TBS drama "Tokujo Kabachi"

Sakurai Sho (28) of Arashi is starring in the TBS drama "Tokujo Kabachi!!" (Sundays at 9PM) and will be joined by Leader Ohno Satoshi (29) in the last episode (airing the 21st). In between filming takes on their regular program the other day, Ohno was dilligently practicing his lines with his close friend, Ninomiya Kazunari (26). The first round of practices went fine. It pretty much became an "Arashi friend performance"*

The story is about a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses the law to help the weak. In the last episode, Tamura (played by Sakurai) is introduced to and illegally joins forces with an "introduction shop"* with the suspicious "fellow lawyer," Inugami (Sakaguchi Kenji), who preys upon people with a lot of debt, and later stands up to him. Tamura's trust gained, Inugami investigates a lawyer named Honda (played by Satoshi) who works in the bar association's discipline department.

In between takes while filming Arashi's regular show, Ohno was zealously practicing his lines. Ninomiya, who appeared in "Letters from Iwo Jima" (2006), is very close friends with Ohno and the two have even formed a concert unit called "Ohmiya SK." Ohno, script in hand and looking concerned about his job, will play a villainous "corrupt lawyer." Although there were a great number of difficult technical terms, it went fine in one take. Ohno received a round of heartfelt applause on the set.

"Sho's got a lot of really hard lines like that; I think that's amazing," Ohno said admiringly. Laughingly, he went on, "Good thing I'm not the lead!"

His hair was temporarily sprayed black for this filming, but immediately following washed it out with a smile, returning to the blonde for his role as Kaibutsu-kun.

Sakurai had this to say about Ohno: "Although he just started filming his own drama, he was repeatedly practicing his lines for this one in between takes. I haven't watched the scenes with him in it, so I'll be looking forward to it."