A completion report meeting for the drama series "Drama W: Someone in This Town" (WOWOW, Sundays at 10pm), starring actor Eguchi Yosuke and co-star Makita Aju, which will begin airing on December 8th, was held in Tokyo on December 5th, with Eguchi, Makita and director Sato Yuichi in attendance. In relation to the film, when asked about a "secret you can't tell anyone," Eguchi said with a wry smile, "There's no way I could tell anyone that! Everyone has something like that. It's scarier not to have one. I can't say that, but I do, and I can't say it in a public place like this." The event was streamed live on the WOWOW official LINE account.
Makida also answered the same question, "I can't say either," and Director Sato spoke about an unexpected side of the cast. Director Sato said about Eguchi, "He's a very sensitive person. He's very sensitive, and (even during filming) I look at his expression in the morning and wonder what he's thinking," to which Eguchi replied impatiently, "No, there was a role for me. I had to be very sensitive to do it."
The drama is based on the novel of the same name (Kodansha), the first work by Hiromi Sano since winning the Edogawa Rampo Prize in 2020. Set in a newly developed residential area where a brutal kidnapping and murder case once occurred, this social mystery vividly and vividly depicts the fear caused by the "peer pressure" that swirls among the residents. This is the first time that one of Sano's novels has been made into a TV series.
Eguchi will play Yuichi Masaki, a law firm investigator who has been living without hope since his daughter's suicide, for the first time in four years. Makida will play Maki Mochizuki, who is approached by a man asking him to "find his family" and travels to the town where he and his family once lived as a buddy.
Regarding his preparation for the role, Eguchi said, "It's a heavy role in which a family member has lost their loved ones. Since that was where I started, I stripped away any energetic parts and went to the set. The director is also a veteran, so I left it to him and felt like I was able to create the character of Masaki."
Director Sato explained, "The theme is peer pressure. The story is set in a town, and the main flow of the story is about people being bound by the rules that the town has decided on." He added, "The thing I paid most attention to was family affection. Maki wants to get to know her family, and Masaki also acts with various feelings for his family in his heart. I played the role with the idea that family affection was running underneath."
He said that a highlight of the film is "Eguchi's expression as the father," saying, "For our generation, we have a strong image of him as a 'big brother' and he also has an energetic side, but he chooses not to show that and instead expresses the sadness that only a father can have. I think we'll be able to see a different Eguchi than usual."
Episode 1 is currently being streamed for free on WOWOW On Demand and the official WOWOW YouTube account.
