A comedy about a university student who falls in love with her friend’s father, Her Father, My Lover, was screened October 23 at TOHO CINEMAS Roppongi Hills as part of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival’s Japanese Cinema Splash section. Cast members Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Yukino Kishii, Wako Ando and Kei Ishibashi joined director Kenji Yamauchi to present the film at the event.
 
Her Father, My Lover is a romantic comedy about a girl who falls in love with her best friend’s father and creates an emotional vortex trapping those around her. University student Maya (played by Ando) confesses her love to the father (played by Fukikoshi) of her friend Taeko (played by Kishii). While Taeko’s mother (played by Ishibashi) laughs the confession off, her father secretly harbours romantic feelings towards Maya that are too much to hide. Taeko is appalled by her friend, but Maya begins to pursue her father in search of love.
 
Actor Fukikoshi solemnly contemplated his role, saying, “I have a daughter who is in her third year of middle school, so it’s only a few years until we might encounter a situation like this. It’s complicated, eh…” He quickly followed up with a joke for the audience, “But with my daughter’s friends, apparently I’m pretty popular now!”
 
Director Yamauchi reportedly wrote the roles especially for each individual cast member. Fukikoshi wasn’t completely displeased with his philandering father character, saying, “When people I know have seen the film, they say that the father character is really a terrible man. He’s got a wife, he’s got a mistress, and then he’s got this stuff going on with his daughter’s friend. To say the role was written especially for me is to say that I’m really that kind of guy. But if he thought that I suit that kind of thing, I feel a bit honoured.” Yamauchi gave Fukikoshi his stamp of approval, saying, “I wrote it that way because I really thought it fit you.”
 
Ando, whose character Maya falls in love with Fukikoshi, didn’t find her character quite as easy. “It was complicated… I did it because I thought the role would be a challenge for me,” she said with a thin smile. The film’s poster features Maya and Taeko laying atop Taeko’s father, the creation of which Ando said left an impression on her. “I had to put my full body weight on top of Mr Fukikoshi, who is my predecessor in the acting world. It was a pretty unusual situation so I was nervous,” she chuckled innocently, making Fukikoshi burst out in laughter.
 
Her Father, My Lover will be in theaters nationwide beginning December 19. The 28th Tokyo International Film Festival runs until October 31.
 

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