Kusanagi Tsuyoshi to star in new FujiTV / Kansai TV Winter 2017 drama "Uso no Sensou"

Kusanagi Tsuyoshi will be starring in the new FujiTV / Kansai TV Winter 2017 drama "Uso no Sensou" (The war of lies) which will be shown in January next year in the Tuesdays 9pm timeslot. Filming is set to begin from the middle of next month to March 2017 and this is Kusanagi's first solo project since the disbanding of SMAP on 31 Dec.

"Uso no Sensou" is the second installment in the revenge series following the first part "Zeni no Sensou" also featuring Kusanagi which was shown in winter this year and achieved an average rating of 13.4%. It was said that the offer for this drama was made before SMAP's disband announcement in August this year. The same crew will be responsible for the new drama which is an original story featuring Kusanagi in the lead role of Ichinose Koichi who is a fraudster out for revenge as his father killed his mother and younger brother before committing suicide when he was 9 years old. However, the truth was that this was an engineered murder and Koichi had seen the culprit. Despite so, the police did not believe his words and let the real murderer get off scott free. 30 years later, he meets the murderer overseas and pledges to take revenge for all those who were responsible for his family's death. He will also be caught in a love triangle with his female fraudster partner and a doctor who is the daughter of a large company's president who happens to be one of the people he wants to take revenge on.

With regard to playing a fraudster, Kusanagi commented that he is the type not good at lying as it will show on his face so he thinks that this is a chance for him to get better at lying. Of course, not all lies are bad as some are made with good intentions. As this is a story about taking revenge, he hopes that viewers will be able to get some stress relief through this fast-paced drama where the evil gets punished.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi