Director Hideo Nakata, known for the "Ring" film series, appeared at a preview screening of the first episode of his WOWOW drama series "Consultant - The Man Who Writes About Death," held in Tokyo on May 21st. He revealed that he was impressed by the performance of lead actor Kentaro Ito.
The drama is a dark suspense series based on the novel "The Consultant" by Im Sung-soon. Izaki, an unremarkable man aspiring to be a mystery novelist, is dragged into a mysterious organization called "The Company" and transformed into an assassination consultant, writing "perfect assassination scenarios" that no one will notice. However, he gradually becomes entangled in an overwhelming evil and finds himself with no escape. This is WOWOW's first dramatization of a K-literature (Korean literature) work, and the directors are Nakata and Yoshinori Kobayashi, known for the "Unfair" series (Fuji TV).
Director Nakata, who was working with Ito as both director and actor for the first time, described his initial impression of Ito, saying, "He's tall and has a certain charisma. He looks great in both movies and dramas, and I got the impression that he's someone who takes acting very seriously."
He said that filming began with the scene in the used bookstore that appears in the first episode, and added, "Actually, the same scene appears again in the sixth episode. At the end, he appears once more as a highly refined consultant. In the first and sixth episodes (on the same day), the character's inner self is set up to be completely different, but we didn't discuss it in detail, yet he performed it brilliantly. I remember being impressed once again, thinking, 'This person instinctively understands what it means to be a character.'"
Regarding GACKT, who plays the mysterious man Akifumi Kurokawa who scouts Izaki for "The Company," Director Nakata said, "At first there was a sense of tension, but he has a lot of manliness," and added, "It's a role with a series of incredibly long lines, but he was cool when he did it perfectly and left with a cool expression on his face."
The talk event was also attended by screenwriter Masashi Todayama, known for his work on "The Houtei no Dragon" (TV Tokyo) and "Galapagos" (NHK), and producer Mako Hirose.
"Continuous Drama W Consultant - The Man Who Writes About Death -" will begin airing and streaming on WOWOW Prime and WOWOW On Demand on June 7th at 10 PM. It will consist of 6 episodes, with the first episode being free to watch and stream.
