The Fuji TV drama series "Ramune Monkey" (Wednesdays at 10pm) stars Takashi Sorimachi, Nao Omori, and Kenjiro Tsuda. The synopsis and stills from episode 4, which will air on February 4th, have been released.
Yuta Yoshii (Sorimachi), Hajime Fujimaki (Omori), and Kikuhara Kisuke (Tsuda) receive testimony from Eto, a physical education teacher, that Matilda, also known as Misa Miyashita (Kiryu Aso), was being followed by a man who smelled of alcohol. However, this alone is not enough to identify the culprit.
Kisuke has always been good at drawing and has been drawing manga since he was a child. He now takes over the barbershop run by his parents and looks after his mother, Shoko (Takahashi Keiko), who has dementia. He is advised to try drawing manga even now, and Kisuke sketches out his ideas.
Meanwhile, at the cafe where Nishino Hakuba (Fukumoto Riko) works, the three recall a fight they had with delinquents from a neighboring junior high school. Hajime and Kisuke were being picked on by the delinquents, and Yuta, who happened to be passing by, joined in.
Then Kisuke remembers a memory: when he was harassed by delinquents, he defeated them one after the other using the kung fu techniques he had honed in practice. Though he thinks it was just a delusion, he thinks that a certain man might be the one who killed Matilda.
Wanting to have more time to work on his manga, Kisuke tries to increase the amount of care he provides at home for Shoko. With the addition of a new caregiver, things seem to be going smoothly, but then Shoko suddenly disappears...
The original story and screenplay was written by Ryota Furusawa. The film is a "youth-recovering human comedy" that depicts the reunion and rebirth of two middle-aged men who were passionate about making kung fu movies together in their junior high school days in 1988, but now feel stuck in life and realize that "this isn't how it was supposed to be."
