Production press conference of "Fumou Chitai"

The production press conference of "Fumou Chitai" was held on 4 October 09 where cast members Karasawa Toshiaki, Wakui Emi, Koyuki, Harada Yoshio, Yanagiba Toshiro, Abe Sadao, Endo Kenichi, Amami Yuki, Takenouchi Yutaka and Hashizume Isao made their appearances. The drama will begin on 15 Oct and stretch over 2 seasons in the Thursday 9pm slot.

The story is based on a novel by Yamazaki Toyoko about Iki Tadashi, a staff officer in the army who was detained in Siberia after WWII and later became a famous businessman. It is said that Iki was written to reflect the life of Itochu's late CEO Sejima Ryuzo. This is the 2nd time that Karasawa is acting in a story based on Yamazaki's novel and he remembered how she remarked that he had the guts to take on the challenge. As such, Karasawa mentioned that he was wondering how Yamazaki would react to this 2nd attempt to act in her story.

Filming began in the middle of August at New Zealand where Karasawa had to film scenes of Ichie being detained in Siberia. To look the role, he tried many ways to lose weight including drinking Chinese medicine and he lost 7 kg to reach the weight of 56kg. Now, his weight has rebounded by about 2 to 3 kg.

During the press conference, members of the cast also took turns to poke fun at Karasawa's small face where Abe Sadao started with mentioning that Karasawa's face was small. With response to that, Amami Yuki also commented jokingly that she didn't like to stand beside Karasawa because it made her face look bigger. Even Karasawa's longtime partner Wakui Emi who last acted with him 15 years ago in "Imouto Yo" remarked that Karasawa is very slim and has a small face thus she has to try very hard to make sure she doesn't look like an old woman beside him.