Winners of the Tokyo Drama Award 2017

Drama Series Category
Grand Prix - Nigeru wa haji daga, yaku ni tatsu

Excellence Awards - Sanadamaru / Ie uru onna / Quartet / Byplayers / CRISIS Kouan Kido Sousatai Tokusouhan

Completion screening event of TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku"

The completion screening event of TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" was held at the TV station's HQ in Tokyo on 5 April which was attended by cast members Beat Takeshi, Yamada Takayuki and Yoshida Yo. In this drama SP set in 1942, Takeshi plays a prison warden named Urata Susumu who works at Kosuge Prison in Tokyo and has no purpose in life other than stop his prisoners from escaping ever since his wife died during an earthquake. One day, he is informed that a former inmate at Kosuge named Sakuma Kiyotaro (Yamada) who used to respect him a lot and was sent to another prison in Akita to serve his life sentence had escaped. 3 months later, Sakuma comes to Urata's house and reveals that he was subjected to inhumane treatment at the Akita prison and wants to launch a lawsuit against them. However, Urata tells on Sakuma which results in the latter being caught and sent to the prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Subsequently, Urata gets transferred to Abashiri to become the chief warden and meets Sakuma there again. Yamada will be taking on the role of Sakuma who was born into a poor family in Aomori and became an odd-job man on a crab fishing boat. While breaking into a warehouse to steal, he kills a man who is hot on his heels and gets a life sentence. However, he vows to stay alive and tries to break out of prison successfully at least 4 times. Yoshida plays Miyoko, the daughter of Urata and also takes on the narrator's role for this drama SP while Mitsushima Hikari plays Mitsu who is the wife of Sakuma.

At the beginning of the event, Takeshi started joking by introducing himself as Watanabe Ken who was recently exposed for allegedly having an affair while his wife Minami Kaho is undergoing cancer treatment. He then complimented his co-stars for being such great actors and commented that he had to try to hide his "poor acting skills" in this drama which he praised as one with a solid story especially suitable to be watched in this era where there are many light-hearted dramas. He revealed that before the filming began in January this year, he was actually in Australia with friends on a golfing trip from 29 December when he realised that the strong sunshine there would make him become too tanned for the filming since he plays a prison warden in snowy Hokkaido. As a result, he could only play for three holes during that trip and ended up watching cricket matches during the rest of that one-week trip as if he was put into prison. Takeshi regretted not thinking about his filming schedule before planning the trip. When he came back to Japan for the filming, he was subjected to the freezing weather and found it difficult to breathe properly.

Yamada who had to go through physical training and learn the Tsugaru dialect, revealed how tough it was for a particular scene where he had to walk across a snowy field in Abashiri even though the temperature then was minus 10 degrees Celsius. He ended up getting frost bite and has lost feeling in the fourth finger on his left hand since then. As such, Yamada joked that in return for not "suing" TV Tokyo for his injury, he hopes that they will allow him to do a drama in future with a certain degree of freedom.

Yoshida commented that although it is the first time that she is working with Takeshi, she felt that they were able to convey the delicate relationship between their characters in this drama. As for doing the narration, Yoshida tried to keep the tone of her voice low at first but the director suggested that she could add in more cheerfulness and positivity as the story progressed so as to show the concept of hope in the future.

The drama SP will be shown at 9pm on 12 April.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon 1 / Oricon 2 / Eiga.com

Preview of "Hagoku" (Drama SP)

Title: Hagoku 破獄 (Jailbreak)
Official website: here
O.A. Date: 12 April 2017, 9pm
Broadcast by: TV Tokyo
Original novel by: Yoshimura Akira
Cast: Beat Takeshi, Yamada Takayuki, Watanabe Ikkei, Terajima Susumu, Matsushige Yutaka, Nakamura Aoi, Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, Katsumura Masanobu, Hashizume Isao, Mitsushima Hikari, Yoshida Yo

Yoshida Yo & Mitsushima Hikari to appear in TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku"

Yoshida Yo and Mitsushima Hikari will be appearing in the new TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" starring Beat Takeshi which will be shown at 9pm on 12 April. In this drama SP set in 1942, Takeshi will be playing a prison warden named Urata Susumu who works at Kosuge Prison in Tokyo and has no purpose in life other than stop his prisoners from escaping ever since his wife died during an earthquake. One day, he is informed that a former inmate at Kosuge named Sakuma Kiyotaro who used to respect him a lot and was sent to another prison in Akita to serve his life sentence had escaped. 3 months later, Sakuma comes to Urata's house and reveals that he was subjected to inhumane treatment at the Akita prison and wants to launch a lawsuit against them. However, Urata tells on Sakuma which results in the latter being caught and sent to the prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Subsequently, Urata gets transferred to Abashiri to become the chief warden and meets Sakuma there again. Yamada will be taking on the role of Sakuma who was born into a poor family in Aomori and became an odd-job man on a crab fishing boat. While breaking into a warehouse to steal, he kills a man who is hot on his heels and gets a life sentence. However, he vows to stay alive and tries to break out of prison successfully at least 4 times.

Yoshida will play Miyoko, the daughter of Urata and also takes on the narrator's role for this drama SP. She revealed that she has always wanted to work with Takeshi one day so she was very happy to be able to play his daughter. On the other hand, Mitsushima will play Mitsu who is the wife of Sakuma. She was born in a poor family and sold to a red-light district when she was 17. Mitsu then got married to Sakuma after meeting him when she was 19 and continues to wait for him at home with their child even as he gets sentenced to life imprisonment.

Sources: Oricon / Eiga.com

Male supporting cast lineup announced for TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku"

The male supporting cast lineup for the new TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" starring Beat Takeshi and Yamada Takayuki has been announced. The drama SP will be shown at 9pm on 12 April.

In this drama SP set in 1942, Takeshi will be playing a prison warden named Urata Susumu who works at Kosuge Prison in Tokyo and has no purpose in life other than stop his prisoners from escaping ever since his wife died during an earthquake. One day, he is informed that a former inmate at Kosuge named Sakuma Kiyotaro (Yamada) who used to respect him a lot and was sent to another prison in Akita to serve his life sentence had escaped. 3 months later, Sakuma comes to Urata's house and reveals that he was subjected to inhumane treatment at the Akita prison and wants to launch a lawsuit against them. However, Urata tells on Sakuma which results in the latter being caught and sent to the prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Subsequently, Urata gets transferred to Abashiri to become the chief warden and meets Sakuma there again.

Matsushige Yutaka will be playing Otasaka Yo, the chief warden at Kosuge Prison while Terajima Susumu will be playing Nishina Hisashi, the chief warden at Sapporo Prison. Watanabe Ikkei will be playing Tajima Kohei who is an interpreter and Katsumura Masanobu will be playing Izumi Goro, the supervising warden at Abashiri Prison. Ikeuchi Hiroyuki plays Fujiwara Yoshita who works as a specialised warden at Abashiri, Nakamura Aoi plays Nomoto Kinnosuke, a warden at Abashiri and Hashizume Isao plays Nukui Chiyoshi who is the chief warden at Abashiri. Other co-stars include Uesugi Shuhei, Watanabe Kunito, Mizuma Ron, Dankan, Iwata Maru, Ashikawa Makoto, Tamura Koji and Uchimura Haruka.

Source: Oricon

Yamada Takayuki to appear in TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" as a prisoner

Yamada Takayuki will be appearing in the TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" opposite the lead played by Beat Takeshi which is due to be shown within the year. In this drama SP set in 1942, Takeshi will be playing a prison warden named Urata Susumu who works at Kosuge Prison in Tokyo and has no purpose in life other than stop his prisoners from escaping ever since his wife died during an earthquake. One day, he is informed that a former inmate at Kosuge named Sakuma Kiyotaro who used to respect him a lot and was sent to another prison in Akita to serve his life sentence had escaped. 3 months later, Sakuma comes to Urata's house and reveals that he was subjected to inhumane treatment at the Akita prison and wants to launch a lawsuit against them. However, Urata tells on Sakuma which results in the latter being caught and sent to the prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Subsequently, Urata gets transferred to Abashiri to become the chief warden and meets Sakuma there again.

Yamada will be taking on the role of Sakuma who was born into a poor family in Aomori and became an odd-job man on a crab fishing boat. While breaking into a warehouse to steal, he kills a man who is hot on his heels and gets a life sentence. However, he vows to stay alive and tries to break out of prison successfully at least 4 times. With regard to his character, Yamada commented that he never expected this character to be so worn-out both physically and mentally but he was happy to be able to challenge himself. In order to match the image of his character, Yamada shaved his head and went through a strict diet to lose weight. During the filming of this drama SP, he rejected all other jobs so as to concentrate on this project. Yamada added that just as what Urata's lines say, Sakuma is such a straightforward person that many people cannot comprehend him and just fear him. As such, he hopes to be able to show this side of Sakuma through his acting. As for working with Takeshi for the first time, he clearly enjoyed the experience and hoped that there would be a day when he can act in a production directed by his co-star.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Oricon / Eiga.com

Beat Takeshi to star in new TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku"

Beat Takeshi will be starring in the new TV Tokyo drama SP "Hagoku" (Jailbreak) which will be shown within 2017. The drama SP which is based on the same-titled novel by the late Yoshimura Akira, is the first real-life adaptation in 32 years. The last real-life adaptation was produced by NHK in 1985 featuring the late Ogata Ken and focused on the prisoner rather than the warden.

In this drama SP set in 1942, Takeshi will be playing a prison warden named Urata Susumu who works at Kosuge Prison in Tokyo and has no purpose in life other than stop his prisoners from escaping ever since his wife died during an earthquake. One day, he is informed that a former inmate at Kosuge named Sakuma Kiyotaro who used to respect him a lot and was sent to another prison in Akita to serve his life sentence had escaped. 3 months later, Sakuma comes to Urata's house and reveals that he was subjected to inhumane treatment at the Akita prison and wants to launch a lawsuit against them. However, Urata tells on Sakuma which results in the latter being caught and sent to the prison in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Subsequently, Urata gets transferred to Abashiri to become the chief warden and meets Sakuma there again.

Although Takeshi is an experienced actor and director, he revealed that he tried to do exactly what the director asked for and felt nervous about acting in this drama which had the theme of what it means to live.

Filming began in the middle of January.

Sources: Sanspo / Oricon / Eiga.com