Amami Yuki & Sasaki Kuranosuke to star in Yomiuri TV 60th anniversary drama SP "Tensai wo sodateta nyoubou ~ Sekai ga mitometa suugakusha to tsuma no ai ~"

Amami Yuki and Sasaki Kuranosuke will be starring in the Yomiuri TV 60th anniversary drama SP "Tensai wo sodateta nyoubou ~ Sekai ga mitometa suugakusha to tsuma no ai ~" (The wife who nurtured a genius ~ the love between an internationally-recognised mathematician and his wife ~) which will be shown in spring next year. This will be the first time in 11 years that they had worked together since "Rikon Bengoshi".


Sasaki plays the mathematics genius Oka Kiyoshi while Amami plays his wife Michi who supported Kiyoshi as he devoted himself to the study of mathematics from the Taisho to Showa eras. Kiyoshi was born in Osaka and later went to France for further studies. He then spent about 15 years researching the Hartogs Inverse Problem which went largely unnoticed because it was too difficult to understand by the Japanese academic world. However, when he started to earn accolades from the world for his work, Kiyoshi then became recognised in Japan and won the Cultural Medal in 1960. The story will describe Kiyoshi's life from Michi's perspective and the love they had for each other. Back in the 13th year of the Taisho era i.e. 1924, Michi who was 22, met Kiyoshi who was one year older and in the final year of Kyoto Teigoku University (currently known as Kyoto University). Although Michi thought of Kiyoshi as a weirdo who was a bit dirty, she fell in love with him when he helped to solve his elderly neighbour's loan problem with mathematics. The couple then got married in the 15th year of the Taisho era and Michi had to make ends meet and support Kiyoshi through all the hardships as her husband tried to achieve something in the field of mathematics which she couldn't even understand. Kiyoshi died in 1978 at the age of 76.

Amami described Michi as someone who was a strange person and didn't like ordinary things and said that the script projected her as someone who was innocent and cared for her husband wholeheartedly. As such, she found Michi to be such a wonderful woman and respected her a lot. On the other hand, as not many people know about the achievements of Kiyoshi, Amami said that it was a pity but hoped that this drama will be watched by many people so that they can be aware of how wonderful the Okas were. With regard to working with her good friend Sasaki who she calls as "Kura-chan", she commented that having become older and accumulated more experience over the years, she believed that they would be able to do some great acting in this drama. Especially since Sasaki is a charismatic actor and they can talk about anything between themselves, she felt that it was a reassuring thing to be acting with him.

Meanwhile, Sasaki said that having worked with Amami many times, he had total faith in her and felt that they were always able to have constructive conversations on how to improve their acting. Despite being the same age, Sasaki joked that he would follow Amami's lead as if she was his elder sister.

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