You would think that the biggest challenge for an actor to play a sumo wrestler would be the actual wrestling. But for Shono Hayama, star of new Disney+ Hotstar Japanese series Sumo Do, Sumo Don’t, his main concern during the shoot was making sure he did not have any wardrobe malfunctions while donning the traditional mawashi that sumo wrestlers wear.
“It was the first time I was wearing the mawashi. It was very painful, and I had to be careful all the time to make sure I didn’t expose anything!” he said with a laugh during a virtual interview from Japan alongside co-star Rikka Ihara.
A sequel of sorts to the 1992 hit movie of the same name, this new series stars Shono Hayama as Ryota, a slacker student who spends his days playing video games.
When he finds out that he lacks the necessary credits needed to graduate university, he reluctantly joins the Kyoritsu University sumo club in order to make up for those missing credits.
There, he meets Honoka (played by Rikka Ihara), the sumo club’s sole member and captain. The university’s sumo club used to have a proud history of wrestlers, but has fallen into ruin.
With at least five members needed to enter the club into a tournament, Ryota and Honoka manage to convince a bunch of misfits to join the club, including video game addict Shun (Himi Sato), middle-aged male ballerina Ren (Ryo Takahashi) and conceited bodybuilder Yuma (Atsushi Mori).
The show also features appearances from the cast of the original movie, including Naoto Takenaka, Misa Shimizu, Hiromasa Taguchi, Naomasa Musaka, and Akira Emoto.
During our exclusive interview, Shono and Rikka talked about the challenges of filming a show about sumo despite not being sumo wrestlers themselves.
According to Shono, the cast trained in the basics of sumo, from the shiko (which involves large stomps designed to train the lower half of the sumo wrestler’s body) to the teppo (an exercise that involves slapping a wooden pillar slapped repeatedly).
“We all went through the training, but I think it was more challenging for Rikka because her character has to be the best of the group,” he said.
“The director wanted Honoka to have the ability to perform shiko well, not just because she is female,” Rikka recalled. “So I put everything into it. I put in a huge effort so my shiko would look cool to the viewers.”
In terms of training, the cast worked on the sumo training together, but Rikka also spent two months building her body in order to be able to play the role.
She also went to watch real life female sumo wrestlers in action, and was surprise at how different it was from the male ones.
“Male sumo wrestlers are very dynamic. But what’s different with female sumo wrestling is the speed and the technique that they use to win,” she mused. “I think that is a very appealing part of female sumo wrestling, so I wanted to convey that (in my character) as well.
Still, for her, the main challenge was the fact that Honoka is more serious while she tends to laugh quite easily in real life.
“My character doesn’t show emotions very well, so I had to rein in my laughing a lot!” she said.
Although he had seen the original film before, Shono decided not to revisit it when preparing for the role.
“This was deliberate, because I didn’t want that pressure, and I wanted to make something new for this show instead,” he said, adding that despite the physical challenges, he was quite confident about playing the novice sumo wrestler Ryota.
“I somehow knew I would be able to do this character justice. I don’t know where that confidence came from, that’s just how I felt!” he said.
Sumo Do Sumo Don’t is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar
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