Yesterday, actors Sato Ryuta and Ishihara Satomi as well as director / comedian Shinagawa Hiroshi appeared in a stage greeting for their movie, "Manzai Gang" in order to thank all the moviegoers.

The movie is about a young man (Sato) who just lost his comic partner and ended up in a police cell. While there, he happens to meet a rowdy stranger (Kamiji Yusuke), with whom he's able to have some unique conversations and decides to form a new comic duo together with that person. Ishihara Satomi plays the girlfriend of Sato's character.

At the stage greeting they all talked about each others' impressions amongst some other interesting subjects. Director Shinagawa started off by talking about Sato and Ishihara, "An old geezer would say that the two of them are some damn fine lads... but let's just say that they're both actors that I respect a lot. Honestly, I'm really glad that I was able to work together with them."

Then Sato wanted to return the favor when Shinagawa interrupted him, "I just praised you a lot, so be careful about what you say. (laughs)" His extra pressure wasn't really necessary, since Sato only had positive things to say about him as well stating, "It really was a lot of fun at the set and I hope that I will be able to work together with him again."

About Ishihara he added, "It has been a while since I last worked together with Satomi-chan and she truly has become an adult woman." When asked about his thoughts about acting as a pair of lovers together with her, he revealed with a bashful grin, "I don't have a lot of experiences with love scenes, therefore I had Satomi-chan take the lead."

Ishihara also talked a bit about the two and about Shinagawa she said, "It was really tense between us during the filming, we barely made eye contact or talked to each other." Shinagawa nodded and explained, "It really was tense, but I didn't want people to think, 'Oh, so he is one of those directors that only want to talk with the actresses'. (laughs)" Fortunately their relationship seems to be much better now. "Now Satomi-chan even nonchalantly yawns right in front of me (laughs)."

About working together with Sato, she commented, "He is a very serious yet funny person." Just thinking back about their ride to the cinema that day, she started to laugh, "He was joking around the whole time in the bus today. It was extremely funny."

Later Ishihara also revealed that the little baby that appears towards the end of the movie actually was the 3-month-old baby of director Shinagawa. She commented, "I was so nervous holding the baby in my arms." At the set Shinagawa's comic partner Shoji Tomoharu continuously looked after the baby while wearing some comfortable shorts, which apparently was quite a funny sight. "We will include this as a special clip on the DVD!" Shinagawa announced. Ishihara had a better idea, "Maybe you should already add it in the next screenings."

Finally, some general thoughts about the movie from Shinagawa, "We are currently still in a very difficult situation, but I hope that Japan will cheer up and become a smiling nation again. Maybe this movie will help a bit to reach that point." Sato shares similar feelings and added, "I believe that this movie is able to make you laugh and give you some positive energy after you watched it. It would be great if this movie was really able to cheer you up a bit again."

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Clip from the stage greeting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwT5cXqnT1Y

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Source: MovieCollection