As the family is a fan of Miura Haruma (三浦春馬), we decided to make a trip to Tsuchiura Central Cinemas (土浦セントラルシネマズ; official Twitter account here) when we heard that it was organising an event where Director Yukisada Isao will be speaking together with the screening of the movie Five Minutes to Tomorrow (Chinese title 深夜前的五分钟; Japanese title 真夜中の五分前) which stars Miura Haruma.
We left early in the morning to drive to Tsuchiura and got there before 10 a.m. (the first show was at 11 a.m.) but there was already a queue from the cinema on the second floor stretching out of the building.
While waiting, we decided to explore Mall 505, where Miura Haruma's mother used to own a shop.
Since our previous trip, a new eatery opened here at the mall, dedicated to Miura Haruma.
Anyway, Five Minutes to Tomorrow was scheduled to show twice, with Director Yukisada speaking at both screenings.
We managed to get tickets for the second screening, which was delayed by more than an hour because the first session with the director took longer than expected.
Director Yukisada talked about the production of the movie, the reason why the script was changed from the original work to make it appeal to an international audience because he could not get funding in Japan to film the movie. He talked about the cultural differences between film making in Japan and China, how the actors/actresses have a different way of working. He talked about how Miura Haruma went about preparing for his role, his adaptability, and other episodes from the filming. He also disclosed that he actually approached Miura Haruma for his next film, but was turned down because of scheduling issues. Oh, and the scene in the movie where Miura Haruma and Cecilia Liu were teaching each other Mandarin and Japanese before they kissed, that scene was actually unscripted.
Quite by accident, I managed to win a round of rock-paper-scissors to get an autographed copy of the movie's flyer.
By the time the movie ended, it was quite late in the evening, so we had a quick snack at the nearby McDonalds' before driving back home. It was a long day with quite a bit of driving, but it was worth it because we were able to hear the director speak about his experiences with Miura Haruma.
Tsuchiura is where Miura Haruma was born and raised, and Tsuchiura Central Cinemas will continue to air Miura Haruma's movies as long as there are fans. That is the owner's promise to fans. I didn't expect that my second trip to the cinema would be less than two months from the first, but I am looking forward to the next trip there!
Note: The cinema asks fans visiting the cinema to take proper measures against COVID-19.
Update 14 June, 2021: The owner of the cinema has announced that, for future events, filming for personal use will no longer be allowed, as there were people who filmed past events and uploaded them to social media. Someone even uploaded to YouTube and monetised the video. These events are organised by the owner and the guest speakers based on goodwill, so it is really disappointing that there are fans who did not observe the proper etiquette. 😞
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