The much talked about NHK evening drama "Hira Yasumi" (General TV, Monday to Thursday 10:45pm) starring actor Okayama Amane and co-starring Mori Nana is a live-action adaptation of the manga of the same name by Shinzo Keigo, which has been serialized in Weekly Big Comic Spirits since 2021, and will enter its final week on December 1st. Producer Otsuka Yasuki shared his impression of Riho Yoshioka, who plays Tachibana Yomogi, along with some anecdotes from filming.
The drama tells the story of 29-year-old part-time worker Hiroto Ikuta (Okayama) who inherits a single-story house from his neighbor Hanae Wada (Negishi Tokie) and begins living with his 18-year-old cousin Natsumi Kobayashi (Mori), who has moved to Tokyo from Yamagata. People with difficult life problems gather around them...
Yomogi, played by Yoshioka, works at a real estate company. She is a hard worker and is considered the ace of the workplace. However, she is consumed with work every day and leads a life that is a little stressful. She becomes acquainted with Hiroto by chance, but is sometimes irritated by his carefree nature. During the Tanabata Festival, she loses her beloved cat at her parents' house, and in her pain, she snaps at the carefree Hiroto, but later regrets her actions and apologizes to him. The two of them have grown a little closer in their hearts.
Otsuka revealed, "In the 10th festival episode, there was a scene where Yoshioka's idea was used directly as dialogue."
"In the scene where Hiroto and Yomogi want to eat the same thing, the food is actually different in the original work, but due to circumstances at the filming location, we decided to come up with an original location and menu."
Initially, the script called for "yangnyeom chicken." However, one day during a shoot, Yoshioka-san, with shining eyes, suggested "a mega-portion of yangnyeom chicken topped with cheese."
"In order to get even closer to the original in the exquisite sense of 'I came here because I wanted to eat that,' Yomogi came up with that scene from her perspective, adding an extra layer of exquisiteness to the regular 'yangnyeom chicken' by adding a 'mega-sized heaping serving of cheese on top.' Both Okayama and the director agreed with Yoshioka's suggestion, and we completed an important scene in which Hiroto and Yomogi open up to each other."
