‘We looked like we were about to die’: Tao Tsuchiya recalls favourite moment in Alice in Borderland 2

Filming on top of the tallest building in glitzy Shibuya sounds absolutely glamorous, unless it’s at 5am and you’re sleep-deprived.

Nevertheless, in a recent interview with regional media that AsiaOne attended, Tao Tsuchiya fondly remembered it as being one of her favourite memories while shooting Alice in Borderland 2.

“The crew was obviously sleepy at that time,” the Japanese actress said, “and we actors were dressed in drabs and we looked like we were about to die any minute — at that moment, for whatever reason, we burst out laughing.”

She said that the crew members didn’t understand why but the actors, faced with such a tough world they had to portray in the show, couldn’t help but laugh.

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Alice in Borderland follows the titular Ryōhei Arisu (Kento Yamazaki), a lazy gamer who gets transported to the Borderland, an apocalyptic world where he and his friends are forced to play games to survive.

Season two of the popular manga-turned-live action thriller airs Dec 22 on Netflix.

While Tao, 27, is known for being a proficient action actress due to her roles in season one of Alice in Borderland and the Rurouni Kenshin movies, she had to make her action sequences less impressive to play Yuzuha Usagi, a young woman who has lost her father.

“She’s a character who has never experienced martial arts or combat, so when she’s in combat, her movements can’t look too cool. Instead of accomplishing cool action sequences, I always wanted to put her emotions behind her manoeuvres,” Tao explained.

She also noted how Usagi developed from season one to two.

“By meeting Arisu, Usagi’s emotions become richer,” Tao said.

She said that Usagi was initially aloof and disappointed in society, but upon meeting Arisu, Usagi realises she “cares about other people and experiences her first love”.

“Usagi was in solitude in the past but then her [emotional] wounds start to open up and she shows her vulnerabilities, anxieties and doubts,” Tao said, having to balance the action with the emotional aspects of her role.

She added: “I don’t think of Usagi as just a strong character; what I like about her is that she also has her weaknesses. She develops this feeling of love [for Arisu] and because of that, I wanted to portray her with a sense of love.”

What to expect from season two

Tao reckoned that, in the two years since season one, the cast has become more mature and “calmer” than before.

“When we were shooting season one, we had this feeling of wanting to survive in the entertainment business, so we had a sense of impatience while shooting it,” she said. “But when it came to season two, we were a lot calmer.

“We chatted about what kind of show we’d like to create or be a part of, talking about our new hobbies. We talked about how we’d like to create a great show [with Alice in Borderland season two] instead of thinking, ‘We have to do this’ or ‘We have to create this in a certain way’.”

She also weighed in on whether Alice in Borderland season two would be different from the manga and the difficulties in adapting manga to live action.

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“We want to be faithful to the original manga but once a manga is turned into 3D or live action, you can't really bring that message straight onto this format,” she said. 

“We had our facial expressions and whatnot, and those could differ and not directly be in line with the original manga’s perspective. While we tried to act naturally, we always thought of what the meaning was in between the lines or dialogues, and we were very careful.”

Nevertheless, she teased that season two of Alice in Borderland would be “even more enjoyable” due to the larger scale of the production and better graphics.

She said: “They created a world I could never have imagined.” 

And what kind of games will season two introduce?

“I think it’s about 50-50 in terms of psychological games and physical games,” Tao said.

Alice in Borderland 2 also features Nijiro Murakami, Akaya Miyoshi, Dori Sakurada, Aya Asahina, Sho Aoyagi and Riisa Naka. 

Alice in Borderland 2 streams on Netflix starting Dec 22, 2022.

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