Masaki Suda Found Out First the “Magic Word” that made the movie “Not to Mention Mystery” a smash hit!

Masaki Suda stars in the movie “Of Course I Say Mystery,” which opened in theaters on September 15. It has been ranked No. 1 in the weekend for four consecutive weeks since its release. It has already surpassed 3.4 billion yen at the box office and is showing momentum to surpass the box office revenue of “Love Like a Bouquet,” which was the biggest hit among Sugata’s starring films.

This film is based on a very popular manga by Yumi Tamura, which has sold a total of 18 million copies. It is a mystery with a new sensation in which the main character, Sei Kunou, played by Sugata with his trademark natural perm, unravels the mystery of the case and people’s hearts by simply expressing his own views in a casual manner.

It was aired in Fuji Television’s “Geki 9” slot in the January season last year, and was the No. 1 missed episode of all time at the time. This time, the “Hiroshima version,” which is highly acclaimed among fans, is being made into a movie.

The film focuses on the mystery of an inheritance that occurred in the Karashu family, an old family in Hiroshima. The film is reminiscent of Yokomizo Seishi’s “The Inugami Clan,” with its numerous bloody legends about the old family and the mysterious storehouse inherited by the grandchildren. The worldview is also irresistible to mystery lovers.

“In fact, the former Nozaki family residence in Kurashiki City, Okayama Prefecture, where the Karashu family lived, was used for the filming of the drama “The Inugami Clan” (NHK-BS premiere) that aired this year,” said a person involved in a wide-ranging TV show.

However, this film is more than just a mystery.

Kunou Sei, played by Sugata, has many life beliefs and obsessions, and perhaps because of this, he has no friends, let alone girlfriends. However, with his extraordinary memory and analytical skills, he manipulates words like magic, and before he knows it, he has solved the problems of the characters. Sugata’s performance as the out-of-this-world “Sei” is nothing short of breathtaking.

Sugata said of his role as “Sei,” “I didn’t want him to be too much of an opinionated person. I was very careful not to make Sei-kun too argumentative.” He also commented on the difficulty of playing the role of “Sei,” saying, “Normally, I can ad-lib as much as I want. But with Sei-kun, it was impossible to ad-lib.”

 

“Masaki Sugata, who is a “possession type” actor, says he couldn’t be possessed the character this time.

Why did Masaki Suda take on this difficult role, which is like playing a “Shakespearean play”?

“One of the reasons is that the character he plays this time is a bit like Sugata’s own character. Another reason is because I was fascinated by a line from the original manga,’ Sugata confesses.

That “magic word” is the one that appears in the Hiroshima version.

He said, “Children are like cement before it dries. The shape of what you drop remains afterward.”

This line is a reference to the American clinical psychologist’s comment that “children are like cement before it dries.”

“This line was written by Haim G. Guinotto, an American clinical psychologist and child therapist. When Sugata read this line in the original story, he was so moved by it that he decided to accept the job for the Geki 9 drama, ‘Not to Mention Mystery,'” according to a production company director.

This magic word is depicted again and again in this drama.

When Yura (Kou Shibasaki) refuses to tell him what is in the “secret storehouse” over an inheritance, Shinon (Toshihisa Hagiwara) tries to find out from Yura’s daughter, Sachi. Shin’oon (Hagiwara Toshihisa) tries to find out from Yura’s daughter, Sachi,

“The act of using a child as a spy.”

“The child will regret for the rest of his life that he has dragged his parents down.”

He is trying to prevent the “cement before it dries” from being scratched. But that’s not all.

“Most parents are unaware of the destructive power of words,” he admonishes.

The “magic words” also come back to life in the scene where he admonishes.

As the story progresses, Shioji (Nanoha Hara), who is involved in the inheritance dispute, is told by his grandfather

The Karashu family is a family that kills each other.
“You will be one of them.”

Sei was told by his grandfather that “the Karashu family is a family that kills each other” and “you will become one of them”.

Why would you tell such a thing to a child?

and sighs.

By watching this sequence of scenes, we realize for the first time that the “cement” episode, which would be traumatic if it dried out, is the real theme of the film.

This theme is also the key to solving the mysterious arrangement.

Looking at the story from a bird’s eye view, it is revealed in the drama that Sei also harbors a grudge against his father. Growing up in an institution, his parents and place of birth are not revealed, and I think Sei himself must have been hurt by something dropped in the cement before it dried up when he was a child.

This film does not delve that deeply into the “Sei” story. However, since this film was a big hit, the mystery will surely be revealed in the second and third installments of the film adaptation.

This film is reminiscent of Seishi Yokomizo’s masterpiece “Inugami no Ichizoku” (The Inugami Clan). However, the true goal of this work is not to call it a mystery. As the mystery surrounding the rectification is solved, it is sure to become clearer and clearer.