{"id":60916,"date":"2026-06-15T16:21:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=60916"},"modified":"2026-06-15T16:21:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:21:59","slug":"why-hirokazu-koreeda-paired-haruka-ayase-and-a-tv-comic-in-sci-fi-drama-sheep-in-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=60916","title":{"rendered":"Why Hirokazu Koreeda paired Haruka Ayase and a TV comic in sci-fi drama Sheep in the Box"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cChalk and cheese\u201d, \u201coil and water\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d were just some of the baffled reactions circulating among Japanese cinephiles when news broke that auteur Hirokazu Koreeda had cast A-lister Haruka Ayase and television comic Daigo Yamamoto as a couple in his latest sci-fi drama, Sheep in the Box<\/em><\/span>.<\/div>\n

Watching them enter one of the exclusive terraces of the Palais des Festivals et des Congres in Cannes, where Koreeda\u2019s film debuted at the French resort city\u2019s annual film festival last month, it is easy to understand the online commotion brought about by this curveball match-up.<\/p>\n

Omnipresent on Japanese magazine covers and advertising billboards, Ayase arrives in a striped, multilayered designer outfit clearly unsuited for the heatwave sweeping across France. This does not concern Yamamoto, who turns up in a snappy T-shirt and trousers.<\/p>\n

Ayase admits she was surprised when Koreeda, with whom she worked in 2015 for the family drama Our Little Sister<\/em><\/span>, told her who her on-screen husband would be. \u201cDaigo is a comedian,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I think the director wanted to put me alongside him, and then\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n

\u201cIn Japan, I think people do find us a very odd pairing,\u201d interjects Yamamoto, who is well known at home for his appearances as one half \u2013 the goofy half, no less \u2013 of the network television comedy duo Chidori.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might have something to do with [Koreeda] playing on our differences,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut when people actually watch the film, they will realise that we\u2019re not such an odd pairing after all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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SHEEP IN THE BOX Trailer – English subtitled<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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\u201cChalk and cheese\u201d, \u201coil and water\u201d and \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d were just some of the baffled reactions circulating among Japanese cinephiles when news broke…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[24777,3447,3157,8816,24776,22849,22850,6086,5469,15794],"class_list":["post-60916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-ayase","tag-box","tag-comic","tag-drama","tag-haruka","tag-hirokazu","tag-koreeda","tag-paired","tag-scifi","tag-sheep","wpcat-33-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}