A Love Story with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi? Exploring the Role of Kunimura Jun in Onmyoji 0 and Go-Ban Kiri

–You are also known as a car enthusiast. In an interview, you once said that acting and cars are similar.

Kunimura: I think that the process of making a movie or creating entertainment is similar to the process of making a product.

For example, when one decides to make a new car, the process begins with the question of what kind of car to make, whether it should be a family car or a sports car, and then various factors are involved, such as how much the final price should be, and so on.

In making a movie, for example, I think the script is like a blueprint for making a car.

If the blueprint is not excellent, the finished product will not be of high quality. In that sense, the quality of the blueprint is directly reflected in the finished product.

–Do you sometimes want to play with the excellent blueprints further?

Kunimura: Japanese dialogue is very convenient, and even if some points or conjunctions are changed, the meaning and nuance do not change much.

For example, in “Goban Kiri”, the rhythm of the scene where Kusanagi and I exchange lines across the Go board is different every time we play. A different rhythm means that the number of sounds in the dialogue is different, and sometimes it doesn’t fit the visuals of the scene.

Then, sometimes it is better to follow the rhythm, for example, by omitting a part, shortening a conjunction, or switching the order, so that it fits the rhythm of the video.

There is not much point in trying to speak exactly what is written in the script. When you watch “Goban Zanri,” I hope you will enjoy the differences in rhythm between Kusanagi and me.

Part 2: Jun Kunimura talks about “Imo Tako Nankin” and the appeal of “morning drama” and the challenges of making films in Korea and the U.S. _ click here