複数企業協賛（ツインリンクもてぎ、20世紀FOX映画、読売新聞） | Friend-Ship Project 第4弾 家族の絆「ゆうなの夏休み」 | 2008
"It's more interesting when you don't think so much about the client." Five minutes packed tight with life's bitter and sweet / Friend-Ship Project 4th Installment "Yuna's Summer Vacation"
A five-minute family story woven together by two fine actors, Nao Omori and Sachiko Sakurai. Apparently this was one of those reversed projects where the client is decided first, and then creators make a long-form commercial around them. This was the fourth installment of that project, and the density of it—packing in all of life's bitter and sweet—was really something.
The problem
Friend-Ship Project is a project that TV Tokyo and Dentsu started in 2007, making video works around the theme of "bonds," sponsored by multiple companies across different industries. Unlike a normal commercial, the client is decided first, and from there a long-form short drama is produced—an interesting reversal of the usual process. This particular piece was sponsored by Twin Ring Motegi, 20th Century Fox, and The Yomiuri Shimbun, and aired in July 2008.
The idea
Built around the theme of family, it cast two actors with real skill, Nao Omori and Sachiko Sakurai, and was made in both a 90-second version and a special 300-second (five-minute) version. Using Kazumasa Oda's song "Kimi Sumu Machi e" ("To the Town Where You Live"), it quietly spun out a family story drawn from life itself. The screenplay was by Shinya Nakajima, and the director was Tadashi Tsukagoshi.
Afterthought
"It really is a bit of a sad truth that things turn out more interesting when you don't think so hard about the client"—I honestly feel that's true. Of course you don't know exactly what the product is, and what exactly is being marketed stays vague. But maybe that's precisely why the people making it can focus purely on making "a good drama." And the result is footage that stays with people. It's an ad, and yet it isn't. I think it was that kind of freedom that let the fine actors' performances really shine, and that let the series keep producing work of a consistently high level.
