Masahiro Higashide is getting a tailwind..! The feeling of a “second break” is growing with the sequel to the “blockbuster” movie series.

Actor Masahiro Higashide (36) is getting a “tailwind.

From 2008 to 2010, he divorced actress Anne (37) due to an affair with Erika Karada (26), and his contract was terminated by his agency after it was reported that he had brought a woman into his lodgings on the location of a movie. Higashide had been facing “headwinds” all his life. However, Higashide is now attracting attention as his hunting life in the mountains was introduced by Fuji Television’s information program “Mezamashi 8”. The documentary film “Will” (directed by Elizabeth Miyaji), which follows Higashide’s hunting life over a period of about a year, opened on the 16th.

Higashide attended the opening day stage greeting at a theater in Tokyo, and said, “I had no intention of putting my hunting life out there, so it’s a strange feeling to have it made into a movie and released to the public.

He said of the film, “This film is only an image of Higashide at that moment from the director’s point of view, and leaving it behind is only a risk for the acting business. So I don’t want to see it, and I don’t recommend it to others,” he said, revealing some surprisingly honest feelings.

Even so, he said, “Even if there was no gain for me, I thought, ‘It would be good if I could contribute to the culture of documentary film,’ so I had the film made.

The director filmed 450 hours of Higashide at the time of the controversy. The film includes scenes of Higashide being directly interviewed by a weekly photographer and even looking through a women’s weekly magazine that reported his scandal.

In “Mezamashi 8,” Higashide was reported to be living in a “harem” with three actresses, but since he was completely open about the situation, he did not come under fire. The image of the film has recovered to a certain extent, as 70 to 80% of the audience, including the theater in Tokyo where the stage greeting was held on the opening day of the film’s release, is said to be made up of women. At the stage greeting, the audience was filled to capacity, which made it enjoyable, and he even showed the room to give a peace to the cameraman who was sitting in the media section and who came to the mountain and shot him directly” (movie writer).

On the 12th of this month, Hiroki Takahashi, a visual director who has worked on such films as “Ie, Tsukiji Doko ni Tsuiteiru Iai ka? (TV Tokyo) and “The End of the World, Hiroyuki Left Behind” (ABEMA), updated X to report on Higashide’s recent situation.

Takahashi published a photo of Higashide making a peace sign with Tokyo Tower in the background and reported, “An acquaintance who lives deep in the mountains came to my office. On the way here, he lost his wallet, credit cards, cell phone, and driver’s license for some reason, and I saw him off to Akabanebashi station, wondering how he was going to live for a while.

Then, many favorable comments were received on the Internet, such as, “He’s too much of a recluse, he’s like Snufkin…,” and “I think Higashide-san can handle it.

Four years after the affair, the “tailwind” has finally begun to blow for Higashide, and hopes for a sequel are said to be growing for that popular series in which Higashide appears as one of the main cast members.

The second installment of “Confidence Man JP,” starring Masami Nagasawa (36), was released in July 2008. The second theatrical version, “PRINCESS PRINCESS,” in July 2008, was after Higashide’s affair scandal, so PR activities and other activities were hampered. The most recent new film, the third theatrical version, “Hero Arc,” was released in January ’22, and there was a possibility that Mr. Higashide would not appear in the film, but he was chosen to appear in the film because he is a fan favorite of the series.

The work originally started as a serial drama in the Tsuki 9 slot for the April ’18 season. Since the Tsuki 9 dramas have been in a slump recently, it is likely that a sequel to the drama will be aired on Tsuki 9, followed by a fourth theatrical version. Nagasawa and Fumiyo Kohinata (70), who played the con artist duo in the drama, have a great teamwork, so they should be happy to be teamed up with Higashide again,” said a source from the distributor of the series.

The box-office revenue of the theatrical version so far has been 2.97 billion yen for “Confidence Man JP Romance” (2007), 3.84 billion yen for “PRINCESS PRINCESS” (2008), and 2.89 billion yen for “HERO” (2010). The “Princess Arc” (2008) earned 3.84 billion yen, and the “Hero Arc” (2010) earned 2.89 billion yen.

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