A barrier-free version of "Small, Slow but Steady" was screened on Sunday, November 26, from 10:30 a.m. at NTT CRED Hall No. 1, followed by a talk show by its chief producer, FUKUSHIMA Koichiro. KIMURA Michita, a freelance personality, hosted the event.

At the beginning of the show, Chief Producer FUKUSHIMA, a former Nagoya TV producer, said that although he had visited Hiroshima about 20 years ago as a production director for a gourmet TV program, this was the first time he had been to the Atomic Bomb Dome, and that he was very pleased to have been able to visit.

As a producer, Mr. FUKUSHIMA has been involved in Director KAWASE Naomi's "Sweet Bean" (2015), director FUKADA Koji's "Harmonium" (2016), and director HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke's "Asako Ⅰ&Ⅱ" (2018). He has sent numerous films to the Cannes International Film Festival.

This film, "Small, Slow but Steady" has also been screened at international film festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and the Pusan International Film Festival, and has also won many awards in Japan, including the Japan Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Inspired by the life of OGASAWARA Keiko, the author of the autobiography "Makenaide! (don't lose!)", director Miyake created a new fictional story and turned it into a film.

Speaking about the film, the director mentioned, "I wanted to depict not just a boxing film but also Keiko's daily life, focusing on the similarities between the feelings of confinement and impatience during the COVID-19 pandemic and the daily lives of individuals with hearing impairments." Regarding the choice of Director MIYAKE, he said, "I have seen his previous works and thought that he is a director who portrays people wonderfully, and I felt that he would be able to depict them in detail.”

He recalled that KISHII Yukino, who plays the lead role, is actually a very competitive and stoic actress, although she often plays fluffy roles on TV and in movies. "She was so absorbed in her role on the set that she would not respond to vocal calls and would only react when I tapped her on the shoulder."

The audience laughed when he told that the first take of the scene in which MATSUURA Shinichiro, who played the role of the trainer and was also Ms. KISHII's trainer, and Ms. KISHII hit mitts in the ring was so great that the director couldn't help but let out his voice, causing the first take to be ruined.

At the meeting with Ms. OGASAWARA, the original draft writer, Mr. FUKUSHIMA was shocked to hear that "hearing-impaired people cannot watch Japanese movies which do not have Japanese subtitles and watch only foreign movies," and he would like to increase the number of movies with Japanese subtitles in Japan.

The talk show ended with a round of applause as he spoke passionately about his desire to make the world a place where disabled people, from children to adults, can enjoy the film culture.