Akari Takaishi will play the heroine in the NHK Asadora drama "Bakebake " (Monday to Saturday, 8:00 AM and other times) which will be broadcast in the second half of 2025. Hashizume Kuniomi, who is the production manager for this work, and director Murahashi Naoki spoke about the reasons for casting Kitagawa Keiko Kitagawa , who plays Tae, the wife of the Ushimizu family, a prestigious family that is Ushimizu 's (Takaishi's) relatives, and Shinichi Tsutsumi, who plays her husband, Den, as well as their appeal and filming anecdotes.
The Ushimizu family is "an incredibly distinguished family" and "I can only think of two people who are convincing"
Kitagawa plays Ushimizu Tae, born into one of Matsue's most prestigious families, who grew up without any hardships surrounded by a large number of maids. She possesses both dignified elegance and strictness, and she even strictly teaches her relative Toki about etiquette, tea ceremony, and other aspects of the culture of a samurai daughter.
Tsutsumi plays Ushimizu Fu, a renowned high-ranking samurai in the Matsue domain, an elite in both the arts and martial arts. He is a man of character so well-known in Matsue that he strives to reach out to many fallen samurai in a changing era. He has been fond of his relative Toki since he was a child. He quickly gave him a topknot and ran a weaving factory. Toki works at the factory to pay off his debts.
Hashizume says of the Ushimizu family, "I wanted to portray them as a very prestigious family in Matsue. I wanted to portray the couple as a symbol of a family that had been at the top of the area for a long time, so I felt that unless I portrayed people who were quite convincing, I wouldn't be able to portray the impression that they were a little detached from the world."
He said, "I could only think of Keiko Kitagawa to play Tae," and revealed, "The only person who could warmly embrace Kitagawa was Shinichi Tsutsumi. So when I reached out to him, he accepted the offer, and the two of them were chosen."
"We were very fortunate this time, and most of the main cast members were our first choice. I feel very lucky, and I hope that this will contribute to the quality of the drama," she says with a smile.
◇ Keiko Kitagawa's excellent performance in "What Will Ieyasu Do?" was the deciding factor
On the other hand, Murahashi said of the two, "I wanted to portray people who have wavered over the years, and to us, both Tsutsumi and Kitagawa appear to be unwavering people. They appear to have a core on the surface, but even though it doesn't appear that way to others, they are both very skilled at expressing that they are wavering deep inside."
He expressed his gratitude, saying, "I was able to take advantage of the atmosphere that surrounds the two characters and portray people who are not confused but are confused, people who are wavering in a world where there are clearly bigger things (the flow of the times) moving forward than what they have decided they will be like. There are very few people like that. In that sense, I am grateful that the two of them (who can do that) were able to play the roles."
Regarding Kitagawa in particular, he revealed, "When we worked together on the 2023 Taiga drama 'What Will Ieyasu Do?', she took on the dual roles of Oichi and Yodo-dono. She did a great job playing a character who has an unshakable, absolute strength of blood that is unwavering no matter what, so I wanted to borrow that presence once again for this story, and that's why I asked her to do it."
◇The scene between the two of them: "It's like a historical drama."
What was the atmosphere between the two of you on set?
Murahashi said, "Both Tsutsumi and Kitagawa said things like, 'It feels like a historical drama only when we're there' (laughs). We've been filming scenes that are not typical of a Asadora, and that was what made an impression on me."
He also said, "I think he read the script and thought it was a comedy, and came to the set, but Fujiki Mitsuhiko's (screenplay) is a strange script in that it's not funny unless you take it seriously, or rather, if you try to make people laugh thinking it's a comedy, the humor disappears. Kitagawa-san immediately grasped this point when she saw the acting of Okabe-san and the others around her, saying, 'They're actually taking it surprisingly seriously,' and I remember keeping saying, 'It's funny because it's serious. It's funny because it's serious.'"
In the third week (October 13-17), the relationship between Toki and the Ushimizu family will be revealed. What will Tae (Kitagawa) and Den (Tsutsumi) look like at that time? We can't take our eyes off Toki's fate.
