Showing posts with label Summer 2017. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer 2017. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 02, 2018

Voting begins for the 2nd Dorama World Awards 2017!


It's time to vote and honour the best of 2017 in the annual Dorama World Awards again!

For those who haven't been reading this blog for long or did not participate in last year's voting, this is an exercise which I first started last year to find out what dramas and actors/actresses and theme songs in the previous year deserve to be called the best according to the readers here.

Note that this is not meant to be a popularity award but rather one which requires your objective assessment of the 2017 dramas which you watched.

The categories which you can vote in are as follows:

- Best Drama
- Best Leading Actor
- Best Leading Actress
- Best Supporting Actor
- Best Supporting Actress
- Best Onscreen Couple
- Best Theme Song

Note that there are some prerequisites which need to be fulfilled before you can choose a certain drama, actor, actress, couple or theme song. It will help me a great deal if you can take note of these issues so that the voting exercise can proceed more smoothly this year:

- The O.A. start dates and end dates of all dramas series should be between 1 Jan 2017 and 31 Dec 2017.

- No drama SPs are to be voted for. It does not matter how many episodes a drama series has as long as it is not a SP. As such, regular season dramas ranging from 4 to 13 or more episodes can be voted for. Likewise for NHK morning dramas or Taiga dramas.

- Note that in Japanese dramas, there is usually only one leading actor or actress unless it is stated that there are double or more leads. As such, if you happen to choose a supporting actor/actress in the leading actor/actress category, the votes will not be counted so please vote in the correct category. For example, in "Keiji Yugami", although you see Asano Tadanobu & Kamiki Ryuunosuke as the supposed leads, the leading actor is actually Asano only so if you want to vote for Kamiki, that will have to be in the supporting actor category. If you put Kamiki in the leading actor category, I will have no choice but to disregard the vote. Please check first before filling your choices as you won't want to waste your votes in this manner.

- Everyone is allowed to vote once only. For those who are following Dorama World's Facebook and Twitter pages, you can choose to use the voting form or submit your choices through the private or direct message function on these platforms. Please indicate the nicknames you use on such platforms in the form if you wish to vote via this channel. For those who do not access to these channels, you should use the voting form only. All anonymous forms will be disregarded along with those who vote more than once.
Your choices should be indicated in the free-text field of the form as such:
1) XXX
2) YYY
3) ZZZ
4) AAA
5) BBB
Do not leave your choices in any part of the SNS channels open to public view or the comments section of the blog as this will affect the "guess the winners game" to be held when the results are tabulated later this month.

- For onscreen couples, the characters concerned must have a romantic relationship i.e. no siblings, friendships or colleagues etc. If there are multiple pairings in the drama, you will have to be specific as to who you are voting for i.e. both names in the pairing will have to be indicated.

- Theme songs voted for can be the main theme, insert song, beginning or ending song. However, please remember to indicate which drama they came from or else the vote will be disregarded.

- If you struggle to fill in all five choices in each category, you can choose to fill them partially. However, for those who have too many to pick, please be reminded that you can only vote for 5 in each category.

- One very critical problem observed from last year's voting is that people just put down the name of an actor or actress without naming the drama he or she acted in. For actors and actresses who had appeared in more than one drama, be it leading or supporting role, I wouldn't know which role in which drama you had voted for if you do not indicate it clearly. As such, for this year's voting, any vote which has this issue again will be disregarded so please be careful when filling your choices.

Upon receipt of your votes at my end, there will be points attributed to each choice depending on the order you have placed them in. The higher they are in your ranking, the more points they will get:

No.1 - 10 points
No.2 - 8 points
No.3 - 5 points
No.4 - 3 points
No.5 - 1 point

By the time the voting exercise is concluded, the "Guess The Winners" game will be held. More details on that will be revealed later.

The voting exercise will close on 21st January 2018 at 2359 SGT. Please submit your votes early so as to avoid a last minute rush.

Without further ado, let's get started! Looking forward to receiving your votes soon!

Friday, December 08, 2017

Kubota Masataka & Mizukawa Asami reportedly dating since autumn 2017

Kubota Masataka and Mizukawa Asami are said to be dating and have been living together since autumn this year according to FRIDAY's 8th December issue. When asked about the report, the couple's agencies simply commented that they will leave this to their artistes to handle since they are already adults thus indirectly admitting to the fact that the two of them are an item.

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Drama

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON (FujiTV)
2) Hiyokko (NHK)
3) Kahogo no Kahoko (NTV)

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON (FujiTV)
2) Koshoku no Robot (NTV)
3) Kahogo no Kahoko (NTV)
4) Bokutachi ga yarimashita (FujiTV)
5) Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai (NTV)

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Hiyokko (NHK)
2) Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON (FujiTV) / Kahogo no Kahoko (NTV)
4) Hello Harinezumi (TBS)
5) Shimokitazawa Diehard (TV Tokyo)

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Hiyokko (NHK)
2) Yasuragi no Sato (TV Asahi)
3) Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON (FujiTV)
4) Kahogo no Kahoko (NTV)
5) Shimokitazawa Diehard (TV Tokyo)

Source: The Television

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Leading Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Yamashita Tomohisa - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Kubota Masataka - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
3) Ishizaka Koji - Yasuragi no Sato

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Yamashita Tomohisa - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Arioka Daiki - Koshoku Robot
3) Kubota Masataka - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
4) Nishikido Ryo - Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai
5) Nagase Tomoya - Gomen, Aishiteru

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Yamashita Tomohisa - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Kubota Masataka - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
3) Eita - Hello Harinezumi
4) Nagase Tomoya - Gomen, Aishiteru / Fukushi Souta - Aishitetatte, Himitsu wa aru
6) Nishijima Hidetoshi - Blanket Cats

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Ishizaka Koji - Yasuragi no Sato
2) Yamashita Tomohisa - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
3) Kubota Masataka - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
4) Eita - Hello Harinezumi / Higashiyama Noriyuki - Keiji Shichinin / Arita Teppei - Wanitokagegisu

Source: The Televison

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Leading Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Arimura Kasumi - Hiyokko
2) Takahata Mitsuki - Kahogo no Kahoko
3) Takei Emi - Kurokawa no Techou

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Takahata Mitsuki - Kahogo no Kahoko
2) Arimura Kasumi - Hiyokko
3) Takei Emi - Kurokawa no Techou
4) Watanabe Naomi - Kanna-san!
5) Shida Mirai - Utsubokazura no Yume

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Arimura Kasumi - Hiyokko
2) Takahata Mitsuki - Kahogo no Kahoko
3) Takei Emi - Kurokawa no Techou
4) Watanabe Naomi - Kanna-san!
5) Shida Mirai - Utsubokazura no Yume

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Arimura Kasumi - Hiyokko
2) Takei Emi - Kurokawa no Techou
3) Takahata Mitsuki - Kahogo no Kahoko
4) Watanabe Naomi - Kanna-san!
5) Hirao Nanaka - Ecchan

Source: The Television

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Supporting Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Takeuchi Ryoma - Kahogo no Kahoko
2) Morita Go - Hello Harinezumi
3) Asari Yosuke - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Asari Yosuke - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Arioka Daiki - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
3) Takeuchi Ryoma - Kahogo no Kahoko
4) Konno Hiroki - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
5) Yabu Kota - Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Takeuchi Ryoma - Kahogo no Kahoko
2) Morita Go - Hello Harinezumi
3) Sawamura Ikki - Hiyokko
4) Narita Ryo - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
5) Konno Hiroki - Bokutachi ga yarimashita

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Takeuchi Ryoma - Kahogo no Kahoko
2) Morita Go - Hello Harinezumi
3) Konno Hiroki - Bokutachi ga yarimashita
4) Narita Ryo - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON / Sawamura Ikki - Hiyokko / Eguchi Yosuke - Kurokawa no Techou / Okuda Eiji - Kurokawa no Techou

Source: The Televison

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Supporting Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Aragaki Yui - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Toda Erika - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
3) Kimura Yoshino - Hiyokko

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Aragaki Yui - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Toda Erika - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
3) Matsuoka Mayu - Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai
4) Higa Manami - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
5) Nagano Mei - Bokutachi ga yarimashita

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Aragaki Yui - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
2) Toda Erika - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON
3) Matsuoka Mayu - Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai
4) Kimura Yoshino - Hiyokko / Yoshioka Riho - Gomen, Aishiteru
6) Kawaei Rina - Bokutachi ga yarimashita

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Kimura Yoshino - Hiyokko
2) Wakui Emi - Hiyokko
3) Aragaki Yui - Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON / Nogiwa Yoko - Yasuragi no Sato / Naka Riisa - Kurokawa no Techou / Hashimoto Kanna - Keishicho Ikimonogakari

Source: The Televison

The 94th Drama Academy Awards (Summer 2017) - Best Theme Song

Overall Ranking Top 3
1) Wakai Hiroba - Kuwata Keisuke (Hiyokko)
2) HANABI - Mr.Children (Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON)
3) Family Song - Hoshino Gen (Kahogo no Kahoko)

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) HANABI - Mr.Children (Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON)
2) Are You There? - A.Y.T. (Koshoku Robot)
3) Family Song - Hoshino Gen (Kahogo no Kahoko)
4) Kiseki no Hito - Kanjani 8 (Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai)
5) Bokutachi ga yarimashita - DISH// (Bokutachi ga yarimashita)

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Family Song - Hoshino Gen (Kahogo no Kahoko)
2) Wakai Hiroba - Kuwata Keisuke (Hiyokko)
3) Forevermore - Utada Hikaru (Gomen, Aishiteru)
4) HANABI - Mr.Children (Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON)
5) Yumemakase - "SOIL&""PIMP""SESSIONS feat. Yojiro Noda (Hello Harinezumi) / Bokutachi ga yarimashita - DISH// (Bokutachi ga yarimashita)

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Wakai Hiroba - Kuwata Keisuke (Hiyokko)
2) Bojou - Nakajima Miyuki (Yasuragi no Sato)
3) Yumemakase - "SOIL&""PIMP""SESSIONS feat. Yojiro Noda (Hello Harinezumi)
4) Family Song - Hoshino Gen (Kahogo no Kahoko) / Forevermore - Utada Hikaru (Gomen, Aishiteru)
6) HANABI - Mr.Children (Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON) / Papa Mama Song - Yusuke Santa Maria, Hirao Nanaka, Kadowaki Mugi, Ishida Nicole, Ando Tamae & Okamoto Kenichi (Ecchan) / TAKE MY HAND - Yoru no honki dansu (Seshiru no Mokuromi)

Source: The Televison

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Winners of the 9th Confidence Award Dorama Prize (Summer 2017)

Here are the winners of the 9th Confidence Award Drama Prize for the Summer 2017 season:

Best Drama: Hiyokko

Best Leading Actor: Ishizaka Koji (Yasuragi no Sato)

Best Leading Actress: Takahata Mitsuki (Kahogo no Kahoko)

Best Supporting Actor: Takeuchi Ryoma (Kahogo no Kahoko)

Best Supporting Actress: Wakui Emi (Hiyokko)

Best Script: Okada Yoshikazu (Hiyokko)

Best Newcomer: Nagano Mei (Bokutachi ga yarimashita)

Source: Confidence Award Drama Prize

Monday, October 16, 2017

Toda Erika & Narita Ryo reportedly dating after collaboration in FujiTV Summer 2017 drama "Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON"

Toda Erika and Narita Ryo are said to be dating as reported on 11 October. According to media reports, the couple got to know each other while working on the FujiTV Summer 2017 drama "Code Blue THE THIRD SEASON" and started dating soon after the filming began in June. Toda was also said to have been in Narita's car when he got into an accident on 8 October thus leading to the revelation of their relationship.

Friday, October 06, 2017

Winners of Nikkansports Sports Drama Grand Prix (Summer 2017)

There were 1,846 valid responses for this voting and numbers in brackets indicate the number of votes received for the drama or actor/actress:

Best Drama
1) Code Blue 3 (1,069)
2) Hiyokko (161)
3) Onna Joshu Naotora (92)
4) Gomen, Aishiteru (78)
5) Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai (69)

Best Leading Actor
1) Yamashita Tomohisa - Code Blue 3 (1,086)
2) Nagase Tomoya - Gomen, Aishiteru (136)
3) Nishikido Ryo - Uchi no otto wa shigoto ga dekinai (90)
4) Kamikawa Takaya - Iryu Sousa 4 (68)
5) Higashiyama Noriyuki - Keiji Shichinin 3 (62)

Best Leading Actress
1) Arimura Kasumi - Hiyokko (426)
2) Takahata Mitsuki - Kahogo no Kahoko (355)
3) Takei Emi - Kurokawa no Techou (309)
4) Shibasaki Kou - Onna Joshu Naotora (251)
5) Watanabe Naomi - Kanna-san! (152)

Best Supporting Actor
1) Asari Yousuke - Code Blue 3 (797)
2) Takahashi Issei - Onna Joshu Naotora (150)
3) Takeuchi Ryoma - Kahogo no Kahoko (101)
4) Sawamura Ikki - Hiyokko (84)
5) Shiina Kippei - Code Blue 3 (61)

Best Supporting Actress
1) Aragaki Yui - Code Blue 3 (650)
2) Toda Erika - Code Blue 3 (303)
3) Higa Manami - Code Blue 3 (97)
4) Kimura Yoshino - Hiyokko (91)
5) Miyamoto Nobuko - Hiyokko (72)

Source: Nikkansports

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Preview of "Chinmoku Houtei" (WOWOW) - Summer 2017

Title: Chinmoku Houtei 沈黙法廷 (The silent court)
Official website: here
O.A. Start Date: 24 September 2017
Timeslot: Sundays 10pm
Broadcast by: WOWOW
Total number of episodes: 5
Original novel by: Sasaki Jou
Cast: Nagasaku Hiromi, Ichihara Hayato, Ookura Koji, Usuda Asami, Fujimoto Izumi, Judai Satoshi, Komoto Masahiro, Kaneda Akio, Kitamura Soichiro, Sugimoto Tetta & Tanaka Tetsushi

Completion screening event of new WOWOW drama "Chinmoku Houtei"

The completion screening event of new WOWOW drama "Chinmoku Houtei" was held on 21 September which was attended by cast members Nagasaku Hiromi, Ichihara Hayato and Tanaka Tetsushi. The drama which is based on the same-titled novel by Naoki Award winner Sasaki Jou, will begin its run from 24 September in the Sundays 10pm timeslot and consists of 5 episodes.

The story starts off with the discovery of the body of an elderly person living alone in Akabane, Kita Ward of Tokyo who was strangled to death. While conducting investigations into the murder, the police detectives at Akabane Police Station and those from the Metropolitan Police Department get a tip-off from nearby residents that a woman had been visiting the victim's apartment often. It was later found that the woman named Yamamoto Miki (Nagasaku) is the sole owner of a household chores helper business. When the police officers head to Miki's office, they are surprised to see the Saitama Prefectural Police already there to investigate a series of unnatural deaths supposedly linked to her. Through the trial, it is slowly revealed who Miki is and the truth behind these cases starts to unravel as media attention heats up to label her as a serial murderer even before the verdict is out. However, Miki clams up during the trial when it is her turn to testify instead of trying to clear her name. Ichihara plays Miki's boyfriend Takamizawa Hiroshi while Tanaka plays Miki's lawyer Yatabe Kan.

With regard to the scenes where Miki and Hiroshi went on dates, Nagasaku recounted that everyone seemed to be giggling as they watched the filming which made her feel even more shy and self-conscious. On the other hand, Ichihara said that their first scene together was the dating scene and he felt that Nagasaku was very cute when she said that she was shy about acting in such scenes. As his character is deeply in love with Miki, Ichihara said that he also felt happy about meeting Nagasaku on the set whenever they met. In response, Nagasaku said that there are a number of scenes showing the pure love between Miki and Hiroshi so she apologised to Ichihara's fans in advance if these scenes might make them feel uncomfortable. She then praised Ichihara for being very delicate and detailed despite his macho image. However, it seemed that he had vastly different sides in his character where he would get into trouble when he was drunk but he was also capable of doing very "quiet" things such as taking a lot of nice photographs during their filming breaks.

As for her character who chooses to maintain her silence most of the time, Nagasaku commented that it had been a while since she felt scared by the small number of lines as the weight of every word spoken by Miki and her facial expressions were more significant than any of the characters she had ever played before. In addition, she commented that since Sasaki hardly writes anything in excess of what's needed, she wondered if she could be up to the challenge of playing Miki in the drama.

As for Tanaka, he revealed that he was brought to tears after reading the novel and that was before he got the offer. As his impression of Yatabe was that the character was a very cool lawyer, he wondered if he could do it. However, after looking at the script, he found that the lawyer had become slightly less cool than he assumed so he was relieved in the end. Tanaka then revealed that he had a scene the day after the event where he had to say a lot of lines and wondered if he spoke too soon about the difficulty of playing his character. Upon hearing this, Nagasaku and Ichihara laughed at his remarks.

Sources: Crank In / Cinema Today / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon / Eiga.com

Preview of "Doctor Y 2 ~ Gekai Kaji Hideki ~" - Summer 2017

Title: Doctor Y 2 ~ Gekai Kaji Hideki ~ ドクターY 2 ~ 外科医加地秀樹 ~ (Doctor Y 2 ~ Surgeon Kaji Hideki)
Official website: here
O.A. Start Date: 26 September 2017
Timeslot: Tuesdays
Broadcast by: TV Asahi, au Video Pass, Amazon Prime Video and TV Asahi Douga
Cast: Katsumura Masanobu, Horii Arata, Iitoyo Marie, Hoshida Hidetoshi, Hotta Akane, Noguchi Kaoru, Inagaki Kurumi, Tokui Yu, Iwamatsu Ryo
Guest appearances: Yonekura Ryoko, Kishibe Ittoku, Takito Kenichi

Takito Kenichi to appear in TV Asahi spin-off drama "Doctor Y ~ Gekai Kaji Hideki ~"

Takito Kenichi will be making a special appearance in the TV Asahi spin-off drama "Doctor Y 2 ~ Gekai Kaji Hideki ~" starring Katsumura Masanobu which begins its run from 26 September and is also shown on au Video Pass, Amazon Prime Video and TV Asahi Douga. He will be playing his role from "Doctor X" i.e. Kitano Tooru who used to be looked down as he was an average student despite graduating from the prestigious Toutei University. He left for the US and became a well-known surgeon through his sheer hard work and returned to Toutei University Hospital. However, he was disappointed with the low standards of the professors in the university hospital and went to Shanghai after he was headhunted by an elite international medical group at the end of "Doctor X 4". He is careful and detailed when doing operations but likes to speak weird English for no reason at times.

"Doctor Y" features Kaji who loves to be part of the herd, adores money, uses his skills to get what he wants and is narrow-minded. Last year, when the first spin-off series was shown via the Internet and later shown on TV, it showed how Kaji was sent to a hospital in the countryside and was bewitched and tempted by money when treating his patients but he always managed to achieve his aims in line with the main drama's theme of "never failing". In the second series, he will be at Honokura Hospital which is surrounded by mountains and feels like a place which you would see in horror movies. There is a legend that the hospital is cursed by the spirit of a young girl. From the first night when Kaji reports for work, he goes through a harrowing and comical experience while continuing his stint as a surgeon there.

Takito commented jokingly that he was a bit disappointed that the offer was to appear in "Doctor Y" instead of "Doctor X" but said that he was still motivated and excited after all to be able to participate in this. He also suggested that the story would show the unexpected relationship between Kaji and Kitano and unknown sides in Kitano which had never been featured before.

Source: Oricon

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Completion screening event of new WOWOW drama "Yochou Sanposuru Shinryakusha"

The completion screening event of new WOWOW drama "Yochou Sanposuru Shinryakusha" was held on 11 September which was attended by the director Kurosawa Kiyoshi and cast members Kaho and Sometani Shota.

The story describes how Yamagiwa Etsuko (Kaho) brings her colleague Asai Miyuki (Kishii Yukino) to the hospital where her husband Tatsuo (Sometani) works at after Miyuki tells her that there is a ghost in her house. However, when Etsuko pays a visit to Miyuki's place, she finds his father to be the only person with her. Miyuki is then diagnosed with a psychological deficiency in her mental concept of a family. Just then, Etsuko also meets a new surgeon Makabe Shiro (Higashide Masahiro) at the hospital and finds him strange for some reason. When explainable things start happening around Etsuko and Tatsuo is stressed psychologically for some reason, she starts to suspect Makabe for having a part to play in this especially after he tells her that he is here to invade Earth. Co-stars also include Nakamura Eriko, Yasui Junpei, Ishibashi Kei, Yoshioka Mutsuo, Otsuka Hirota, Chiba Tetsuya, Suwa Taro, Watanabe Makiko, Nakamura Makoto and Oosugi Ren.

Kurosawa revealed that the drama was recently completed and he didn't know how much to say about it since the screening event only featured the first episode out of five. As such, he would try his best to hide the key developments while keeping the audience engaged and interested to find out how the drama progresses.

Kaho who worked with Kurosawa for the first time through this drama, revealed how she was very nervous about their collaboration and had to brace herself to do better especially after her first day of filming didn't go so well. However, she felt that the tension she felt also helped her in doing a better job and enjoy the filming process eventually. As for Sometani who worked with Kurosawa before, he said that he was happy and satisfied about the interesting filming process.

As the filming period was a mere 3 weeks, Kaho revealed that she was expecting to have a punishing schedule. However, it turned out that she could knock off early enough i.e. sometimes by 6pm to have dinner at home every night so she was surprised by how smoothly things went. Sometani also echoed her view that it's rare to have a filming process where they get to eat dinner off the set while Kurosawa commented nonchalantly that this was perfectly normal to him because his filming is well-known for never going beyond 12 midnight.

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

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Preview of "Ame ga furu to kimi wa yasashii" - Summer 2017

Title: Ame ga furu to kimi wa yasashii 雨が降ると君は優しい (You are gentle when it rains)
Official website: here
Official Instagram: here
O.A. Start Date: 16 September 2017
Broadcast by: hulu
Scriptwriter: Nojima Shinji
Theme Song: "We're All Alone" by Boz Scaggs
Cast: Tamayama Tetsuji, Sasaki Nozomi, Okina Megumi, Fueki Yuko, Abe Tsuyoshi, Yoshida Oolongta, Maeda Kouki, Nao, Masaki Reiya, Furuya Ikko, Kimura Tae, Jinnai Takanori

Screening event & press conference of new hulu drama "Ame ga furu to kimi wa yasashii"


The screening event and press conference of new hulu drama "Ame ga furu to kimi wa yasashii" was held on 12 September which was attended by the scriptwriter Nojima Shinji and cast members Tamayama Tetsuji and Sasaki Nozomi. The drama which consists of 8 episodes, will be streamed on hulu from 16 September where 2 episodes will be uploaded weekly.

Tamayama plays Tachiki Nobuo, the assistant editor of a monthly literature magazine while Sasaki plays his wife Aya who used to be a model for a magazine and works at an old folks' home after getting married. Although the couple seem to be having a happy life, Aya is actually suffering from sexual dependency. She would wear red clothes which she usually doesn't wear whenever the weather is sunny and these are the days when she has the uncontrollable urge to sleep with other men. While trying to put on a pretense in front of Nobuo, Aya tries to seek treatment and goes for counselling. However, things start to get out control when Aya has sex with a man she comes to know from a dating site and he turns out to be Nobuo's colleague.

Sasaki commented that she was troubled over having to play such a character but felt that she could improve as an actress if she managed to overcome this challenge. In the end, she was glad that she had taken this up and that this was a drama she could be proud of. When asked how her values towards marriage had changed as a result of playing this character, Sasaki said that it hadn't been that long since she got married so it was difficult to say if anything had changed. However, she felt that if a couple could believe wholeheartedly in each other and accept each other's faults, she thought that this would mean that they have a strong bond and expressed envy towards such a relationship. With regard to Tamayama who plays her husband, she praised him for being a gentleman who was considerate and even helped her up after they filmed a bed scene. Upon hearing this, Nojima said that he didn't know about this which led Tamayama to comment that it was natural for him to do that. He also revealed that Sasaki seemed so at ease while filming that she felt asleep during the filming break while wearing a bathrobe. Tamayama then said that Sasaki was so courageous to take on such a controversial role and Nojima also praised her for being able to switch between pitiful at one moment and being wildly beautiful in the next moment.

Tamayama said that even though the trend these days seem to be all about extramarital affair stories, he believed that viewers will be able to go through a simulated experience of tragic pure love by watching this drama.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo / Oricon / Eiga.com

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

NTV clarifies the decision to show the ending of "Aishitetatte, Himitsu wa aru" on Hulu

NTV clarified its decision to show the "real" ending of its Summer 2017 drama "Aishitetatte, Himitsu wa aru" on Hulu from 17th and 24th September amid strong criticism about the move by viewers especially those who do not have access to Hulu. The PR department explained that the two episodes to be shown on Hulu are actually a continuation of what happens to the lead character Okumori Rei played by Fukushi Souta and not the "real ending" to the drama series which ended its run on 17 September as reported in some media sources. It stated that it was aware of the misunderstanding caused by the choice of words used and will take the comments from everyone into consideration for future purposes.

Source: Sponichi Annex

Monday, September 18, 2017

"Real" ending of NTV Summer 2017 drama "Aishitetatte, Himitsu wa aru" to be shown exclusively on Hulu

NTV Summer 2017 drama "Aishitetatte, Himitsu wa aru" starring Fukushi Souta which ended its run on 17 September, will have its real ending shown exclusively on Hulu in two installments. Part 1 is already available for viewing while Part 2 will be released for viewing from 24 September.

The ending titled "Boku wa dare da?" (Who am I?) will continue from the drama's last episode shown on TV where Rei (Fukushi) is found to be suffering from dissociative identity disorder and has two characters within him i.e. Rei and Saku. The new story will describe the conversations he has with his inner self after he turns himself in for the murder of his father and the outcome of his relationship with his girlfriend Sawa (Kawaguchi Haruna).

Fukushi commented that the new ending offered a very different challenge for him as he had to speak 30 pages of lines all on his own during the conversation between Rei and Saku. However, it was worthwhile doing it especially as Rei and Saku finally come face to face with each other. As such, he hoped that everyone will be able to watch this new story to see how the drama finally ends.

Source: Oricon