6th Okinawa International Movie Festival

On the second day of 6^th International Movie Festival, Friday 21^st March, at Theatre 2 of the Okinawa Convention Center, the film Furiko screened with the author Tekken and the cast greeting the audience. Star Manami Konishi was so moved by the occasion she was in tears.  

The original story came from a flip book by the multi-talented Tekken and it reached over 3, 000,000 people. Members of the cast, including Shido Nakamura, Manami Konishi and Itsuji Itao, appeared on stage and they were joined by author Tekken and director Norihiro Takenaga after the screening.

Konishi noted, “It’s the first time for me to see movie with an audience.” She added, “I’m so happy to watch the film with everyone.” Konishi’s appreciation of the audience was clear as the tears rolled down her cheeks. Tekken was also moved and offered a “Thank you” to the director and cast. The director responded, “I’m especially glad Tekken was satisfied the movie. It was difficult to create movie from a flip book and we added elements from our imagination as the original doesn’t have any dialog. But I believe the movie came out wonderfully because of the hard work of the cast.”
 

Tekken responded, “Many people were interested in making the film but it didn’t happen because people might have thought it’s too difficult to make a motion picture from a flip book. I was wondering how the staff could create a movie from my work which is only 4 minutes long. But thanks to the director Norihiro Takenaga, it came out well.” Nakamura answered, “It was good experience to lean how to tell a story in various ways.”

To sum up the stage appearance, Nakamura spoke directly to the audience: “I will be happy if you feel warm after watching the film.” The glow emanating from both the audience and the artists evidenced that all involved felt warm indeed.