Aoyagi Sho to star in new WOWOW drama "Kuinige Killer"

Aoyagi Sho from Gekidan EXILE will be starring in the new WOWOW drama "Kuinige Killer" (The Meal Bilker Killer) which will begin its run from 21 March in the Wednesdays 8pm timeslot. The drama is written by Tatesawa Fumitake who won the 10th WOWOW Scenario Taisho with this story and set at a family restaurant which is struggling with meal bilkers. The restaurant then engages a former star runner Kawatani Shogo (Aoyagi) who is tasked to catch these people who eat without paying their bills.

Aoyagi commented that he was very glad and honoured to take on his first leading role in this drama which has a rather unusual theme. As such, he was very interested to challenge himself and hoped to make a good drama with the director, his co-stars and the staff members. Although Aoyagi had experience in soccer before, playing a sprinter this time was a bit worrying as it had been some time since he last trained so he had to build up his stamina and learn the basics of running before the filming started.

Tatesawa revealed that the idea of his story came from his personal experience in the summer of 2015 when he witnessed someone leaving a restaurant without paying for the meal. The bilker in question was standing at the cashier but there was no staff stationed there since it was a busy time for the restaurant. Somehow, the ringing sound at the door of the restaurant sounded like the start of a match to Tatesawa and he thought that the restaurant staff would chase after the culprit. However, it seemed like the staff was so used to this happening and gave up with a sigh. Tatesawa then went to conduct some research and found that there were many restaurants which had no choice but to give up chasing these bilkers for various reasons. As such, the idea of a meal bilker killer came to his mind thus leading to the birth of this story which he almost gave up on multiple times.

Sources: Natalie / Oricon