Monday, December 12, 2016

Otani Ryohei & Mizuno Miki to appear in TV Asahi Winter 2017 drama "Ubai Ai, Fuyu"

Otani Ryohei and Mizuno Miki will be joining the cast of TV Asahi Winter 2017 drama "Ubai Ai, Fuyu" which stars Kurashina Kana as the lead. The drama which will begin its run from 20 January in the Fridays 11.15pm timeslot, is an original story written by Suzuki Osamu.

Kurashina plays the role of Ikeuchi Hikari who works at a design company. Although she was not raised in a rich family, she is a gusty and clever woman who is engaged to a rich guy and her junior at the same company Okugawa Kouta (Miura Shohei). Kouta quit his previous job when he found out that he got it through his family's connections and went to work at Hikari's company. Just when things seem to be going well for Hikari, she reunites with her former boyfriend who she used to love a lot and begins an intense affair with him even though he is married and she is engaged. As a result of this, Kouta becomes very jealous and becomes a different person when he realises that Hikari is drifting away from him.

Otani will be playing Hikari's ex-boyfriend Moriyama Shin (former surname Oda) who used to be Hikari's superior at work and had plans to get married with her. However, something unexpected cropped up and he initiated a breakup with her before disappearing. He lives in Fukuoka now after marrying his childhood friend Moriyama Ran (Mizuno) and works at a design company now. Due to a work assignment to Tokyo for three months, Shin gets to see Hikari again which re-ignites their romance. On the other hand, Ran has a strong possessive streak and would try to control her husband all the time especially when she is in a bad mood due to her right leg acting up after it was injured during an accident. She is described as a woman who is like a snake and would sneak up behind her prey in order to make sure she gets what she wants.

Otani remarked that he is currently acting in a light-hearted drama "Nigeru wa haji daga yaku ni tatsu" so he is looking forward to switch from that to an emotionally-heavy drama like this and will do his best to show the happy and painful sides of Shin. As this is the first time that he is playing a man who is so dependent and reliant on the women around him, he hopes to be able to show the sexy and dark sides of Shin as well. As for Mizuno, this is the first time that she is playing a baddie role like this who is so obsessed with the man she loves so the viewers will probably imagine her to be the one who will lead every character in the drama to a bad ending thus she hopes to be able to match that kind of expectation.

Other co-stars in this drama include Sakakibara Ikue who plays Misa i.e. Kouta's mother and loves her son so much that she keeps making trouble for Hikari, Kimura Midoriko who plays Maki i.e. Hikari's mother who wishes for her happiness, Miyake Hiroki who plays Takeda Gen, Hikari's superior and used to like her, Akimoto Sayaka who plays Toyono Hideko and pretends to be a good friend of Hikari while trying to snatch Kouta away and Darenogare Akemi who plays Onoue Reika, the childhood friend of Kouta and used to date him during their university days. Nishime Shun will play Shin's junior at work Kato Kiyoshi.

Sources: Sanspo / Oricon

4 comments:

junny said...

Not familiar with Otani Ryohei, so I don't know what to feel about this casting. But I don't like his look in that photo. Oh well, hope this will be decent.

Chiaki said...

Apparently, Otani is said to be the 2nd Dean Fujioka i.e. they made it big outside of Japan and were "reverse-imported" back to their home country. I don't quite remember seeing Otani in Korean dramas which I attribute to my limited exposure to this genre although it's been reported that he appeared in many Korean dramas and movies. The only impression I had of him recently was when he appeared in a promotional segment for "Nigehaji" and what struck me was how his Japanese seemed rather accented i.e. not quite what you would expect to hear from a native. Perhaps the years spent outside of Japan could have had an impact?

In any case, if you compare him to Miura Shohei, it's probably no wonder why the heroine would want to have an affair with her ex. Perhaps the drama wants to project Otani's character as a somewhat wild and mysterious person to lure the heroine while Miura's character seems relatively mild and bland at first before he flares up due to the jealousy consuming him. That could be why Otani is showing off his chest in this photo?

junny said...

Thanks Chiaki for the info. I'd rather they cast Dean Fujioka then, I much prefer his look! No issues with Otani's chest in the photo, rather it's his hair I don't like, heh. I don't think I've seen any of his Korean stuff, although he's starred in some decent productions.

I do agree he's a step (or several steps) up from Miura Shohei. Come to think of it, initially Otani reminded me of Takenouchi Yutaka, which I suppose isn't too bad, all things considered. I just hope his character won't end up shitty. I am hoping for a strong backstory between his character and the heroine's. Fingers crossed his character will be well-written - dang, I'm already rooting for him to end up with his ex!

Are you watching Nigehaji? Everyone seems to be raving about it.

Chiaki said...

I haven't watched Nigehaji yet but I did see the 45-min digest version for Eps 1 to 8 from TBS so in that sense, I have "watched" it. Will probably wait till the entire season is over before catching up.