Kiritani Mirei takes on first leading role in NHK drama SP "Tsui no Sumika"

Kiritani Mirei will take on her first leading role in a NHK drama SP "Tsui no Sumika" which is due to be shown on 20th July and 27th July at 10pm. The drama which is based on the novel by Senkawa Tamaki, features Kiritani as a newbie journalist Asakura Tomoko who works in the society news department of a news company and holds a MBA from an American university. Despite her shining credentials, Tomoko finds that she is great at handling numbers but often cannot find the correct expressions to describe the people she interviews and has little interest to improve in this regard. Tomoko is so full of herself that she refuses to think that she is lacking as a reporter until her boss labels her as one. In order to erase this perception of her, Tomoko goes to interview people receiving in-house nursing care and their families which leads her to realise how tough their circumstances are. Just then, a series of strange deaths involving those receiving the nursing care at home leads Tomoko and her senior to try to find out the truth.

Kiritani recounted on the filming which had been completed that she never realised the situation of in-house nursing care in Japan and the issues faced by those giving and receiving such services. She was grateful that she has the experience of being a reporter for NTV's NEWS ZERO so she could utilise that when talking to the elderly she had to interview in the drama.

Co-stars include Okada Yoshinori, the care manager who draws up the nursing care plans and tells Tomoko about the issues faced in this line of work, Kato Toranosuke, Tomoko's senior at work and Hiraizumi Sei who plays the doctor giving Tomoko information about the nursing industry which she knows little about.

Source: Sanspo