Hasegawa Hiroki was revealed to be playing the heroine's husband in the upcoming NHK morning drama "Manpuku" starring Ando Sakura during a press conference at NHK Osaka on 6 February. The drama which will begin its run from 1 October 2018, is set from the days before WWII to the period of high economic growth in Osaka and will feature a heroine modelled after Ando Masako and her husband Ando Momofuku who created the instant ramen. Ando Sakura will play the heroine named Tachibana Fukuko from the age of 18 to her 60s who tries to survive the tough times in Osaka with her husband Manpei (Hasegawa) from before WWII to the rapid economic development era as they overcome various setbacks before they succeed in creating instant noodles. Manpei lost his parents at a young age and had lived with his relatives during his childhood. With his vivid imagination and enthusiasm, he set up his own company at 25 and later met Fukuko. After they got married, Manpei was involved in many different businesses which all flopped. Having lost his entire fortune at the age of 47, Manpei was encouraged by Fukuko to start anew and later brought about an invention which revolutionised the world's eating culture. Hasegawa is expected to play Manpei from the age of 28 to his 60s.
As this will be Hasegawa's first appearance in a NHK morning drama, he commented with a smile that he really likes his character's name and revealed that he had already given up on appearing in morning dramas since he failed the audition many times in his 20s. Although he was happy about being offered the role of Manpei, he had his reservations over whether he was too old i.e. 40 years old to play the heroine's husband. Nonetheless, he saw the chance of being able to play Manpei who is modelled after Ando Momofuku as a good change in his acting career so decided to take on the challenge. As for working with Ando Sakura for the first time, Hasegawa was full of praise for her and said that he had always wanted to work with her someday.
Sources:
Nikkansports /
Cinemacafe /
Yomiuri Hochi
So NHK is going all out for Manpuku! After Ando Sakura, now it's Hasegawa Hiroki. Well, it's a good thing that both leads are solid in their own right, and the story does sound interesting.
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