NEWS member Tegoshi Yuya to play the criminal in TV Asahi drama SP "Matsumoto Seicho Drama SP San Oku Yen Jiken"

NEWS member Tegoshi Yuya will take on the role of the criminal in the TV Asahi drama SP "Matsumoto Seicho Drama SP San Oku Yen Jiken" which stars Tamura Masakazu and will be shown in January 2014. His role Hamano Kenji will pose as a policeman who was said to have committed the famous JPY 300m robbery. As part of the preparations for this role, Tegoshi had to dye his hair black and his face was merged with the original wanted person's poster to be featured in the SP. Tegoshi commented that he was not used to seeing his black hair but he was very happy to be able to take part in this drama SP especially since this case is such a famous one.

Source: Yomiuri Hochi

Tamura Masakazu starring in TV Asahi 55th commemorative work "Matsumoto Seicho Drama SP San Oku Yen Jiken"

Tamura Masakazu takes on the leading role in the TV Asahi drama SP "Matsumoto Seicho Drama SP San Oku Yen Jiken" (The 300m yen Case) which will be shown next January. This is the first drama adaptation of Matsumoto Seicho's novel based on the real-life case and features Tamura as Takeda Hideya, an investigator working for an American insurance company who would also reunite with his mother for the first time in 25 years old through working on the case.

Recently, the filming was opened to the media for the first time when the cast and crew were in Niigata along a road outside the Niigata Prison to shoot how the case happened outside Fuchu Prison back in 1968. In Matsumoto's novel, it was set in 1977 which was one year after the statute of limitations for the JPY 300m case ended when the insurance company Tamura works for, decides to launch its own investigation in order to have the culprits of the robbery pay for the compensation to the victim bank even though the insurance company had already paid JPY 200m by then.

Tamura revealed that as his health condition hasn't been so good these two years (he turned 70 years old in August), he expressed his fear about growing old because his voice had undergone some changes and there were times when he sounded really hoarse or he could not even speak up. It was also getting difficult for him to say lines as quickly as before. He was also worried about delaying the progress of the filming due to his NGs but not working for an extended period of time also made him uneasy so he decided to bite the bullet and do this drama SP as if it is his last work even though he may suffer some embarrassment on set due to his condition.

Filming of this drama had been wrapped up recently.

Source: Yomiuri Hochi