Monday, September 07, 2009

Sayonara ga Ienakute - TV Asahi Drama SP

Tanimura Mitsuki stars in the upcoming TV Asahi drama SP, "Sayonara ga Ienakute" (Can't say goodbye) which is due to be shown on 18 September 09 at 8pm and based on a true story. She plays a young girl, Nao who is addicted to stimulants and tries hard to stop her addiction with the help of Terawaki Yasufumi's role, Mizutani Osamu who is an education expert reaching out to youths in trouble as he walks around streets at night. At the same time, Nao has to resolve conflicts with her mother played by Katahira Nagisa.

At the preview session on 6 Sep, cast members talked about the filming process in spring and expressed surprise at the extent of the problem in showbiz especially after the arrests of Sakai Noriko and Oshio Manabu. Tanimura mentioned that her character Nao uses syringes to consume stimulants and she had to display the withdrawal symptoms so as to show the extent of the addiction and the side effects. Nao tries to cure herself by sending a letter to Mizutani and asks for help. In preparation for the role, Tanimura visited a rehabilitation centre and found that a lot of the addicts led ordinary lives before they got addicted. As such, she feels that it is important to spread the message of staying away from drugs especially to youths in the same age group as her.

Terawaki commented that they had not expected the issue to be so widespread when filming was done in April. He stressed that the problem is isolated to a small group of people and hoped that people will not get the wrong impression that the entertainment circle is flooded with people who do drugs. In addition, it is important for viewers to note that sympathy and love alone may not solve the problem so there may be a need for drastic measures in order to help addicts break their addiction.

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