I was recently involved with a play called "Kyujukyu-sai made Ikita Akanbo" (The baby who lived to age 99), contributing an essay for its program and emceeing post-show talks. The play's run ends in Osaka on Saturday.
I decided to write about the show in this column initially because five of the six featured actors have taken part in tokusatsu sci-fi superhero dramas.
The protagonist is played by Ryota Murai, who appeared in "Kamen Rider Decade" as the character Yusuke Onodera who transforms into Kamen Rider Kuuga. The other four are Ryo Matsuda from "Kamen Rider Gaim"; Ryoma Baba from "Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters"; Shota Matsushima from "Kamen Rider Drive"; and Kenji Matsuda from "Kamen Rider Hibiki."
The sixth cast member, Yuki Tamaki, has never appeared in a tokusatsu drama -- though it seems almost strange he hasn't, because he's often performed onstage with actors who have tokusatsu backgrounds.
This tokusatsu connection of the cast members was the first reason for my involvement in this production. But when I saw the performance, I became convinced that it deserved an article for this column for yet another reason: The play tells the story of a hero who creates his own life and fights for it until the end.
Just as the title suggests, this two-hour play portrays a baby's birth and follows his life until he dies at age 99. Coming into the world crying, the protagonist grows up little by little, falls in love and sometimes encounters challenges. Despite his suffering, he finds his life's work, meets his wife, has a family and creates his livelihood. He experiences success and failure while also at times facing family trouble. The six actors play out his life, which is really just like anyone else's.
When the protagonist turns 99 and goes to heaven, he meets the gods who have watched over his life.
Throughout the play, I strongly felt that everyone is the protagonist of his or her own life, and how important it is to be aware of this simple truth.
Today, it has become a matter of course for us to be linked with people all over the world via the internet, and social media enables us to keep in touch with friends uninterrupted. I have a feeling that under such circumstances we tend to forget what is taken for granted: living your life well.
Maybe we're becoming too eager to pursue things that look good on Instagram or earn many "likes" on Facebook, as if we're trying to live a life that earns "likes" from others, rather than living our own lives well.
Because I was musing about this topic, this story of a man who, despite being ordinary, follows his own inner thoughts and simply lives his life gave me a good wallop that woke me up.
The play is based on a novel by Hitonari Tsuji, who also wrote the script and directed the production. His words, heard in the auditorium before the curtain goes up, sum up the work: "Your life is yours."
This story of a true hero, performed by people who once played heroes in tokusatsu dramas, is not set in any particular time, place or nationality. It's a powerful work that I hope will be performed all over the world.
Suzuki is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior specialist and an expert on tokusatsu superhero films and dramas.
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