Higashiyama Noriyuki to star in TV Tokyo drama SP "Kajitsu no nai mori"

Higashiyama Noriyuki will be starring in the TV Tokyo drama SP "Kajitsu no nai mori" (The forest without flowers and fruits) which is based on the same-titled novel by Matsumoto Seicho and will be shown within 2017. Although this was made into a movie in 1965, this is the first time that the novel is adapted in a drama and the time setting will be changed to the current era.

Higashiyama plays the role of Umeki Ryusuke, a creative planner working in a IT company who happens to meet a mysterious beautiful woman Eto Miyuki and her male companion while returning from a drive as they try to hitch a ride from him. However, he finds out that the man died suddenly in a strange way while getting increasingly obsessed with Miyuki. When he realises later that the men around her die one after another under mysterious conditions, Umeki sets out to find the truth out of fear for his own safety.

As this will be the third time that Higashiyama is appearing in a Seicho work (the previous works were 1995's "Yakou no Kaidan" and 2004's "Shougen"), he felt that this drama had come at the right time given his current age. In the story, although Umeki and Miyuki aren't young people, their intense relationship is like a first love for both of them so Higashiyama described this as similar to "Romeo and Juliet".

Sources: Nikkansports / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon / Eiga.com