A screening of "ABUDEKA Is Back!!" was held on Friday, November 22, from 3:00 p.m. at NTT Credo Hall No. 1. The film screened this time was a barrier-free version with narration explaining each scene and subtitles for the dialogues.

The film depicts the activities of Toshiki TAKAYAMA (portrayed by Hiroshi TACHI) and Yuji OSHITA (portrayed by Kyobei SHIBATA), who opened a detective agency in New Zealand after retiring, but were deprived of their detective licenses after getting into trouble with a police officer, and returned to Yokohama after eight years. The story is full of action scenes as various cases intertwine with each other.

After the screening, Director Hiroto HARA took the stage, who made his feature film debut with this work. The event was facilitated by freelance personality Michita KIMURA.

Director HARA won the Grand Prix at the 2012 DAMAH Film Festival, the predecessor to the Hiroshima International Film Festival (HIFF). The audience warmly applauded when Mr. Kimura made the introduction, "Director HARA is back!!" as Dir. HARA returned to HIFF for the first time in 12 years.

This film is a sequel to a Japanese popular TV drama series "Abunai Deka" which means `Dangerous Detectives', often shortened to ABUDEKA, aired between 1986 and 1987. Director HARA, now 37 years old, first came into contact with ABUDEKA, when he saw a rebroadcast of the drama series when he was an elementary school boy.

During the making of the film, he tried to look at the work objectively while referring to previous works. Considering the combination of existing and new elements, he retained the iconic music and action scene of ABUDEKA while adding his expression. Mr. KIMURA, who had seen the TV drama, commended the stylish logo and other elements are very well balanced.

He also revealed an anecdote about the two leading actors, Hiroshi TACHI and Kyohei SHIBATA. He said, “Whenever Mr. SHIBATA came up with some new ideas, he and Mr. TACHI had always practiced them together before coming to show them to the director.”

He said that their earnest attitudes had motivated him to create a good film to honor their hard work with meaningful results. When they talked about co-starring Mr. Taichi SAOTOME's convincing performance and Tao TSUCHIYA's charming appearance, the audience nodded their heads broadly.

When Mr. KIMURA asked about his future endeavors, Director HARA said that he had several film offers for the next year. He commented he would do his best to return to the HIFF stage with his new film, and the talk show ended with a loud applause from the audience.