The Driver SP

Date: From 9.00 p.m., 11 October 2015
Scriptwriter: Tokunaga Yuichi (Tantei no Tantei, Keiji 110 kg, Tokyo Toy Box)

Synopsis
Konoe Joichiro (Uchino Masaaki), in a white-shirt and necktie, and Tabata Kohei (Tsukamoto Takashi), in work outfit, are truck drivers who race through the streets of Kansai as always. Joichiro drives the refrigerated truck up in front of a shop and brings in the fresh foodstuffs. Beside him, Kohei locates nearby restaurants with his tablet PC and lures Joichiro. But he is curtly told that delivering the fresh goods takes priority. Kohei grumbles, “That’s why you’re a former banker …” but silently obeys. When the two of them return to the truck, there is an unfamiliar small girl sitting inside. She hands a note with the words “Please send this child to this address” to Joichiro. Even so, Joichiro puts their job first. After delivering all the goods, they drive the girl to the address but neither her mother nor father are there. They have no choice but to bring her back to the company. However, their boss, Tabata Namiko (Wakamura Mayumi), who is also Kohei’s older sister, believes the words of the girl Mamiya Yui (Watanabe Konomi), that her father is in Kesennuma and orders Joichiro and Kohei to bring her to Kesennuma while on the job. The two of them reluctantly take Yui and set off on a long journey by truck. When they arrive in Kesennuma, Yui makes them stop the truck at the nursery school that she used to attend. Joichiro and Kohei instinctively cheer up at the sight of the beautiful nursery school teacher Murase Rena (Minamisawa Nao). They hear about the circumstance from Rena, and take Yui to her father Mamiya Keiichi (Kitamura Yukiya), who is a potter. But Mamiya ignores Yui for some reason. Joichiro asserts that he has a duty to take her in if her mother is missing. Mamiya says she is none of his concern and leaves her in the lurch. When Joichiro and Kohei bring Yui back to the nursery school, Rena tells them about a malicious flyer incident concerning Yui’s mother about six months ago. This flyer has a photograph of Yui’s mother, Aoyama Ryoko (Nakagoshi Noriko) and the words, “Beware of this debt-ridden hostess!” This flyer seems to have led to Ryoko’s disappearance from Kesennuma with Yui. Joichiro says he washes his hands off Yui’s matter. But while drinking with Kohei, he gets drunk and his simple-minded character shows. He takes the opportunity to make Kohei sign a contract to search for Yui’s mother. The next morning, Joichiro comes to his senses, but the damage is done. He knows better than others the weight of a contract precisely because he was once a banker. Joichiro brings Kohei and Yui back to Kyoto again, and a teary search for her mother begins. Proclaiming that he hates kids who derail his own plans, Joichiro pushes Yui aside, but hears from Yui that Rena is interested in him. Fabricating an excuse about procuring fresh fish at Kesennuma, Joichiro hastily heads there and shows up at Rena’s nursery school. This time, he brings Rena with him to visit Mamiya and tries to discuss Yui again. However, Mamiya tells him to go back. Then Joichiro receives a phone call from Namiko in Kyoto that Ryoko has been found. He takes Kohei and Yui and arrives at the exclusive club where Ryoko works. Yui calls Ryoko, who has emerged to see customers off, “mother” and hugs her. What seemed to be a touching reunion at last, is interrupted in the next moment when Ryoko thrusts Yui aside after seeing Saigo Toshiaki (Nakamura Shunsuke) come out of the club. Then Toshiaki and her go back to the front of the club to greet a man who has alighted from a black car. This influential man in political and business circles is Toshiaki’s father, Saigo Shigeru. What happened between Ryoko, Yui and Mamiya? And what is Saigo’s relationship with Yui’s family?

Cast
Uchino Masaaki
Tsukamoto Takashi
Wakamura Mayumi
Minamisawa Nao
Watanabe Konomi
Nakagoshi Noriko
Kitamura Yukiya
Nakamura Shunsuke
Hira Mikijiro