Smile is a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese television drama series

Japanese television drama

, also called , are a staple of Japanese television and are broadcast daily. All major TV networks in Japan produce a variety of drama series including murder romance, comedy, detective stories, horror, and many others...

, shown on TBS

Tokyo Broadcasting System

, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....

 started last April 17, 2009. Jun Matsumoto

Jun Matsumoto

, often called by the portmanteau nickname , is a Japanese idol, singer, actor and radio host. He is a member of Japanese boy band Arashi and is best known to Japanese television drama audiences for his portrayal as Tsukasa Dōmyōji in the Hana Yori Dango series, in which he won GQ Japan's Man Of...

, the lead star plays the role of Vito, a half-Filipino, half-Japanese who always smile despite all the problems and difficulties he is facing.

Synopsis

Hayakawa Vito has a Filipino father and a Japanese mother, but he was born and raised in Japan and has never visited the Philippines. The ever-smiling Vito works at Machimura Foods during the day, and at night, he works a part-time job trying to make his dreams come true. One day during an incident at a book store, he meets a girl named Mishima Hana, who lost her ability to speak due to an accident. But even though she can't speak, Vito is drawn to her beautiful smile. However, Vito becomes wrongly suspected by the police for a crime, and after meeting the lawyer Kazuma, the issue begins to grow... Together, Vito, Hana, and Kazuma will go through challenging times and have to overcome many obstacles. -Tokyograph

Cast

• Jun Matsumoto
  Jun Matsumoto
  , often called by the portmanteau nickname , is a Japanese idol, singer, actor and radio host. He is a member of Japanese boy band Arashi and is best known to Japanese television drama audiences for his portrayal as Tsukasa Dōmyōji in the Hana Yori Dango series, in which he won GQ Japan's Man Of...
  
   as Vito Hayakawa
• Aragaki Yui as Mishima Hana
• Nakai Kiichi as Ito Kazuma
• Koike Eiko as Machimura Shiori
• Tokuyama Hidenori as Kawai Kinta
• Suzunosuke (鈴之助)) as "Bull" / Kazama Kenji
• Kitami Toshiyuki as Detective Furuse
• Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as Detective Takayanagi
• Oguri Shun as Hayashi Seiji
• Katsumura Masanobu as Kashiwagi Keisuke
• Maeda Gin as Machimura Sosuke
• Ishida Ayumi as Machimura Midori

Awards and nominations

13th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix

Spring 2009

• Best Drama: Smile
• Best Actor: Matsumoto Jun / Smile
• Best Supporting Actor: Nakai Kiichi / Smile
• Best Supporting Actress: Aragaki Yui / Smile

See also

• Hana Yori Dango
  Hana Yori Dango (TV series)
  Hana Yori Dango is a Japanese television drama series, broadcast on TBS in 2005. It is based on Japanese shōjo manga series, , written by Yoko Kamio. The series is the third television adaptation of the manga following Meteor Garden and its sequel Meteor Garden II in Taiwan. It also resulted in...
  
  
• Arashi
  Arashi
  is a Japanese boy band formed under the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates, which announced the formation of the group on November 3, 1999 in Honolulu, Hawaii...
  
  
• Bambino!
  Bambino!
  is a Japanese cooking manga written and illustrated by Tetsuji Sekiya. The manga has been serialized in Shogakukan's seinen magazine Big Comic Spirits. As of February 2009, Shogakukan has published 14 bound volumes of the manga...
  
  
• Gokusen
  Gokusen
  is a manga series by Kozueko Morimoto. The story follows Kumiko Yamaguchi, the granddaughter of a Yakuza boss and teacher at an all-male private high school. In 2008, a SP manga was out, featuring some of Yankumi's old students who are by now working adults.In 2002, the manga was adapted into a...