THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 1, 2020 at 17:20 JST
Award-winning actor-dramatist Kankuro Kudo, best known for penning the screenplay of the 2001 movie "Go," has tested positive for the new coronavirus, his theater company said.
Kudo, 49, was confirmed infected the night of March 31, his company Otona Keikaku announced on its official website that evening.
Kudo has a fever, but shows no other virus-related symptoms, the company said.
Kudo, whose script for "Go" about a Korean-Japanese teenager took best screenplay at the 2002 Japanese Academy Film Prize awards, was undergoing treatment for pyelitis, inflammation of the lining of the renal pelvis, when he received the positive result of the test.
Kudo hosts the Monday edition of the live radio show ACTION that airs weekdays on TBS Radio. He was scheduled to do the show from 3:30 p.m. on March 30 but canceled after pain from pyelitis forced him to seek treatment.
Due to the spread of the virus, the company announced the same day that the April 2 opening night of its play “I can’t stand it” would be postponed until April 14.
Kudo wrote the script for, directed and will appear in the play scheduled to run at the Honda Theater in the Shimokitazawa district of Tokyo's Setagaya Ward.
“I never imagined I’d be infected with the virus. Even now, I can’t believe why I contracted it,” Kudo said in a statement on his company's website.
The shock of the diagnosis is compounded by the frustrating fact that the "dull pain in his lower back" from pyelitis that drove him to seek treatment has now vanished, he said.
The artist also apologized to fans who bought tickets for the canceled dates of the play and his actors, staff, and family, saying he felt he had "let them down."
"Fortunately, I still have enough physical strength to feel disappointed and cry and have no symptoms of pneumonia or common cold at least for now," Kudo said in the statement, adding he would focus on treatment for the virus so he could recover and "see everyone as quickly as possible.”
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Kankuro Kudo (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
