Production press conference of TV Asahi Winter 2017 drama "Shuukatsu Kazoku ~ Kitto, umaku iku ~"

The production press conference of TV Asahi Winter 2017 drama "Shuukatsu Kazoku ~ Kitto, umaku iku ~" was held on 4 January which was attended by cast members Miura Tomokazu, Kuroki Hitomi, Maeda Atsuko and Kudo Asuka. The drama which begins its run from 12 January in the Thursdays 9pm timeslot, features Miura as the lead character Tomikawa Yosuke, the HR director of a big company, leads an ordinary life with his wife Mizuki (Kuroki Hitomi) who is a Japanese language teacher at a private junior high school, his elder daughter Shiori who works at a jewellery manufacturer and Hikaru who is about to graduate from university. However, things start to spiral out of control when Yosuke is retrenched by his company, Shiori quits due to sexual harrassment issues at her workplace and Hikaru cannot find a permanent job yet. This causes the family to be looking for employment at the same time which makes them rethink the meaning of work and what kind of future they want for themselves.

The drama's filming began in mid November and the footage up to episode 3 was finished when one of its cast members Narimiya Hiroki suddenly announced his retirement from showbiz on 9 December. As a result, Watanabe Dai took on his role at the last minute. With regard to this development, Miura commented that thanks to everyone's hard work, it had not affected the filming progress. The general producer Uchiyama Satoko revealed that Narimiya had filmed about 4 scenes but they managed to redo those scenes and have finished up to episode 6 by now. When asked if there was any kissing scene between her and Narimiya as they played lovers in the drama, Maeda revealed that the story had not developed to that stage yet then so the kissing scene will be filmed with Watanabe instead.

As for taking on his first leading role in 17 years, Miura commented that he was honoured to be given such an opportunity even though he's already in his mid 60s and isn't as strong as he was 17 years ago. However, since the script is very interesting, he decided to try his best in the end even if it is tough on him physically. When asked about his 37-year-long marriage to Yamaguchi Momoe, Miura said that they have become like air to each other where they will need each other to live on. As for how he spent his New Year holidays, he revealed that he had caught a cold while cleaning his house and yet still did not recover even when he abstained from alcohol during this period. Meanwhile, Kuroki revealed that she spent the holidays with her family and also played golf.

When asked about their goals for the new year, Maeda answered that she wants to be healthy since she was having a fever as high as 38 degrees Celsius when they were shooting the poster. This made Miura tease her for being like an old woman to wish for something like this even though Maeda is still so young. As for her character Shiori, Maeda said that she tends to rely too much on her parents but she hopes that the viewers would not dislike her for that.

Sources: Oricon / Nikkansports / Sanspo