Playback ’13] Can We See It Anymore? Teruyuki Kagawa’s “smug” face on location for “Hanzawa Naoki”.

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, and 30 years ago? Playback Friday” takes a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we bring you the “Teruyuki Kagawa’s ‘smug face that gets numbers'” from the October 11, 2001 issue, which was published 10 years ago.

Is that not Executive Director Owada? I wonder if it’s a sequel to ‘Hanzawa Naoki. I’m looking forward to it.”

The final episode of the hit drama “Hanzawa Naoki” (TBS), in which Masato Sakai (39 at the time) played Naoki Hanzawa and Teruyuki Kagawa (47) made Executive Director Satoru Owada get down on his knees 100 times, sent Japan into a frenzy, and the final episode on September 22, 2012, achieved an average rating of 42.2%, ranking fourth in the drama series’ all-time viewer ratings.

In addition to Sakai’s performance, the presence of Kagawa, a genius actor who showed off a hundred faces from smug to crying, won the hearts of viewers. When Kagawa and Hidetoshi Nishijima, then 42, appeared at a cafe in the heart of Tokyo, the eyes of passersby were fixed on them.

We didn’t know anything about the drama except that it was directed by Eiichiro Hazumi. Kagawa expressed his emotions with a single facial expression, and it was a sight to behold.

This location shooting is thought to be for “MOZU” (TBS/WOWOW), which was aired the following year in 2002. Even before “Hanzawa,” Kagawa had already appeared in many dramas and movies, and had already made a name for himself as a good, quirky supporting player, but his role as Executive Director Owada made him an actor known by all. In particular, his “Kneeling Down Scene,” in which it took him two to three minutes to get down on his knees after declaring that he was going to get down on his knees, became a legendary scene, and in the sequel “Hanzawa,” produced seven years later, the use of the 100 faces became so frequent that it was ridiculed as a “facial trick. However, after “Hanzawa,” Kagawa continued to use the “100 Faces” technique.

After “Hanzawa,” Kagawa’s field of activity expanded considerably. In addition to his work as kabuki actor Ichikawa Chuguruma, he has also commentated on boxing, hosted a TV show as an insect enthusiast and “mantis sensei,” and launched an insect apparel brand. In 2009, he also became the MC of the morning information program “THE TIME” (TBS).

Everything took a turn for the worse in August 2010, when “Daily Shincho” reported a sexual assault at a club in Ginza. Subsequently, “Shukan Shincho” also published photos of Kagawa pulling another woman’s hair. Kagawa apologized in “THE TIME” and withdrew from the program and commercials in which he was appearing.

In December ’22, Kagawa returned to the stage as a kabuki actor, and in August it was revealed that he had remarried the previous year and had one child. However, in the same month, he made the following comment about his future activities.

I intend to devote the rest of my life solemnly to the preservation of the ecosystem through Kabuki and insects.

I wonder if we will ever see that “smug” face again.