Press conference & screening event of new NHK drama "Okaasan, Musume wo yamete ii desuka?"

The press conference and screening event of new NHK drama "Okaasan, Musume wo yamete ii desuka?" was held on 5 January which was attended by the scriptwriter Inoue Yumiko and cast members Haru, Saito Yuki and Yagira Yuuya. The drama which begins its run from 13 January in the Fridays 10pm timeslot, describes how mother Akiko (Saito) and daughter Mizuki (Haru) are like best friends and lovers. The nature of their relationship does bother Mizuki's father Koji (Terawaki Yasufumi) but he is too busy with work to do anything about it. Just then, when the family is planning to build a new house, they meet Matsushima (Yagira) who is assigned to be in charge of their construction project. At first, both Akiko and Mizuki hit it off with Matsushima which leads Akiko to encourage Mizuki to date him. However, once Mizuki starts going out with Matsushima, she realises how she had been tightly controlled by her mother all this while and attempts to break free from this unhealthy relationsip between them. When Akiko realises what is going on, she resorts to extreme measures e.g. seducing Matsushima in order to get her beloved daughter back.

The filming of the drama took place near Nagoya between September and December last year as it is a NHK Nagoya production. When asked about the filming process, Haru recounted that it was a very intense and painful time because of the story which will keep everyone on tenterhooks. She also commented that thanks to Saito's acting, it has helped to make this a beautiful yet scary drama. Meanwhile, Saito said smilingly that she plays a really frightening mother in the drama and there were many emotional scenes between her and Haru which were quite draining mentally. In addition, she had to spend quite a bit of time at Nagoya and leave her three children at home so that made her feel quite bad at times. Although she cannot identify with her character's ways, Saito had tried her best to play the mother and hopes that everyone will like the drama. As for Yagira, he remarked that this was the first time that he was surrounded by a largely-female cast so he was quite happy during the filming.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi 1 / Sponichi 2