MORE 01.2021 ~ Yamazaki Kento

 

etflix original series, “Imawa no Kuni no Arisu”, will be broadcasted world-wide. It depicts the story of Ryohei Arisu, the main protagonist played by Yamazaki Kento, who was thrown into a life-or-death game in a strange world.

Regarding the world-wide broadcast, Yamazaki commented with eyes glimmering with hope, “If I have to fight, I’ll gradually want to go to bigger stages. Now, I’m really excited about that.”

“I can say with confidence, ‘We have created such a great production!’,” he said about the reason why he felt that way.

“However, during the filming, there were times when I felt emotionally exhausted to play Arisu. He was participated in that game together with his best friends Chota and Karube. Looking at them, I think they both are ‘the only friends Arisu actually has’ and they have supported him to keep on living. But in the game, he has to weigh his options between ‘my own life’ or ‘my friends’ life’. To be able to understand his worry and mental state was honestly a painful job for me. Because it’s not a kind of emotion you would normally think about in your daily life. It makes me once again feel how having such duty makes a job as an actor so amazing.”

For Arisu, his friends who always support him are very important for him. Yamazaki also has such people whose existence is irreplaceable for him.

“He is a friend I met in my teens, a self-assured person who doesn’t get swayed easily by his surrounding. When I start to have negative emotions, he will clearly tell me, ‘That’s not good’. I think it’s not something anyone can do, so I feel really grateful to have him.”

Regarding such relationship he can continue having since his teens until now, 26-year-old Yamazaki said, “It’s something so precious for me that even though I think of starting something like that again now, I’m sure I can’t have something as good as that.”

“We did pranks together and we also had serious quarrels. I think I can experience all those things with him exactly because I knew him since my teens. I’m really grateful that I can grow older together with a friend I can trust. Well, I wonder if I can think this way because I’m now in my later half of 20s (laugh).”

The way he thinks of his job has also changed.

“Now, I’ve come to think of my job as something I can enjoy. There was time when I thought that ‘my life is nothing but working’ and I did my job really seriously, but to think that way made me feel that my job was something tough. Now I still face my job seriously like before though. But compared to my teens, now I’m getting better in relieving stress. It’s through all the simple things I have in my daily life, like enjoying the alcohol I drink or eating delicious food. I’ve come to realize that such little happenings can be so good for relieving stress!”