On October 6th, WOWOW announced that actress Mizuno Miki is going to star in their new serial drama 'Ten no Hakobune'.

'Ten no Hakobune' is set in the world of international aid and covers everything from the world to come, social criticism, love, and suspense. Mizuno is portraying a woman named 'Nanami', who herself sets foot on the other side of official development assistance (ODA) where bribes, political maneuvering, and greedy people with a lot of money come together under the pretext of international aid.

Nanami was brought up as the daughter of a poor farmer family who fell victims to a great earthquake, but - like many other families - received almost no financial support from the country. She is working in a club alongside her studies at the university in order to send some money home to her family. There she also happens to get acquainted with the young manager of a powerful construction company and his subordinate 'Miyazato' (Ihara Tsuyoshi), who explains to her what's really happening behind the scenes of ODA.

It's a clearly corrupted world, but Nanami takes a great interest in it and gets closer to 'Miyazato'. She asks him to find her a job in this world in exchange for her body, which soon develops into a dangerous game of love and money and a scandal that is going to shake the whole country.

The story is based on a novel of the same name by Hattori Masumi ('The Secret Agreement') and the script is written by the hit drama maker Asano Taeko ('Last Friends', 'Love Generation').



Mizuno and Ihara both went to the Philippines�jungle�for the filming, at the same area that was used for the American war epic 'Apocalypse Now'. After wrapping up their scenes in Cebu and Manila, they went to film in a dense jungle a three-hour drive from Manila. Aside from seeing all manner of dangerous animals, they also had to deal with very high temperatures and intense humidity, as they filmed during the middle of the rainy season.

Ihara commented, "The first thing I did was take out my bug repellent." Meanwhile Mizuno stated that she was more bothered with the lack of a toilet seat at their lodging. Moreover, members of the staff collapsed due to high fever as soon as the filming began. The team feared they were dealing with malaria, but fortunately the fever was "only" the result of overwork.

Furthermore, the water situation was also difficult for some of the crew. �There were even cases among the staff of�diarrhea,�just from using unboiled water to gargle and to brush their teeth. Everyone learned quickly that all water must be undrinkable else it was undrinkable.

As�anticipated, the insects were everywhere unless they turned off all of the lights, which made it impossible to eat for most of them as well. Despite the less than ideal conditions, the the filming ended well.

Mizuno added, "It was basically impossible for the (female) staff to do their business once we left the lodging. However, the harsh conditions also made us become one as a team."

Ihara looked back the filming and said, "Even the director said that he was able to shoot some of his best scenes in his 12-year long career over there. I don't like the jungle, but it's all good since I know that it allowed us to obtain great footage."

The rest of the cast is made up of Takeda Shinji, Toda Naho, Horibe Keisuke, Morisaki Win, and Sano Shiro. WOWOW is going to air a total of five episodes of 'Ten no Hakobune' every Sunday at 10:00 pm, starting on December 9th.

Sources: Mantan-Web, Cinema Today, Nikkan Sports