More about Arashi’s 24Hr TV specials

Jun Matsumoto is turning into a brass band conductor, Sho Sakurai a soccer player, and Kazunari Ninomiya has just finished shooting his drama on the edge of a 20 metro cliff for this year’s 24 Hr TV, reports Sports Hochi, Sponichi Annex, Sankei Sports, and Nikkan Sports on June 10.

 

“２４時間テレビ３５『愛は地球を救う』(24Hr Television / Love Saves the Earth’)” is being hosted by Johnny’s group Arashi this year, and new details about their special programs have been revealed.

 

Matsumoto will conduct the brass band at a high school in Ishinomaki, a town devastated by last year’s tsunami.  It has been reported Matsumoto had no plans to conduct at first.  The band had been invited to perform in Tokyo’s Budokan, where the 24Hr TV special will be aired from, to express their gratitude to everyone who has supported their community and to tell people they are doing their best to rebuild their lives.  But after Matsumoto had visited the school in June, the students invited the Arashi member to lead them as they prepared for their Tokyo performance.  Having no conducting experience, Matsumoto has since been learning the fundamentals from Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado.

“He said the most important thing is to draw together all of the thoughts of each and every musician, become a part of their music-making, and to have fun.  I had also heard that after the tsunami, Sado-san had been involved with organizations which had donated instruments to their school.  Maybe it’s fate,” Matsumoto said.

 

Just north of Ishinomaki, a high school soccer team in Rikuzentakada had been invited by Sakurai and FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year Homare Sawa to play a match in memory of their team member Shiori Koyama.  It has been reported the Mizusawa UFC Princess player had a dream of becoming a World Cup soccer player but she was lost in the tsunami which hit Rikuzentakada on March 11, 2011.  Despite the fact Sawa and a number of her team mates were preparing for the London Olympics, the women’s soccer team INAC Kobe made time for a match against their juniors earlier this month.  Sakurai joined the Tohoku team as a special member as the two sides played off in a 30 minute match.

“It was incredible.  Even the heavy rain stopped while we were having the match.  I think Shiori-san was watching us,” Sakurai said.

News report of the match on TV

It has been reported over in Shizuoka prefecture, Ninomiya had been filming the climax scene to his special drama “車イスで僕は空を飛ぶ (Kuruma-isu de Boku wa Sora wo Tobu)”.  In the drama, Ninomiya plays a good-for-nothing teenager who gets in a fight which leaves him paralysed from the waist down.  Wanting to end his life, he drags himself and his wheelchair to the edge of a 20 metro cliff.  The cliff used in the scene had bad footing even for those who could walk, and so just in case, a rescue team and coast guard team were on standby during the shoot.

 

“You might see it as taking too much risk, but it was a decision made by all of the production staff to bring out the real meaning of this scene,” Ninomiya said.

News report of the shoot on TV

 

Here’s a link to where I got the screenshots: http://youtu.be/_RBvdZ0kLGw