Kitamura Takumi & Mashima Hidekazu to play a gay couple in new FujiTV Winter 2018 drama "Tonari no kazoku wa aoku mieru"

Kitamura Takumi and Mashima Hidekazu will be playing a gay couple in the new FujiTV Winter 2018 drama "Tonari no kazoku wa aoki mieru" starring Fukada Kyoko and Matsuyama Kenichi which begins its run from 18 Jan in the Thursdays 10pm timeslot. The story features Fukada as the 35-year-old lead character Igarashi Nana who works as a scuba-diving instructor and is a cheerful person. In contrast, her 32-year-old Daiki (Matsuyama) who works as an employee in a mid-size toy manufacturing company, is a gentle but not very reliable guy. The couple finally buy a house in a cooperative housing estate where the families living there come together to give their views on various issues regarding their estate and try to reach a consensus. The move leads Daiki's mother (Takahata Atsuko) to expect the couple to be able to make some progress in starting a family but things do not go as they wish. In addition, even though they may not want to get close to their neighbours, the couple has to maintain friendly relations with them who have their own set of problems reflective of this era such as an once-divorced husband with his wife who doesn't want kids, a housewife who is bent on projecting a perfect image to everyone but her husband has resigned from his company and a gay couple who is thinking of having kids.

Mashima plays Hirose Wataru, a top-notch architect who was actually the one who designed the cooperative housing estate and is living there as well. However, Wataru tries to hide his identity as a gay until he comes to know Aoki Saku (Kitamura) and starts dating him. One day, Saku shows up without notice at Wataru's place so as to live with him which leads the latter to lie to his neighbours that Saku is his nephew rather than his lover. With regard to playing a gay man, Kitamura commented that although it is very challenging, he hopes to be able to assimilate into the role and do his best to play Saku. As for Mashima, he said that this is a very meaningful role for an actor and he's honoured to be given the chance to take this up. Since this is a type of character which he has never tried before, he is eager to see how things will turn out during the filming.

On the other hand, Matobu Sei and Nomaguchi Tooru will play a couple in the drama as well. Matobu's character Komiyama Miyuki is a housewife who strives hard to keep up pretenses so as to satisfy her vanity. She uploads photos of her meals on SNS every day and tries to show everyone how happy her family is. On the other hand, her husband Shinichiro (Nomaguchi) works at a trading company and finally manages to buy a house in the cooperative housing estate much to his wife's delight. However, just before they are about to move in, Shinichiro gets sick of being transferred to many places and his numerous business trips which leads him to resign. Miyuki is aghast to find out about this and tries to hide the fact that Shinichiro is without a job while remaining bent on projecting the image of a perfect family. Matobu described her character as someone who forces her will on others on the surface but is actually someone who has a delicate heart and can't help trying to put up pretenses. As such, she finds this role a welcome challenge for her. On the other hand, Nomaguchi said that in this time and age when different lifestyles are increasingly being accepted, he hopes that his character will inspire people to relook at whether they should continue living as they are or make changes to their lives since everyone only lives once.

Source: Oricon