#Kazokudakara Aishitan Janakute Aishita no ga Kazokudatta

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Nishikido Ryo Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta ep 3

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Nishikido Ryo

Screen+ Plus vol.84

part 1 | part 2

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Ryo Nishikido's first TV drama since becoming independent, and the 38-year-old's "views on family", including a history of fist fights with his brothers.

Released three albums as an artist, successfully performed at Budokan during the Covid pandemic.

Actor and artist Ryo Nishikido returns to TV drama for the first time in four years with the drama Family I Loved, Not Because I Loved You (Sunday 10pm), airing on NHK's BS Premium/BS4K from 14th May. It is his first appearance on NHK since becoming independent in 2019. His first appearance was in the 2018 historical drama Segodon. We asked him about his feelings about playing the difficult role of a “phantom“ who appears in the drama even though he is dead, as well as his thoughts on his own family.

On the day of the interview, Nishikido was being interviewed by several companies. Nishikido was sincerely searching for his own words in response to the questions posed by the interviewer in the studio.

“Before when I became independent and now, being offered to a role has a different meaning. Now that I've been asked, I want to give it my all. I immediately said, 'If it's okay with you, I'd love to be a part of it.'"

Nishikido plays Kosuke, the father of the main character Nanami Kishimoto (Yumi Kawai). He is 38 years old, the same age Nishikido is now, but he passed away from a myocardial infarction. It is a difficult role to play, but on set, directed by Akiko Ookyu, who also directed the film "Jikkuri Furete Ro" (2017), he is digging into the scene with Ookyu-san to shoot the scene.

"I don't have many scenes myself, I'm more like a spice. There are scenes where I gently push Nanami when she is in distress, but when I think about it, I sometimes realize that Kosuke has been more supportive of her. His wife Hitomi (Sakai Maki) and the rest of the family are all strong, but they are also fragile. As a father, I want to warmly watch over my growing family."

Kosuke is a mysterious figure who appears in the tv drama even though he is dead.

“I am curious to see the reaction of the people watching the drama and how they will react to it. It is a mysterious presence that you don't know if he is there or not. I myself have not experienced any “hallucinations/visions”, but last spring the dog I lived with passed away, and the other dog I had was depressed. It had been listless for a long time, but one day when I came home after work, the one dog that had been depressed was frolicking around in the living room. When I saw that, it made me think that it (the deceased dog) had come home and was playing with them.”

In real life, he has 3 other siblings "As we get older, we are able to talk honestly.”

In real life, he has 3 siblings: two older brothers, who two and three years his senior, and a younger sister, two years his junior. Sometimes he had trouble stopping his mischievous second brother, fighting with him until he broke his arm.

“There was a time when my two older brothers and I didn't get along and we didn't speak to each other. The fact that we hit & fought each other hasn’t changed, but now that we are older and have our own lives, we are calmer and we can talk more honestly. When my sister got married and had a child, she looked very mature.”

How does he feel about his father, who supported a large family?

“When my father was 38 years old, the same age as myself, he already had a child named me. I don't have a family of my own, but looking back at my own age, I have more opportunities to think about what my parents were doing when they were the same age.”

Since becoming independent, he says, he has looked at himself more objectively and calmly, and in addition to SNS, he has also focused on internet distribution, bringing him closer to his fans. In 2020, the year of the Covid pandemic, his first solo performance at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, was broadcast online without an audience for the first time in the Budokan's history and became the talk of the town. As a singer, he has released three albums. He looks wilder with a beard, and his slow speech exudes the confidence that he has built up over the years.

“I have asked myself many times the question of who I am. I can move everything at my own pace, but I have to take all the consequences. If there is a place where I am required to be an actor, I want to give it my all. I also want to keep my feet on the ground and not overdo it in my music career.”

The drama is based on an essay by writer Nami Kishida about her own family. Her father, a venture capitalist, died suddenly, and her mother suddenly found herself in a wheelchair. Her younger brother has Down syndrome, and her grandmother has memory loss …. The "information overload" of her daily life has been well-received by many people and has been published in book form.

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Nishikido's surprised😮 face

Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta ep 10

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Nishikido's tears

Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta ep 10

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Nishikido Ryo

Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta

photos taken by Kawai Yuumi

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Nishikido Ryo 2023.05.08 NHK Yū 5-ji

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Nishikido Ryo

Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta

Official stills

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Nishikido Ryo Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta ep 4

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Ryo Nishikido's renewed thoughts on the existence of 'family' .

It's been four years since you appeared in a TV drama - has your enthusiasm or feelings for acting changed?

Nishikido: No, no, not at all, sorry (laughs). I am just doing the best I can at the moment. I am not overexcited by it. As soon as I read the script, I immediately said, "If it's okay with you, I'd be happy to do it.”

This ...... is not to say that there is anything "good" or "bad" about it, but perhaps I was attracted to the realistic depiction of family relationships in this work, unlike many recent dramas that have "impossible" or slightly bizarre settings.

The main character, Kishimoto's family, has a series of difficult events happening one after another. It is "impossible" in that sense, but it is also based on a true story by Nami Kishida. I myself am looking forward to the broadcast to see how it will turn out as a drama from that original story.

The film is set in Kobe and the characters' interactions are in the Kansai dialect. Nishikido-san was the only one in the Kishimoto family who was a 'Kansai native'.

Nishikido: Yeah, that's right. I think that people who are not from the Kansai region must be under a lot of pressure to speak Kansai-ben, because they are sometimes told, "This is not Kansai-ben! I think everyone must be under a lot of pressure. It was impressive to see Maki Sakai practicing over and over again on set. Everyone was very good at it, but I was especially surprised at how natural Yumi Kawai's Kansai dialect was. At first I wondered if Kawai-san was from the Kansai region, since she spoke in the Kansai dialect quite naturally during filming.

Dialect and intonation are difficult, aren't they? Even now, when I have to perform in so-called standard Japanese, I sometimes get corrected, and when I go back to my hometown, my friends say, "You mixed up your accents” (laughs).

-More homesick than rebellious-

In this film, Kosuke Kishimoto, played by Nishikido-san, is shown to be disagreeable towards his rebellious daughter Nanami, and the film depicts the parent-child relationship at a difficult time. Did Nishikido-san have a rebellious period like Nanami's?

Nishikido: Hmmm... I don't think there was any kind of defiance that can be considered a rebellious phase. I think I had a rebellious period when I said to my mother, "I want to eat this," and when it was not served at dinner, I sulked, "What the heck!” I think I was just a little sulky (laughs). I have never been in anything that could be called a fight.

Since I was about 13 years old, I was also working in Tokyo, so I spent a lot of time living in hotels and I think I spent less time with my family than most people. I was rather homesick at that time and maybe I didn't have time to rebel.

In playing the role of the father, did you recall any episodes from your own family?

Nishikido: There is a scene where the family goes out to various places in the car, and I remembered that my family used to drive when we went on trips.

Back then, child seats were not yet mandatory like they are now, so we would fold down the back seat of the one-box car and relax with my brothers and sister on the futon spread out on the floor.

-I paid my own high school tuition.-Are there any memorable words your father said to you?

Nishikido: When I was 15 or 16 years old, my father used to tell me, "You’d better at least study (stay in school)”. My father was also a junior high school graduate, so I guess he wanted his children to be educated. I can say this now, but at the time I was crazy about skateboarding, so there was no way those words would have made sense to me (laughs).

I went on to high school, but I couldn't go to a public school, but I managed to just make it into a private school. My father told me, "If you go to private school, pay for it yourself!" So I paid my own tuition out of the money I earned without questioning it.

In the end, I went to high school for only one year and dropped out, but by the time I was 18 years old, I began to understand the meaning of my father's words.

Should you have studied/stayed in school?

Nishikido: Studying at school is like working hard toward a single goal, isn't it? It is said that being "smart enough to study" is not the same as being "smart enough as a human being" to live, but I think studying, whether for test scores or entrance exams, is an opportunity to learn "how to work hard" to achieve a goal.

In the end, I started working seriously in the entertainment business after I left high school, so I guess I learned that through my work, but I still remember my father's words, “You’d better at least study (stay in school)”

-There is no 'right' form for families and couples.-

In the past, Mr Nishikido has played the role of a father in a number of projects, such as Inu wo Kau to Iu Koto - Sky and My Family for 180 Days and Zenkai Girl. You also have a Netflix drama "Let's Get Divorced," about a couple getting divorced, coming out soon, and you have appeared in many films with family and marital themes. Do you find it easy to gravitate toward films that focus on family and marital bonds?

Nishikido: I never really thought about it, but now I realize that there are many different forms of families and couples, and there is no "right" answer. I myself am single, but I am not in a hurry at all.

Recently, due to my age, I sometimes receive reports of divorces from friends, but in the end I think that if the person in question is smiling, then that's all that matters.

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Nishikido Ryo

Screen+ Plus vol.84

part 1 | part 2

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Nishikido Ryo Screen+plus vol.84 translation

Q: What new hobbies have you taken up recently?

Ryo: My hobbies really haven’t changed much. I occasionally play golf with my friends, but I mostly just stay at home, just relaxing (laughs). I don’t know….but I realized how important it is to be healthy.

Q: Has anything happened?

Ryo: A lot has happened. I've become an Ossan (laughs). There are a lot of places that hurt now. What will become of me when I reach 40 or 50? (Laughs) So something had to be done. I do yoga at home watching YouTube videos. Well, just living a simple life. (Laughs)

Q: Your first drama appearance in 4 years has been in the news, but can you tell us again how you frankly felt when you were offered the role?

Ryo: To put it simply, the fact that I was given an offer right now, & the fact I got to be offered a role regardless of where (i.e. agency) I belonged to, was what made me happiest.

Q: Did you decide to appear in the drama after reading the script?

Ryo: Yes, I did. I've had a few offers, but it was a matter of timing. This time it was the right time, so I accepted.

Q: When I saw the live footage of you performing “Secret Agent Man at your RYO NISHIKIDO LIVE 2021 “SHABBY”, as someone who has known you for a long time, it made me happy. But was this a kind of fan service?

Ryo: I didn’t mean that as a fan service though. It was the first CD where my voice was recorded. For me it's a kind of retrospective, the first page of the album. So I thought, "Now, this is how I sound like", that's all.

Q: Nishikido-san, what are your personal thoughts on what you hope will be conveyed from the NHK drama?

Ryo: To be honest, it’s not so much about the viewers, but rather if Kishida Nami, who is the author, her mother or her brother, who has Down’s syndrome, don’t have a bad feeling when they see the drama, then that’s fine with me. I’m not filming the drama for Kishida-san’s family but at the very least, I hope they can accept it. After all, I play the role of their late father. It would be nice to make them enjoy the father who lives on in their memories even more after watching it

About "Kazokudakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazokudatta”

Q: Could you tell us about any memorable events that happened during filming?

Ryo: The lead actress, Kawai Yumi, surprised me. Her lines were all in Kansaiben and she spoke them so naturally that I thought she was from Osaka, but I didn't realize she was purely from Tokyo (laughs). She speaks Kansai so well. It's really good. I asked her, "Do you play the piano?" and she said, "No." I asked, "Are you a good singer?" She replied, "I don't know if I'm good at it.” It's true that people don't say they can sing very well (laughs). I think it's great that she can remember the tones and speak very naturally.

Q: let’s talk about ‘Let’s Get Divorced’. This is a film that Kudo Kankuro is working on the script for. It’s been a while since you’ve worked with Kudokan, what did you think when you heard about the drama?

Ryo: I was happy to be invited back even though I had left a big organisation, and I wondered if I had done a good enough job when I work with them before to make them think about inviting me back, without giving it a second thought. So I was of course happy to be invited back, and that is why I felt I had no choice but to respond to the invitation to the best of my ability.

Q: how did you feel after reading the script?

Ryo: It was very interesting. I heard that it was written by two people, Oishi Shizuka-san & Kudo-san, but I didn’t know who was writing which part. I mean, it was amazing that those two could write such a coherent script, and I thought it was also amazing that Isoyama-san (the producer) put it all together.

About Yakudzukuri (T/N: It is the act of becoming and concentrating on the role played by the actor in a drama or movie through study & preparation)

Ryo: There are people who say, "I don't need Yakudzukuri ". I think that's cool. I think it is necessary to include the minimum necessary knowledge, & if there is a scene where you are riding a horse & you are supposed to be an expert rider, you have to be able to ride a horse in an absolutely convincing manner, but I don't know if I would call it Yakudzukuri or not. I think it's just a question of whether or not I'm able to respond to such requests. If I were doing a performance completely on my own, I might have to think about all sorts of things.

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You can't tell whether a person is having a hard time or not just by your standards. Talking with Ryo Nishikido about his tv drama.

-The only thing I'd say to actor Ryo Nishikido is "Congratulations?" Welcome back?"-

As it is your first TV drama appearance in four years since becoming independent. ...... Congratulations? Welcome back? What kind of words do you feel comfortable being called?

Nishikido: Anything is fine (laughs). But it's not like it was my goal to be in a drama, so when people say 'congratulations', it might seem a bit strange. It's not a negative feeling. I am simply happy to be congratulated.

However, for me, I need to focus on how I can reach the audience, rather than being satisfied with the environment I've been provided. So the news of my performance is not the goal, but I hope that people will see my work.

I heard that you decided to appear in the film as soon as you read the script. What was the deciding factor?

Nishikido: First of all, I was happy that I was offered the role at this point in my life. I was also attracted by the script, which depicted a fascinating protagonist and her family. From the outside, the family looks very difficult..... I just said "very difficult," but I feel sorry to use such a word to describe them.

It's difficult to put into words because it's an 'almost' true story based on a real family.

Nishikido: Yes. It's not a "We have a family like this, so let's all do our best" story. For me, I just wanted to be there like a piece of the puzzle to make the drama work, without giving it a strange meaning. That's all I wanted to do.

-“A Powerful Family” are the result and what others think-

I think one of the themes of this work is not to judge other people's "happiness" or "unhappiness" based on one's own standards.

Nishikido: I think so. Nanami (the main character) lost her father when she was in junior high school, and her mother is now paralyzed in her lower body after a major life-and-death surgery, and she is also concerned about her mentally handicapped younger brother and elderly grandmother.

If I just heard that, I think I’ll want to say, "You've worked very hard," or "You did great”. But there is a part of me that thinks, "What is that all about?” I wonder if I can tell if someone is having a hard time or not by my own criteria, or if I can give them the words they want to hear. I think it is important to imagine how you would like to be treated and how you and the other person are different.

That’s right.

Nishikido: I think the Kishimoto family in the drama is a family that is looking firmly forward despite their complicated circumstances. But I think that is also a result. They are all just living their lives to the fullest to their best of their ability. When a third party like us look at them from the outside, we think they were a powerful family.

In the end, it's not about how other people categorise them. It's all about how each of us perceives things. The Kishimoto family doesn't think, "We are doing this because we want someone else to be this way".

It is up to each person to decide how they feel about the drama

Nishikido: Of course, the intention of the production is the intention of the production, so it is up to the scriptwriter and director to decide how they want to deliver the drama and what kind of feelings they want to put into it. All I can do is fulfil my role in the drama.

-Now I go straight to the hospital-

I would also like to ask about Mr Nishikido himself. You are the same age as Kosuke, the father of the Kishimoto family, whom you played, and I think you have more responsibility now that you are independent. Has your awareness of your own health care changed in any way?

Nishikido: I think it's time to take better care of my health, but I haven't managed to change my lifestyle. The only exercise I do is occasionally going golfing with friends or doing yoga at home while watching YouTube. I eat more than before, but rather than being very particular about what I eat, I've changed my mindset to eat three meals a day. I go to the hospital earlier now. Before, I used to take it lightly and think, "I don't need to go to the hospital for this," but now I go immediately if I feel something is wrong.

How about sleep?　

Nishikido: If I want to do something, I spend more time on that than on sleep. I live my life according to my desires.

That sounds like a good way to avoid unnecessary stress.

Nishikido: I sleep when I'm tired.

What is the synergy between your music career and acting?

Is there any kind of synergy between your musical activities and acting? For example, by simulating someone else's life, you get inspiration for your creation (of music).

Nishikido: No there isn’t

Instant answer!

Nishikido: I have wished I could do that, but I am not skillfull enough to do so. I've had the experience of getting ideas from films and books, or having a refresher, but I don't have that kind of experience with the films I've been in. I guess I can't look at it objectively, or it's a different thing.

I see. When I read the lyrics of your music, I got the impression that you value what you are feeling at that moment. That's why I predicted that your resolution for "family" might have increased during this shoot.

Nishikido: that’s right. I think there is something that accumulates in a latent place through participation in a work. I guess that is something that naturally accumulates when a man named Ryo Nishikido is living, right?

It means that it comes out only after you acquire it as your own language.

-I want you to remember even the most casual scenes.-

I will return to the subject of the interview again. Kosuke is a mysterious figure that appears in the play even though he is dead. Can you give us a few hints as to how he will be involved in the story?

Nishikido: Kosuke appears in some scenes where you don't know whether he is there or not, or in family reminiscences. There is also foreshadowing in the drama; for example, a scene used in the first half of the episode comes up a few episodes later, and you know that behind that smile, he was thinking about this. By watching all the episodes, you can get a sense of depth. So I hope you will remember even the most casual scenes.

Do you have any expectations for the viewers of ‘Kazokazo’?　

Nishikido: Ideally, it would be nice if I could create some time to talk about my impressions with my family. If we live far away from each other, it would be nice to make a few phone calls.

At my age, I realize that neither I nor my parents will live forever. The Fuji Cemetery, where we went on location this time, was just at the time when the cherry blossoms were at their best. While watching the cherry blossoms, I thought about my parents. I wanted to talk to them as parents about how they want to live in the future.

You think about the time you spend with your parents, don't you? Especially when you live apart from them.

Nishikido: Yes. There are things we should talk about, and I would like to ask them about wishes that can be fulfilled while they are still able to. You can only do that while they're still alive.

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Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta episode 10

Nanami & the ghost of Kosuke have a tearful heart-to-heart talk. As she pets her father's head, tears fall from his eyes.

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Nishikido Ryo 2023.05.10 Kazoku ttenandesuka? (家族って何ですか)

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Nishikido Ryo

Kazokudakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazokudatta (2023)

Behind the scenes photos of Ryo during the filming of his drama