Completion press conference of NHK Sendai drama "Katsuo"

The completion press conference of NHK Sendai drama "Katsuo" was held at NHK Broadcast Centre in Tokyo on 11 December which was attended by the cast members Otomo Kohei, Ashina Sei and Umezawa Tomio. The drama which will be shown via NHK on 18 December at 7.30pm, is set at a seaside town in Sanriku where Otomo plays a former fisherman Takeo who lost his wife (Suzuki Kyoka) due to the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Filming was done from early October over a one-month period and the local residents also took part as extras in the drama.

As Otomo was born in Miyagi Prefecture and had spent his university days in Sendai, he was moved by the proposal from NHK Sendai and decided to take part in the drama without hesitation. Similarly, Umezawa who hails from Fukushima, commented that he would probably not have agreed to take part in the drama if not for NHK Sendai. Although Ashina is also from Fukushima, she will play a woman who comes from Fukuoka in the drama thus offering a different perspective on how people who were seemingly not affected by the disaster actually were affected by it in one way or another.

In the later part of the drama, Otomo named the scene where he had to watch his wife's car being retrieved from the sea two years after the disaster and it was an extremely memorable one to film it with the actor who plays his son.

Source: Sponichi