Ryuhei Matsuda and Shuichi Okita talk about the creation of this unprecedented detective drama

Matsuda Ryuhei: For me, being able to work with Okita this time was a stroke of luck (laughs).

Okita Shuichi: No way! That's an honor (laughs).

Matsuda: I was grateful to be asked to start a project from scratch, but at the same time I felt it would be difficult and tough. However, Okita-san was able to properly understand the rough image I had, and it felt like everything started to mesh well.

Okita: How did you get in touch with us in the first place?

Matsuda: Since Friday night dramas were in the mystery slot, I thought a detective story would be good. It's a job where you can interact with a lot of different people through cases, so I thought it would be easy to expand the story. At that planning stage, I happened to hear that Okita-san was also interested in detective stories.

We've worked together on two projects so far, and I really like his style of depicting human emotions in detail while also letting the story move forward in a way that is unique to fiction, so I asked him if he would be interested in working with me. I'm really glad we were able to work together.

Okita: Thank you very much. I had been advised by the staff around me to try making a film that involves guns, so I was somehow interested in detective and police stories. In the end, guns don't appear very often in this drama.

Matsuda: That's right, I asked for a detective who doesn't try too hard (laughs). I wanted a laid-back protagonist who doesn't chase the culprit or take action, but quickly solves the case and then strolls around the neighborhood, chatting with the people around him.

However, I thought it would be good to take it a step further to shape it into a story, so I added the setting of an inventor. I thought it would be good to avoid the hard-boiled aspects by solving the cases using his own inventions. When I seriously pitched this idea to Okita-san, he was surprisingly impressed.

Okita: It was a little different from what I had imagined, but it's typical of Matsuda, and I thought it would be interesting in its own way.

Matsuda: It's true that I myself wanted to solve cases in an easy way (laughs). But doing everything recklessly doesn't necessarily make it interesting, so I put my thoughts into it, thinking that it would be interesting if I could find passion without pushing myself too hard. Also, my father, Matsuda Yusaku, played the role of a hard-boiled detective in his signature work, "Detective Story," so I vaguely wanted to make something different from that.

A quirky development that gradually expanded with the invention

Matsuda: After I gave him a rough outline of my idea, Okita first suggested the title "Detective, Your Backpack is Open." At that point, I was impressed.

Okita: Even though he's a detective, he's distracted and has his back taken. I thought the title, which conveys a sense of contrast, was interesting.

Matsuda: I was happy that it turned out exactly as I imagined, and it gave me an even stronger sense of security that if I left it to Okita-san, I wouldn't go wrong. That's why I wanted to leave the script up to him as much as possible.

Okita: Matsuda-san first said to me something along the lines of "I want to see Okita go all out!", so I felt I had to respond to that with all my might...

Matsuda: Personally, I was just thinking that it would be interesting if there was some kind of outlandish element, like flying through the sky with a jetpack that I invented to catch the criminal, but when I read the first draft, it had taken a leap into fantasy with an invention that was even more fantastical than I had imagined (laughs). I just wanted to see it go as far as it could without me having to intervene.

Okita: With the motif of invention, I ended up playing around too much. However, of course, I also wanted to show Matsuda's role as a detective in the story. I adjusted the amount a little in the process of polishing it up.

Matsuda: While I thought it was interesting, I also had some anxiety about whether it would actually come to fruition (laughs), but all I could think about was what I needed to do to immerse myself in the world of the work while acting.

The only thing I wished for was for there to be some backstory for the main character. Even in a world where anything goes, I think it would be more enjoyable to watch if there was some realism in the fact that he had returned from America and was once a genius who had succeeded in researching how to turn people's malice and anger into energy.

While I wanted to make sure it wasn't too easy to understand, it's important that it's easy to understand to a certain extent since it's a drama. We had a lot of discussions about how to strike that balance.

Analogue photography that highlights the handmade feel of the invention

Matsuda: Even after filming began, I continued to wonder if it would really take shape (laughs). When I got to the set and asked Okita-san for more details about a scene that was described in the script as having a green screen and special effects, he replied, "I don't really know what's going to happen either." There were times when I panicked a little (laughs).

Okita: Well, there were a lot of things we had never done before! To highlight the "handmade" feel of the inventions, we wanted to create an atmosphere reminiscent of old special effects, so we filmed and composited almost entirely without using CG. Even the explosion scenes were done analogue. Every time, we faced it, wondering "what will happen?" I think it was extremely difficult for the art department, but I think the footage has a nostalgic feel to it.

Matsuda: Like Mitsuishi Ken and Okura Koji, the first thing all the actors who come to the set ask me is, "What is this drama?" They say, "I don't understand what it means" (laughs). I calm them down by saying, "I think it's fine the way it is" (laughs).

Okita: You even took care of the actors...!

Matsuda: In the end, once filming began, everyone naturally adapted to this world, and at the end they all said they had fun and left, which made me feel relieved.

Okita: The filming schedule was so tough that all the actors and staff were like kids who were tired from playing.

Will they team up again to play the role of a hard-working elite CEO?

Matsuda: This was my third time working with Okita, following the film "Mohawk Returns Home" and the drama "0.5 Man," and I really felt that he has a strong belief in craftsmanship. I had a lot of fun again this time.

Okita: What's interesting about working with Matsuda is that every time, it ends up being a collaborative effort in a good way. I think that's because Matsuda is always absolutely honest, and even though he's not playing a detective this time, he doesn't push himself too hard, and always listens to his own voice while working as an actor. The subject matter is completely different for each project, and I think there are challenges each time, but we can go beyond our respective roles as director and actor and sit down together and ask, "What should we do?" That's what I find fun about it.

Matsuda: Thank you. But when you think about it, we've always played laid-back roles together.

Okita: An unsuccessful band member, a shut-in...that's true (laughs).

Matsuda: In that case, I'd like to play an elite CEO in Okita's next work. This was the first time I've played a role where I work properly (laughs), so next time I'd like to work even harder.

Okita: I'd love to play a truly cool role next time.