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26 Apr – "Bokura ga Ita Kouhen" leading actor Ikuta Toma and actress Yoshitaka Yuriko were nearly moved to tears at a stage greeting for the opening of the new film on 21 April.
According to Tokyo Hive, the two were deeply touched by the words of director Miki Takahiro, who expressed his true feelings when he read a 1,400 word letter he had written for them.
To Ikuta he said, "He's a very considerate person who always thinks of others before himself. Ikuta helped me many times."
Later, he had much to say about Yoshitaka:
"While there are many people who mask their real character in fear of getting hurt, she's the exact opposite. She's too upfront about her feelings and expresses them too much for an actress."
"She isn't able to filter her own feelings and I think that this honesty of hers must have caused a lot of misunderstandings and caused her to be hurt many times."
"However, it's also that outpour of Yoshitaka's emotions which allows a fable-like character, like that of a shoujo manga to come to life," he said.
Takahiro ended that he felt very grateful to have worked with the two actors and that he would treasure the memory for the rest of his life. Things weren't easy on the set for "Bokura ga Ita Kouhen", as Ikuta revealed that he had suffered skin problems during the shoot.
Yoshitaka tried very hard to avoid shedding tears after the letter and refused to let the reporters present to take a picture of her with tear stains.
"Crying in front of the reporters and getting pictures taken of your (tear-stained) face, how frustrating that would be. They'd write headlines such as 'Director's letter made Yoshitaka cry'... This is why I'll express my true feelings in front of the director afterwards," she said, before asking someone else to speak before she really broke into tears.
"Bokura ga Ita Kouhen" is the second part to the movie adaptation of the manga that has sold 12,000,000 copies. The first part of the movie "Bokura ga Ita Zenpen" was released on 17 March and has already grossed 2,200,000,000 Yen (approximately SG$33,700,000).
