Actress Mana Ashida attended the opening day stage greeting for the film "Mystery Arena" (directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi) held in Tokyo on May 22nd. There was a moment where she expressed her enthusiasm for taking on action roles.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Reiichiro Fukamizu (Toshiaki Karasawa). With no one able to solve the seemingly insurmountable mystery questions, the prize money has swelled to 10 billion yen through a rollover. Six hand-picked contestants, confident in their deductive abilities, take on the challenge of solving the mystery: "A murder that occurred in an isolated mansion during a storm."
Ashida, who plays Ichiko, a genius girl who passed the preliminary round in first place, revealed the difficulties she faced in her role, saying, "Everyone's character was very unique, but Ichiko is more of a calm, reasoning type of character. I struggled with how to show inner strength so as not to be overshadowed by the power of everyone's acting."
When asked which character she would like to play besides the one she has played, Ashida named Gamble, played by Nobuyuki Suzuki, and commented, "I saw Mr. Suzuki's action scenes up close and they were so cool, so I thought it would be great if Ichiko could fight alongside him." She showed her enthusiasm by saying, "I'd like to try doing action scenes," to which director Yukihiko Tsutsumi responded, "If you had told me..."
In addition to Ms. Ashida and director Tsutsumi, the stage greeting was also attended by Toshiaki Karasawa, Toko Miura, Nobuyuki Suzuki Suzuki, Reina Triendl, So Okuno, Toru Nomaguchi, Tetsuji Tamayama, and Yuko Asano.
