The fourth episode of the Tuesday drama "Toki Sude ni Osushi!?" (TBS, Tuesdays at 10 PM), starring actress Hiromi Nagasaku, will air on April 28th. We spoke to producer Chiaki Masuda about the highlights and behind-the-scenes stories from the filming.
The drama tells the story of Minato Machiyama (played by Nagasaku), who, having finished raising her children, is bewildered by the "time to herself" that she finally has again at the age of 50, but begins her second life and jumps into a "sushi academy" where she can become a sushi chef in three months.
◇Highlights of Episode 4
As Golden Week begins and the world is in a festive mood, this time of year reminds Minato of the anniversary of her late husband Kou's (Junpei Goto) death and a certain regret she has kept hidden in her heart for a long time.
At Yokota Sushi Academy, French exchange student César (Jua) will be joining the Oedo (Kenichi Matsuyama) class, making the team even more lively.
In a class on handling shellfish, Minato faces the challenge of "removing the shell and extracting the contents without damaging them." While Cesar is open and friendly to everyone and speaks freely about himself, and Tateishi (Shiro Sano) and Kurumi (First Summer Uika) can also easily share personal stories, Minato feels like he's the only one who can't say anything and can't fit in. This episode also explores the question of how to finally express his true self. And at Snack Veteran-ko, a little romance unfolds.
Meanwhile, a mysterious woman calling herself Mio and her pug dog are closing in on Oedo...? Our guest for this episode is Shiori Doi. I can't say too much yet, but when I was writing the script and thinking about who would be best suited to play Mio, the image of Ms. Doi immediately came to mind, and I couldn't imagine anyone else in the role.
As expected, or rather, even better than expected, Matsuyama-san and the other actors are having a fantastic exchange. You'll also see expressions from Oedo-sensei that you've never seen before. Pay attention to what kind of turmoil Mio and the dog will stir up in the story. Please look forward to it!
◇Behind-the-scenes stories from the filming of Episode 3
In episode 3 of "Veteran-ko," we saw a passionate scene featuring Oedo-san. On the day of filming, there was a sense of tension on set, but I felt that everyone was excited to witness that moment. It turned out to be another exciting and fun shoot that exceeded our expectations.
In the singing scenes, Tsubaki Nekozawa, who plays Ranko, always adds her own ad-libs as interjections, and since you never know what she's going to say, there's always laughter during filming. I was truly impressed by the perfection of First Summer Uika's singing and dancing as Kurumi. She put a lot of thought into how to sing, and I thought, "So that's how Kurumi sings!" Her singing voice alone revealed another facet of her character.
