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TV Drama Series
BROADCAST
Original Station:
Fuji Television Network
Original Run:
9:00 p.m. ? 9:54 p.m.
Wednesday October 10, 2001
TITLE
"A Wednesday Love Affair"
 
CAST
Masahiro Motoki    
Yuki Amami    
Taizo Harada    
Shosuke Tanihara    
Misaki Ito    
Kazuki Kitamura    
Hikari Ishida    
    And More
STAFF
Script : Hisashi Nozawa
Producers : Kozo Nagayama
Reiko Kita
Directors : Kozo Nagayama
Masaki Nishiura
Theme Song : "Candy Rain" by Toshinobu Kubota (SME Records)
Production : Fuji Television Production Center, Division 1
    And More

Description

Wombs may not be the only place where creatures called women can nurture human beings. It seems like men are free-ranged and nurtured in the hands of countless women.
It was an affair more stimulating, shocking and mellow than any novel that the main character Eiichiro had dealt with as an editor.
This is a kind of story that you've heard it before: About desires that anyone possesses as a man and a woman.

The drama thoroughly reveals the true motive and real nature of man and woman, maybe of the ones who are sitting beside you right now. And it is sure to captivate the heart of the viewers.


Though he has no complaints about his wife, it is the true nature of a man that makes him act from instinct when he senses sweet and dangerous aroma.
The man's deepest of desires surface from unconsciousness.
Women comparing themselves with others envy the others enough to be jealous.
A husband has no time to relax when he is at the mercy of his wife's and his mistress' arts and wiles.
There are the "wife's secret" and "mistress' secret" that only the husband doesn't know.
The husband becomes aware of his wife who is much more frightful, strong and stout than his mistress.
He makes a risky attempt and in due course things follow an unexpected path…


The most viewers will probably watch the drama laughing, thinking “my husband or wife would be the last one to experience such a wonderful romance or such a frightening thing. It's just impossible!” When the night comes, however, you can not help staring at your partners back sleeping beside you.
That means you are already hooked to this drama.
There is another important key word…
“Sweet comedy” is the true nature of this drama!

<Characters >
Eiichiro Sakura, 35 years old (Masahiro Motoki)
He is a literary editor of Bunyo Shoten, a major publishing company. He once strived for becoming a writer, yet simply gave up after determining that he is not good enough. He now commits himself to the work of fostering writers. He is a competent editor with the nickname of “Operation Chief” because of his energetic manner of working.
He met with Ai Okajima 3 years ago while he was doing coverage on a family novel, and married her. He is a devoted husband that everyone, including himself, acknowledges.
The emergence of his wife's close friend brought in a crisis to their peaceful home the first time in three years after their marriage.

“The love and hatred portrayed in this drama is nothing special, and I'm sure that anyone watching the drama has these feeling deep within their minds.
I am a kind of person who is too lazy to have energy-consuming affairs. But in the process of performing this character, I hope to find parts of me that I never expected to see, to make new discoveries with the support of Yuki Amami, Taizo Harada and Hikari Ishida.


Ai Sakura, 33 years old (Yuki Amami)
She is Eiichiro's wife. Though small, she manages a home remodeling company. She graduated from an Art School instead of a Department of Construction. Her father left her when she was little, and her mother married again with another man and left her. She is also estranged from her brother due to money trouble. Yet what she chose as her profession was “recovery of houses.” She discusses everything with her husband Eiichiro and is content with her warm “home” which she dreamed of since her childhood. However, the “past” suddenly appears in front of her and she is manipulated into an unexpected direction.

“I am really happy to have such a handsome and smart looking husband as Motoki-san.
Mr. Nozawa's script allows us to express our emotions in many different ways, and I am really looking forward to playing my role. I will do my best performing my role so that wives all over Japan and all over the world will side with me.”


Kosaku Maezono, 29 years old (Taizo Harada)
He is a promising young action novelist and the winner of the Best New Writer of Hardboiled Crime Fictions.
He is encouraged to write love romance by Eiichiro, but can't easily find the lead to it.
He does not have much experience in playing the game of love, so he is always straight forward. He is approached by Yukako, a bar maid whom he met at a bar for writers, and gradually drawn to her. Meanwhile, Eiichiro tells Kosaku about his experience to furnish him with information that might be helpful to him in writing love romance. But Kosaku gradually becomes aware that Eiichiro's story is about his dangerous affair with Misao, and let himself into the triangle zone before he knows it.

“I thought that I would be given a large-hearted yet difficult to please role, and I was surprised with the role of a very earnest cub writer. I hope to watch the drama at home and tell my wife that “Oh it's impossible. Things like this don't ever happen!” My co-actors are all nice people. I want to do my best.”


Akihiro Okajima, 31 years old (Shosuke Tanihara)
He is Ai's young brother, and a young musician composing music for commercials. He walked off with the money Ai patiently saved to start off her company and for this reason has been estranged from Ai over the past few years. He is the only person who knows about the truth of Ai and Misao's “past.”

“Since the story is about adultery, I expected the drama to portray a mire of human entanglement, but surprisingly, it had a comic flavor and I thought ‘that's nice.' I hope that the foolishness of man and the fearfulness of women can be clearly portrayed. Since my role is to throw the three people into confusion, I hope I make the drama amusing.”


Yukako Hamazaki, 22 years old (Misaki Ito)
She is a bar maid working at the bar “Sol” a place for the literal circle patronized by famous writers. But during daytime she is an office worker at a household appliance manufacturer. She actively approaches their new guest Kosaku for business purpose but is gradually drawn to him for his innocence. With the appearance of an unexpected rival, she becomes aware of her true love for him.
“My role is an office worker by day and a bar maid by night. The director tells me to “act like a member of the handicraft club and not that of a volleyball club.” So I hope to portray a woman gentle and quiet like a member of the handicraft club yet one with inner fortitude. Not one who is energetic like a member of an athletic club.


Shogo Okino, 32 years old (Kazuki Kitamura)
He is an interior designer. He is Ai's good adviser on both private and public matters and a close friend of her. For Ai, Shogo is someone to whom she can disclose her real feelings and intensions, even more than to her own husband, Eiichiro. The reason why they can share such an intimate friendship though man and woman is because Shogo can't love women somehow.
“I'm playing a role of gay person. This is my seventh time to play this kind of a part! Since I'm not gay, it is difficult to estimate to what extent I should portray such a character. Well, I will keep my feet flat on the ground.”


Misao Amachi, 33 years old (Hikari Ishida)
Her husband, a finance officer who is ten years older than her, dies suddenly from overwork. Their marriage lasted for only 2 years. Although she was turned out from the house of her husband's parents, she receives a large sum of death benefit and compensation for workmen's accidents and buys a house in the neighborhood of the Sakura family. She meets Ai Sakura, who was a close friend of hers in her school days, after a long separation and is frequently invited to Ai's house where she lives with Eiichiro. Something that has been smoldering for 15 years starts moving and Misao makes advances to Eiichiro as if the hoops have come off the barrel.

“I thought I would never play the part of a lover because I have a baby face. It's a very difficult role and I'm struggling my way through, but Motoki-san is so handsome I'm spell bound everyday. The novel-like script is very interesting, so I'm going to win all the mistresses in Japan on my side and take sufficient care of myself so that I can work really hard over the next three months.”


<Note on Staff and Cast>
This is an original script written by Hisashi Nozawa who is also a novel writer. His works “To My Beloved” and “A Sleeping Forest” gave Mysteries an assured status in the field of drama series in spite of the fact that mysteries were hitherto considered difficult to be made into drama series. He superbly portrayed the break up and resuscitation of families in his “Wife and Husband Trilogy” dramas, “To My Beloved,” “What A Beautiful Life,” and “Living This Love.”
This is the first attempt for Kozo Nagayama to direct and produce a drama series. He is known as the super hit director of the TV drama world who has directed 8 drama series with a rating of 30% from “Tokyo Love Story” to “Love Generation.”
Producer Reiko Kita is working with script writer Hisashi Nozawa on drama series for the seventh time and has also participated in the production of the following films last year: “A Drop of a Saga (Taiga no itteki)” (Original author: Hiroyuki Itsuki, Producer: Seijiro Kamiyama, Released by Toho throughout Japan) and “That's Tokyo (Tokyo zansu)” (Produced by Takanori Jinnai, Kerry Chan, Naoko Nozawa, Kazuna Iida and others / Tsunk Town Films) in which she worked with the artist Tsunk.
Another Producer Kimiyasu Hiraga made his glorious debut in drama series with “Love Revolution” which went on air from April to June in the Monday 9 o'clock time slot.
Direction was done by Nagayama as well as Masaki Nishiura who also directed “Bus Stop” and “Muko-dono.”
The theme song was written by Toshi Kubota after 5 years absence from Fuji Television since he wrote the theme song “La La La Love Song” for “Long Vacation” in 1996. The newly written piece “Candy Rain” is a love ballad. Chiyo Okumura's “The Slave of Love (Koi no Dorei),” the phrase which becomes the keyword and trigger to Eiichiro's affair with Misao in the drama, is also used. Other good old music pieces such as “Terminal Station (Syuchaku Eki)” and “(Uso demo iikara),” the favorites of Misao's dead husband, surge up the special air of the drama.
The cast performing in this drama that portrays new men and women of the 21st century is also very attractive. Masahiro Motoki, an icon even among the actors, has come back to Fuji Television drama series after six years absence since he appeared in “White Love Story (Saiko no Kataomoi)” in 1995. His wife who is deprived of her husband by her former close friend is played by Yuki Amami, an actress possessing a grand aura. The role of the writer is played by gifted entertainer Taizo Harada, who is very popular even in variety shows. Shosuke Tanihara is a young highly talented actor who displayed his talent in full in “Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji (Emergency Ward 24 Hours)” which was broadcasted from July to September 2001 in the Monday 9 o'clock time slot. Misaki Ito is exposing her beautiful body without stint in commercials for cosmetics. Kazuki Kitamura with his manly handsome figure in period dramas says that he is playing the role of a rather unisex figure for the seventh time. And lastly but not the least, Hikari Ishida, sweeping off her pure and innocent image, enacts perfectly her illicit love affair in a romantic yet painful way.


<Synopsis ? episode 1>
Eiichiro Sakura (Masahiro Motoki) is an editor working for a major publishing company.
He has been married for 3 years with his wife Ai (Yuki Amami) and lives on the bank of the Sumida River.
They have no children yet. Ai also manages a home remodeling company and is spending busy days.
Every week, they take a day off both on the same day and enjoy lying down on the grass in the nearby park or have a rendezvous after work at a talked about restaurant. They are leading an extremely peaceful life.
Ai has a good confidant who gives her advice on both professional and private matters. His name is Shogo Okino (Kazuki Kitamura) who is an interior designer.
Her husband professes himself to be a devoted husband. However, “another person in him” unforeseen by he himself taps his shoulder and…

On an Indian summer day, the two attend a funeral of a Ministry officer who died in his mid forties. His wife Misao Amachi (Hikari Ishida), in black, standing in front of the photograph of the deceased is a close friend of Ai with whom she has spent her school days together. Eiichiro and Misao, their eyes meet among the crowd. A rain of mist falls from the shining sun. Eiichiro has noticed.
Are Misao's lips shivering? No, she is humming something. Ai doesn't seem to notice. Eiichiro has a shivering fit.
Among many writers that Eiichiro works with, there is a new writer that Eiichiro cares for.
The writer is Kosaku Maezono (Taizo Harada). He is an action novelist.
Eiichiro recommends him writing love romance, but Kosaku, who is not good at any kind of romance, refuses. However, Kosaku's inspiration as a writer is aroused when he hears about the strange experience that Eiichiro had at the funeral. Meanwhile, Yukako Hamazaki (Misaki Ito) an office worker/bar maid is keen on romance and starts to show interest in Kosaku.
A few days go by. Heartbroken Misao is invited to Ai's place to be encouraged. Kosaku is also invited and the four of them spend a quiet evening. Yet, Kosaku senses the danger in Eiichiro showing interest in his wife's best friend, and at the same time a feeling of sympathy towards Ai, who devotes herself to her husband without knowing anything, seems to arise in him.
Eiichiro does not mention what happened at the funeral. However, he finds it rather awkward that Misao and Ai never tried to see each other after they left school, though they have been very close friends from childhood to their college years, and therefore asks them about it. The two can't give an immediate answer. That did not escape the writer Kosaku's attention. He realizes that there is a domain in between the two which no one can step into.
There is a car parked in front of the house making a loud noise. Akihiro Okajima (Shosuke Tanihara) and Hako Tsuyama (Sayaka Kaneko) are sitting inside the car spying on the house.
Another day, Misao appears in front of Eiichiro. Eiichiro plays the clown before her to mend her broken heart. Misao suddenly bursts into tears while humming a song beloved by her dead husband. That is the same song as the one she was humming at the funeral. And Misao confesses something to him. Eiichiro is bewildered not knowing how to take her confession. A shocking confession of her was “love.”
Soon after, Misao moves to a house in the neighboring town which Ai showed to her.
The above characters are also supported by characters such as Kozaburo Mizoguchi (Ryo Tamura), the master of love stories who Eiichiro is in charge of, Toshihiro Omori (Ryosei Tayama) Eiichiro's boss, and Shimako Kogure (Tae Kimura), the owner of the bar for writers.

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