Keiko Kitagawa to star in Fuji TV detective drama

Kitagawa Keiko will be starring in upcoming Fuji TV drama 'Tantei no Tantei.'

This will be her first time to be the lead for a serial drama on Fuji TV.

"Tantei no Tantei ('Detective versus Detectives')" is a live-action adaptation of Matsuoka Keisuke's popular novel series of the same name.

In the drama, Kitagawa will play the female detective Sasaki Rena who is both beautiful and smart. She works for a medium-sized research agency called Suma Research Agency. Because of her past related to her sister's death, she became a detective that investigates and pursues unscrupulous detectives.

Reportedly, there will be hard action scenes, and Kitagawa is said to be taking kickboxing training in order to prepare. Also, according to Kitagawa who has read the script up to the 4th episode, "I haven't found a single smiling scene for me so far. This would be my first role in a serial drama that does not smile at all." She also said, "Since it's a very exciting role, I can't wait for filming to begin."

'Tantei no Tantei' will begin airing in July on Fuji TV (every Thursday at 10:00 pm).

Source: Oricon

Keiko Kitagawa and DAIGO announce their marriage

DAIGO and Kitagawa Keiko announced via their official websites and blogs on 11 January that they had submitted their marriage application on the same day. The couple met while filming the Winter 2011 drama "LADY ~ Saigo no Hanzai Profile ~" and their relationship came to light in 2014. DAIGO was said to have proposed to Kitagawa after finishing his 100km marathon for NTV's "24 Jikan Terebi" charity event last August.

In Kitagawa's statement, she mentioned that as she is turning 30 this year, getting married marks the beginning of a new phase in life for her. She also expressed her thanks to everyone around her and pledged to become an even better person and actor from now on. As for DAIGO, he revealed that he already had plans to make the announcement personally after filing the marriage application so he is happy to achieve that (rather than letting the news leak beforehand). He expressed his hope that they will be able to build a happy family together and support each other in their work and private lives. DAIGO ended his announcement by thanking everyone who has been supportive of them and asked for their continued support in future.

DAIGO will be seen in the upcoming NTV Winter 2016 drama "Higanbana ~ Keishicho Sousa Nanaka ~" starting from 13 January while Kitagawa's new movie "No You na Mono No You na Mono" is due to be screened in cinemas from 16 January.

Source: Oricon 1 / Oricon 2

Keiko Kitagawa to star in TV Asahi Special "Kuroi Jukai"

Kitagawa Keiko will be starring in the new TV Asahi drama SP "Kuroi Jukai" (The Black Sea of Trees) which will be shown this spring. This is her first drama appearance since she got married to DAIGO on 11 January and her first attempt at a Matsumoto Seicho novel's drama adaptation. "Kuroi Jukai" which was published in 1960, was last adapted 11 years ago and had 5 prior drama/movie versions to date. In this current version, the time setting was changed to the current era. Filming began at various locations such as Omachi City in Nagano Prefecture, around the same time when Kitagawa got married.

Kitagawa plays the lead character Kasahara Shoko who suspects that her elder sister's death was not an accident and tries to find out the truth by working as a contract worker in the news agency where the latter had worked at prior to her death. While investigating her sister's case, people who had a part to play in it are found dead one after another. She will be working together with Mukai Osamu who will be playing Yoshii, a mysterious news reporter who helps her with the investigation. Kitagawa and Mukai last worked together in the 2011 movie "Paradise Kiss" when they were still both single but Kitagawa is married now while Mukai is already a father of one after marrying Kuninaka Ryoko in 2014. They said that it was fun to catch up with each other after all these years and they both felt that they wouldn't have expected their lives to have changed so much in a couple of years at that time when they first worked together.

Co-stars also include Sawamura Ikki who is a pediatrician suspected to be involved in Shoko's elder sister's death, Koike Eiko and Asou Yumi.

Source: Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi

Keiko Kitagawa to star in NTV 2016 Summer drama

Kitagawa Keiko will be starring in the upcoming NTV Summer 2016 drama "Ie uru onna" (The woman who sells houses) which will begin its run from July in the Wednesdays 10pm timeslot. This will be her first drama series since she got married to DAIGO. In preparation for the filming and to have a change in image, Kitagawa cut her hair short after her wedding ceremony on 29 April.

The drama which is written by Oishi Shizuka, features Kitagawa as a 30-year-old super saleswoman named Sangenya Machi who is working in a real estate company and helps her clients to solve their private issues while handling the sale and purchase of their houses. Despite being the type not to pander to her clients, making her clients hungry at times and even resorting to lies such as other people having signed contracts to purchase the houses, she still manages to close her deals and her clients are all satisfied with their purchases at the end.


Sources: Yomiuri Hochi 1 / Yomiuri Hochi 2

Keiko Kitagawa to star in WOWOW drama

Kitagawa Keiko will be starring in the new WOWOW drama "Hippocrates no Chikai" (The Hippocratic Oath) which will be shown from 2 October in the Sundays 10pm timeslot. This will be her first attempt at playing a doctor in a medical-themed drama and her first leading role in a WOWOW drama. The drama is based on the same-titled novel by Nakayama Shichiri and focuses on forensic medicine.

Kitagawa plays the role of Tsugano Makoto, a medical intern who is working in the internal medicine department of a hospital when her respected mentor Professor Tsukuba (Furuya Ikko) recommends that she transfer to the forensic medicine department for an internship stint. Upon her transfer, Makoto realises that the atmosphere there is very different and she is shocked by her mentoring professor Mitsuzaki Tojiro's (Shibata Kyohei) eccentric character and aloof attitude. Just then, she receives a call from a young girl asking if they can perform an autopsy on a woman who was killed in a car accident caused by the girl's father. At the same time, a police detective Kotegawa Kazuya (Onoe Matsuya) approaches Mitsuzaki with the same request even though the police had deemed that there was nothing suspicious about the woman's death but Kotegawa decides to proceed with the autopsy request at the request of the man's family. Despite having reservations about Kotegawa's way of doing things, Makoto gradually realises how skillful he is and develops a newfound admiration for him. However, the autopsy brings a dark secret to light which causes Makoto to be embroiled into an unexpected situation.

Before she became an actress, Kitagawa had dreamt of becoming a doctor during her high school days as she wanted to be of use to others. While wearing the doctor's robe for the first time during the filming, she felt that it was a new challenge for her and she wanted to show how Makoto grows as a doctor as the story progresses.

Co-stars include Hamada Mari who plays the assistant of Mitsuzaki, Sato Megumi who plays Makoto's best friend as well as Aijima Kazuyuki and Kaneda Akio. Filming was completed in early April this year.

Sources: Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi

Keiko Kitagawa to be heroine in new movie "Hamon Futari no Yakubyougami"

Kitagawa Keiko will be the heroine in the new movie "Hamon Futari no Yakubyougami" which is due to be shown in cinemas from 28 January. She will play the role of a beautiful woman Yuki who one of the leads Yokoyama Yu is in love with. In this movie, Kitagawa who comes from Kobe City, will be speaking Kansai-ben throughout the entire movie which will be a first for her. Previously, she had done the same in the 2012 TV Asahi drama "Mi wo tsukushi Ryourichou".

Although speaking Kansai-ben should be a breeze for Kitagawa, the problem is that she had left her hometown to work and stay in Tokyo since she was 17 so she had to go through training with a dialect teacher so as to get the intonation correct. As most of the cast members are from the Kansai region, Kitagawa commented that it is a very rare experience to be able to converse in Kansai-ben with her colleagues and staff.

The only cast member who does not come from the Kansai region is Hashimoto Manami who hails from Yamagata and she plays the lover of a movie producer (Hashizume Isao). Although Hashimoto has been named as the No.1 woman who men want to have as a lover, this is actually her first role as a lover. Hashimoto remarked that the biggest challenge for her is having to speak her lines in Kansai-ben so she has been practising hard to get the accent correct.

Sources: Sanspo 1 / Sanspo 2

Keiko Kitagawa to release new photo book '30'

Keiko Kitagawa will release a new photo book entitled '30' on December 5th. This marks the actress' first photo book in three years.

The theme of the photo book is 'change' representing her marriage and turning 30 years old. It will feature a long interview continuing from her previous photo book '27' which was released when she was 27. She will touch upon topics such as "looking into the future", and "on meeting my soulmate and marriage". It will also include photos from her wedding reception held this past April.

Besides a studio in Tokyo, the photoshoot took place in three Italian cities, Rome, Florence, and Venice.

To commemorate the photo book's release Kitagawa will hold a handshake event on December 4 in Fukuoka, December 10 in Tokyo, and December 17 in Kobe.

Source: Model Press

japanese_boy wrote:

this girl is also kawaiii.. i knew her from comparateur assurance chat SailorMoon Live ACtion... she also acted in THE FAST n THE FURIOUS TOKYO DRIFT... so kawaii..

Hello,
Indeed it is indeed it!
And it must be said that it is as well known!
Looks like a manga face!

Keiko Kitagawa to return in NTV drama special

Kitagawa Keiko will be back to reprise her role in the NTV drama SP "Kaettekita Ie uru onna" which is the sequel of the drama series shown last summer. The drama SP set two years after the end of the drama series will be shown at 9pm on 26 May and features the original cast of Nakamura Tooru, Kudo Asuka, Imoto Ayako and Chiba Yuudai.

Two years after Sangenya Machi (Kitagawa) and Yashiro Dai (Nakamura) left the Shinjuku branch of Teekoo Fudousan, business is no longer brisk and on the verge of collapse. Niwano Seiji (Kudo) decides to seek help from Machi who is the president of Sanchii Fudousan now and gets a shock when he sees Machi and Yashiro with a baby.
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Kitagawa commented that although she was excited about playing Machi again, she was worried about whether she could fit into the role immediately. However, once she put on Machi's clothes and met her co-stars, she could ease into the role without much effort. She also said that the SP will be very entertaining for everyone with the existing cast's developments and addition of new "customers" and hopes that it will be even better than the drama series. As for acting with a 6-month-old baby this time, Kitagawa said that the baby was so active and heavy that she developed muscle pains after carrying the baby during the filming.

Sources: Sanspo / Yomiuri Hochi / Oricon

Keiko Kitagawa to star in TV Asahi Special

Keiko Kitagawa will star in the TV Asahi Fall drama Special "Shitei Bengoshi" airing in September.

Kitagawa plays a prosecutor taking on a case against a politician Seizo Tagane, played by Renji Ishibashi over a suspected illegal land deal. Tagane is to be given immunity for his testimony but people become upset that he will not be prosecuted. Kitagawa is helped in her case by another lawyer, Shinji Tachibana played by Kazuki Kitamura.

Also in the cast are Namase Katsuhisa and Yutaka Matsushige.

Source: natalie

Any similarities between this and Shinzo Abe's land deal scandal is purely coincidental.

No!

no pregnancy news for her?! if there is one then let me know ok?

GaimRider wrote:

no pregnancy news for her?!

Well, she's not making any long term plans. Starring in another special.

Keiko Kitagawa to star in NHK drama special

Keiko Kitagawa will star in the NHK drama special "Fake News" which will air in October.

Kitagawa plays reporter Itsuki Shinonome. She is covering a story about insects found in instant food. The story was first posted on social media by a man played by Ken Mitsuishi.

Source: natalie

GaimRider wrote:

no pregnancy news for her?! if there is one then let me know ok?

There is now:

Keiko Kitagawa pregnant with first child

Actress Keiko Kitagawa is pregnant with her first child.

On her official blog, Kitagawa wrote, "As it has been reported, I am currently pregnant with my first baby. If everything goes well, I will be giving birth this fall. I am planning to continue working, but it's at a standstill now due to the coronavirus."

She added, "It's a crazy situation worldwide, but I hope to overcome this while carefully managing my health. Everybody, please stay healthy. I pray from the bottom of my heart that things will be back to normal as soon as possible."

Source: Oricon

^ In a break from current trend, they actually told us the gender. It's a girl!!

Keiko Kitagawa gives birth to first child

Keiko Kitagawa and husband DAIGO announced the arrival of their first child, a girl, on their respective blogs on September 7th, 2020.

Source: natalie

Keiko Kitagawa and Eita to star in TBS Spring 2021 drama

Keiko Kitagawa and Eita will co-star in the TBS Spring 2021 drama "Rikokatsu".

Kitagawa plays the editor of a fashion magazine and Eita plays a member of the Air Self Defense force. In spite of their differences, they fall in love, get married quickly and when problems and conflicts arise they decide to secretly get a divorce.

The drama will air in April 2021.