Nakayama Miho, Takaoka Saki, Ito Ayumi & Nakamura Yuri to play sisters in new NHK drama "Heisei Sasameyuki"

Nakayama Miho, Takaoka Saki, Ito Ayumi and Nakamura Yuri will be playing sisters in the new NHK drama series "Heisei Sasameyuki" (Light snowfall of the Heisei era) which is based on the novel "Sasameyuki" by Tanizaki Junichiro. The drama which consists of 4 episodes, will begin its run from 7 January 2018 in the Sundays 10pm timeslot.  To date, the story has been made into many movies, dramas and stage plays and the last movie was made 35 years ago starring Kishi Keiko, Sakuma Yoshiko, Yoshinaga Sayuri and Kotegawa Yuko. In this latest adaptation, the time setting has been changed from the 10th year in the Showa era to the Heisei era after the collapse of the bubble economy.

The drama begins in the spring of the 4th year of the Heisei era i.e. 1992 where the famous Makioka family in Osaka's Senba district, sells off their company which had been around since the Genroku era. The four sisters who had been living a privileged and carefree life so far, must face a new future due to the change in their circumstances. The eldest sister Tsuruko (Nakayama) remembers her past life with pride and tries to live on with this in mind but reality hits hard and reminds her that things have changed. The second sister Sachiko (Takaoka) is dissatisfied with her meek and gentle husband and constantly being troubled by her two younger sisters' antics. The third sister Yukiko (Ito) bears the high hopes of everyone who wants to see her get married but her tendency to focus on people's weak points makes her unable to get hitched despite having gone for more than 20 matchmaking dates so far. Last but not least, the youngest sister Taeko (Nakamura) hates her family's intrusive ways and has had many relationships to date. When a typhoon hits the Kansai region one night, Taeko who gets embroiled into the aftermath, causes huge changes to everyone's lives.

Nakayama said that for a story created about 70 years ago to be loved till this date, she is honoured to be able to participate in its drama adaptation and hopes that the four Heisei sisters will be liked by everyone too. As for Takaoka, she commented that she last worked with Nakayama in the WOWOW drama "Kenja no Ai" so she is excited to be able to work with her again as well as Ito and Nakamura for the first time in this drama. Ito also expressed her joy in being able to act in this drama. Nakamura said that she had recently read "Watashi no tosei nikki" by Takamine Mineko which talked about her experience of filming the "Sasameyuki" movie so it felt like it was fated to come across this drama and be able to play Taeko.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Sponichi / Oricon