Families-only screening event for TBS Winter 2017 drama "Gekokujou Juken"

The families-only screening event for TBS Winter 2017 drama "Gekokujou Juken" was held on 8 January which was attended by cast members Abe Sadao, Fukada Kyoko and Yamada Mikuu. The drama which begins its run from 13 January in the Fridays 10pm timeslot, is based on a true story about how Sakurai Shinichi (Abe) who only has junior high qualifications, tries to help his only daughter Kaori (Yamada) to make it to a top-notch junior high school without going to a cram school even though her grades make this an impossible task. Fukada plays Sakurai's wife Kanako who also has junior high qualifications.

In the drama, Abe has quite a number of scenes where he gets beaten up e.g.he gets slapped by Fukada in the second episode. Recounting this, Fukada said that she had used so much strength in that scene for the first time in her 20-year-old  career and apologised to Abe about it. As Fukada is playing a mother to a 11-year-old girl for the first time as well, this has made her consider her own age and she hopes to learn a bit about how to be a mother through this drama.

Due to scheduling issues, the scenes involving the family were filmed at one go so Abe expressed his wish for them to have more scenes together. Fukada also echoed the view that they have got along very well like a family so she also hopes to spend more time together with their "daughter" Yamada.

Sources: Nikkansports / Yomiuri Hochi / Sponichi / Oricon