is the case with &#8220;Zenkaku no Kuzu&#8221; (Good and Evil), which was scheduled for release in 2007. The film was based on a popular manga, but was cancelled after Hirofumi Arai, who starred in the film, was arrested for sexual assault.
 The film is a crime-suspense type of film in which a revenge-seeker tries to bring down his assailant. Considering the psychological impact of Hirofumi Arai&#8217;s case on the audience, I feel that the cancellation of the release of the film was unavoidable. 
 Another film that year, &#8220;Typhoon Family,&#8221; also featuring Hirofumi Arai, had its release postponed. But it was not put in storage, and after the postponement, it was screened for a limited three-week period. On the official website, the producer gave a sincere explanation of the process and reasons from the announcement of the postponement to the decision to release the film, and I thought the release of the film was acceptable. 
<figure id="attachment_322566" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322566" style="width: 1000px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="7229a518"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/70ddb5fadcd8ea8bdcf66a15dc975c27.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322566" class="wp-caption-text"> Hirofumi Arai was arrested for sexual assault in 2007.</figcaption></figure>
 Some films have had to be cancelled because of incidents involving actors in the cast.
 &#8220; In &#8217;16, a movie called &#8220;Blue&#8217;s Way Home&#8221; was canceled after Yuta Takahata was arrested on charges of rape and other crimes. At that point, they had finished shooting about 70% of the film, but they said it would probably be put in storage as it was. The following year, director Michito Fujii reshot the film with an understudy and completed it with great persistence. The film was released in 2006. The film was released in 2006. 
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<figure id="attachment_322567" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322567" style="width: 1417px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="543efbc1"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/0d8ea45a19816992a0ef5d04e27cde17.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322567" class="wp-caption-text"> Yuta Takahata was arrested on suspicion of rape and other crimes.</figcaption></figure>
<h3> Hideo Sakaki, Sion Sono&#8230; Film directors</h3>
 Last year, film directors Hideo Sakaki and Sion Sono were accused of sexual assault by actresses one after another. Two of Sakaki&#8217;s films, &#8220;Honeymoon&#8221; and &#8220;Hazard Lamp,&#8221; have been cancelled.
 As soon as director Sakaki&#8217;s sexual assault was reported, the release of &#8220;Honeymoon&#8221; was cancelled. On the other hand, the production committee of &#8220;Hazard Lamp&#8221; initially announced on its official Twitter page that it &#8216;would like to release the film in theaters for the sake of the audience who wants to see the film. However, they later decided to cancel the release of the film, saying, &#8220;We continued discussions but were unable to reach a consensus. Perhaps there was a lot of bashing from the public. 
 Director Sono has not made any films since the accusation. Last November, he reportedly returned to work on a script for a film scheduled for release in December under a false name, which drew criticism on social networking sites. 
 The public reaction to the two directors is an indication of the growing trend that sexual assault will not be tolerated. I think the #MeToo movement is probably behind this.&#8221; 
<figure id="attachment_322568" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-322568" style="width: 2348px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4bde265c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/07/b78029fdf8008f61fd0e3d8d8a01b16d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-322568" class="wp-caption-text"> Director Sion Sono kisses his wife Megumi Kagurazaka at the 70th Venice International Film Festival (&#8217;13) (PHOTO: AFRO)</figcaption></figure>
 The #MeToo movement spread after the sexual assault case of Harvey Weinstein, a major Hollywood producer, came to light. Is it fair to say that the #MeToo movement is finally gaining momentum in Japan as well?
 I think it is a good thing that sexual violence and sexual harassment, which have been covered up in the entertainment and movie industries, are now seen as an issue that must not be tolerated. If films are put on hold because of sexual violence, it could serve as a deterrent.&#8221;
 However, there are also those who say, &#8220;The practice of putting films on hold due to misconduct by performers or directors should be stopped,&#8221; and &#8220;There is no crime in the work.
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 In the case of a new film, a part of the footage may be seen by an unspecified number of people because the promotion is developed before the film is released. Some people may have bad feelings when they see it. I feel that it is inevitable that the release of the film will be postponed due to the arrest of the actors. 
 But I am not sure if it is necessary to cancel a movie that is already in the public domain or to suspend the distribution of all past productions. If they don&#8217;t like a movie or drama that has already been released to the public, they can choose not to watch it. 
 Personally, I do not think it is right to put a film that was created by many actors and staff members into storage because of the work of a single person who has committed a scandal. However, if, for example, Sakaki&#8217;s &#8220;Hazard Lamp&#8221; had been released in theaters, it might have trivialized the issue of sexual assault, and I felt that the decision to cancel its release was the right one. 
 Where do we draw the line between &#8220;yes&#8221; and &#8220;no&#8221; in suspending the release or distribution of a film? I feel that in the future, we will be required to establish a standard for judgment.
Hinataka is a film writer. He writes for Nikkan Saizo, Netorabo, cinemas PLUS, Joshi SPA!
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 Sayuri Saito

 Shinji Hasuo

 The arrests of celebrities such as Kento Nagayama and Ennosuke Ichikawa have continued. When an actor is found to have committed an illegal or unlawful act, the fate of the films in which he or she appeared is always brought up. The movie in which he appeared, "Tokyo Revengers 2: Halloween in Blood" was released on schedule.

If you don’t like it, you can choose not to see it! Is it right or wrong to “put a film on hold” due to drug or sexual assault?

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