OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

The filming? Yeah, I enjoyed it, though it was far more exhausting than I had expected. (It started at 12:30 and went on ‘til past 18:00 – on an extremely humid day!) Too bad Danny Glover wasn’t there. :( But we were able to see Ben Guillory and Saki Takaoka pretty close. We extras were there as the crowd watching yosakoi dance parade in the shopping arcade, and the actor and the actress walked right in front of us. Of course we were strictly told not to look at them or the camera. But knowing that the camera was following the actors, including us in the background, I couldn't help feeling a little excitement.

The guy who was in charge of the extras seemed so frustrated because many of us didn’t follow his instructions. No matter how many times he told us to line up in the arcade and stay in position to wait, pretty soon extras started gathering around the place where the stars were acting. The staff must have thought that Kochi locals were real pain in the ass. Hahaha… There are some excuses, though. The guy was certainly loud enough but sometimes not articulate enough, so those in the back of the crowd often did not understand the instruction. (I’m sure they didn’t care much even if they heard it clear, though.) Besides, maybe because the staff couldn't get the permission to shut out the regular passersby, the regular folks who walked into the arcade naturally got attracted by the actors/actresses and went straight to them, and kept aggravating the staff, I guess. Oh well. We are small town people, after all.

It was already past 6 pm when everything was over. They gave us this tote bag, which was nice. You might want to say, "All those walking-back-and-forth and waiting-in-terrible-humidity for just this tote bag?!" Right? Well, that's not all. When this movie is released, it will be "OUR" movie -- something we made together, something special. The shopping arcade will have a special meaning to those who got involved in this filming. Yeah, I guess being an extra for this movie gave a little special, different touch to the things I'm used to in my everyday life. And now I can't wait to see the movie! How would we be looking in the scenes? Oh, it's nice to have something to look forward to. :)