Ikki Sawamura to star in WOWOW drama

Sawamura Ikki will be starring in the new WOWOW drama "Kibougaoka no Hitobito" (The people of Hope Hill) which will begin its run from 16 July in the Saturdays 10pm timeslot.

The drama which consists of 5 episodes, is based on the same-titled novel by Shigematsu Kiyoshi and the script will be written by Okada Yoshikazu. Sawamura plays the role of Tajima Toru who lost his wife to cancer and moves to her hometown at Kibougaoka with his daughter and son who are in the second year of junior high and Primary 3 respectively. This will be his first appearance in a Shigematsu adaptation.

Source: Sanspo

Ikki Sawamura to star in NTV 2016 Fall drama

Sawamura Ikki will be starring in the NTV Autumn 2016 drama "Rental Kyuuseishu" (Rental Saviour) which will begin its run from October in the Sundays 10.30pm timeslot. The drama features Sawamura as Akenabe Yugo who is a nice guy with huge debts and becomes a "rental saviour" for the sake of his wife. With just a phone call, anyone can engage a rental saviour for a limited period to solve their problems. Sawamura commented that he has never played such a character before and feels that there is meaning in taking on this role which he hopes that the viewers will like as well. Co-stars include Johnny's WEST member Fujii Ryuusei who also plays a rental saviour Aoi Denjiro while Shida Mirai plays a mysterious young woman who is saved by Akenabe and Aoi on their first mission.

Filming starts in early September.

Sources: Sanspo 1 / Sanspo 2 / Yomiuri Hochi

Ikki Sawamura to star in TV Asahi Special

Sawamura Ikki will be starring in the TV Asahi drama SP "Keiji Inukai Hayato" which will be shown on 24 September at 9pm. This is the second installment in the series after the first part shown in April last year. The drama SP is based on the "Keiji Inukai Hayato" series by Nakayama Shichiri and features Sawamura as the lead character Inukai Hayato who is a smart but reticent police detective who investigates difficult cases. His buddy Kotegawa Kazuya will be played by Seto Koji.

The challenge in the new installment for both actors is that Sawamura had to take on more action scenes while Seto had to memorise long lines for his dialogue. Sawamura commented that as Inukai hardly speaks, he had to express his emotions in ways other than spoken dialogue. He also hopes to be able to use these action scenes to show people who are around 50 that they can still be physically fit enough like him. As for Seto, he said that although the camaraderie between Inukai and Kotegawa has improved in the new installment, he had to speak a lot more lines this time.

Co-stars include the last installment's cast Watanabe Ikkei, Nukumizu Yoichi, Horibe Keisuke and Kato Masaya.

Sources: Sponichi / Oricon

Ikki Sawamura and Yoshiyoshi Arakawa to appear in TV Asahi drama special

Sawamura Ikki and Arakawa Yoshiyoshi will appear in the new TV Asahi drama SP "Soshite dare mo inakunatta" starring Nakama Yukie which will be shown at 9pm on 25th and 26th March.

The mystery story depicts how 10 people at a hotel on an isolated island were killed one by one and the 10 bodies were discovered later. Nakama Yukie plays the role of a former swimmer Shiramine Ryo who is a home tutor rumoured to have caused the death of her student in a swimming pool 5 years ago. Co-stars include Watase Tsunehiko, Tsugawa Masahiko, Yo Kimiko, Yanagiba Toshiro, Daichi Mao, Mukai Osamu and Kunimura Jun who play the guests at the hotel while Hashizume Isao and Fuji Mariko will play the butler and his wife respectively.

Sawamura plays the role of a detective from the 1st section of Metropolitan Police Department who is very observant and doesn't miss out anything. Arakawa plays a lieutenant from the Hachijojima Higashi Police Station who is sent to investigate the case as the island where the murders took place are under its jurisdiction.

Sawamura commented that their characters in the drama don't really get along with each other but he really enjoyed bickering with Arakawa on screen. In response, Arakawa pointed out that the director said that the balance between their characters made the drama even more interesting so he was glad that things turned out well in the end.

Source: Nikkansports

Ikki Sawamura to star in TV Tokyo 2017 Fall drama

Sawamura Ikki will be starring in the new TV Tokyo Autumn 2017 drama "Universal Koukokusha Anata no jinsei urikomimasu" (Universal Ad Agency I will sell your life) which will begin its run from October 2017 in the Fridays 8pm timeslot. This will be Sawamura's first leading role in a TV Tokyo drama. The drama which is based on the popular novel "Hana no sakuradoori" in the "Universal Koukokusha" series by Naoki Award winner Ogiwara Hiroshi, will have its script written by Okada Yoshikazu.

The story features Sawamura as the lead character Sugiyama who used to be an elite employee at a top-notch advertising agency but failed in striking out on his own even though he had a lot of faith in his abilities. He then joins a small advertising agency named Universal Koukokusha in a sleepy seaside town and works hard in carving out a niche for himself. Sawamura who had starred in two SPs of this series, said that he's eagerly anticipating the start of the filming as this is the first time he is acting in a TV Tokyo drama series. With this drama, Sawamura has also achieved a "Grand Slam" by securing leading roles in dramas from all 5 Tokyo private networks which he attributed to the people he had met over the last 21 years of his career and the viewers who have been supporting him all this while.

Sources: Eiga.com / Sanspo / Sponichi

Ikki Sawamura to star in TV Asahi drama Special

Ikki Sawamura will star in the TV Asahi drama Special "Daijoyuu Satsujin Jiken" which will air March 25th at 9pm.

Sawamura plays police detective Ryuuya Shoukokuji. He investigates the murder of a woman that happens at a party held by a famous actress. Because of the large number of guests at the party there are several suspects.

Co-starring will be Hitomi Kuroki who plays Madoka Irodori, the actress who held the party where the murder happened. Naomi Zaizen will play an actress that is a rival of Kuroki's. Yoshiyoshi Arakawa plays Sawamura's partner.

Source: Oricon

Ikki Sawamura to star in TV Asahi Winter 2019 drama

Ikki Sawamura will star in the Winter 2019 TV Asahi drama "Keiji Zero" (Detective Zero).
Sawamura plays detective Rekihiko Tokiya. An accident causes him to lose the last 20 years of his memory. He returns to work, but his methods are different from the other detectives.

The series begins airing in January 2019.

Source: natalie