The film "HERO" (directed by Suzuki Masayuki, 2015), in which Kimura Takuya plays an unconventional prosecutor, will be broadcast on Fuji TV's "Saturday Premium" slot (Saturdays at 9pm) on February 21st. The film is the second feature film in the popular drama "HERO," in which Kimura plays the unconventional prosecutor Kuryu Kouhei. The broadcast will commemorate the release of the film "Kyojo Requiem," starring Kimura, on the 20th.
"HERO" is set in the Josai Branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office and follows a group of unique members, led by Kuriu (played by Kimura), as they uncover the truth behind a case. When it was first broadcast as a serial drama in 2001, it became a huge hit with an average audience rating of over 30%, and was made into a special drama in 2006 and a movie in 2007. In 2014, the second season of the serial drama was broadcast for the first time in 13 years.
In this second feature film, Kuriu and other prosecutors and administrative officers from the Josai branch delve into the truth that lies beyond the "huge wall" of diplomacy and the embassy, where Japanese judicial authority does not reach.
Koichi Sato will appear as a Ministry of Foreign Affairs bureaucrat who stands in Kuriu's way. The regular cast from the drama that aired in 2014, including Keiko Kitagawa, will also appear, and Takako Matsu, who played the heroine Amemiya Maiko in Season 1, will be returning to the role for the first time in eight years since the first movie, which has attracted a lot of attention.
A female party companion is hit and killed by a car in an alley behind the Embassy of the Principality of Neustria. Prosecutor Kuryu Kohei (Kimura) of the Josai Branch of the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, together with his clerk Maki Chika (Kitagawa), interrogate the driver who caused the accident. Then, the two are confronted by Amemiya Maiko (Matsu), who used to work as Kuryu's clerk. Amemiya, currently working as a prosecutor at the Namba Branch of the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, is investigating an extortion case involving a regional organized crime group, and a key witness in the case is the victim of an accident Kuryu is handling.
This is no mere traffic accident. Kuriu and Amemiya sense this and begin a joint investigation. To find out what happened at the time of the accident, they visit the embassy of the Principality of Neustria to speak with embassy staff, but are flatly refused. This is because the embassy has "extraterritoriality" and is completely outside the reach of Japanese judicial powers. Kuriu makes repeated approaches, but naturally the embassy does not respond at all. Eventually, unexpected pressure is applied by Matsuba Keisuke (Sato), a bureaucrat at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who takes the situation seriously.
Even Kuriu, as expected, is powerless in the face of the "embassy," an "absolute territory" that must never be violated, and the investigation hits a dead end with no progress. Will Kuriu be able to reach the "truth" that lies beyond the "walls of the embassy"?
Other cast members include Sugimoto Tetta, Hamada Gaku, Masana Bokuzo, Yoshida Yo, Matsushige Yutaka, Yashima Tomohito, Kohinata Fumiyo, and Kadono Takuzo.
