Ashita o Dakishimete ~ "I Want to Hold On to Tomorrow"

(From May Yen): This is a story of love, vengence, betrayal and guiltiness. The story strted in Kobe at a high school on the eve of Christmas. The chapel was suddenly on fire and Kazuhiko was inside there. He manage to escape but when the police came, they caught him because they thought that he was the one who set up the fire. He shouted out loud that he wasn't the one who set the fire but no one believed him. At the end, he was sentence to jail at a juvenille center but he escaped from the jail one day and comitted suicide by jumping off an overhead bridge. His sister Maki, portrayed by Takashima Reiko, saw the news on TV and was heart wrecken.

Eight years later in Tokyo, she met with a man(not sure of the actors name, but I think his the father of the actress Matsu Takako) who was already married but divorced. They fell in love with each other and they got married. Maki is now a lawyer while the man was an architech. One day, when she moved in to his house, a teenage boy came to the house. Her mother in law quickly greeted the boy as he was her grand son. The boy was Tatsuya, played by Shimane Touru. He fell in love with Maki and even fought with his father over her until one day, he found a picture belonging to Maki. Kazuhiko, Tatsuya and another friend was in the picture and from them on he knew that Kazuhiko is Maki's brother and he felt very guilty as the person who set the fire was him by the force of the other friend who was the class monitor. Tatsuya when back to his mothers' place. Later, his mother plot with the calss monitor to go against her ex-husband. Tatsuya wanted to surrender together with his friend, the class monitor but the friend did not one to, so he speed in a car together with the friend off the cliff and finally the friend died. Tatsuya was saved by a friend who is a farmer and the friend called Maki. Maki conforted him and help him go through the pain, but one day, he had relation with Maki. The next day, he surrendered himself to the police. He did not one any lawyer to defend him, not even Maki. At the end he was sentence to 8 years immprisonment and was sent to Hokaido. He disowned his mother as well. Maki was pregnent with Tatsuya's baby but her husband did not mind but unfortunately, her husband met with an air crash accident.

STARRING: Takashima Reiko, Matsumo Koshiro, Toba Jun, Mita Yoshiko, Sakai Maki, Kawahara Ayako, Shimane Touru, Yamamoto Koji, Morimoto Leo
TV STATION: NTV
DURATION: October 2000
THEME SONG: Rings by B'z
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(From May Yen): A very touching story. All the characters are so unfortunate and Tatsuya who has already made many mistakes in his life continued on making more mistakes although he has regretted and felt guilty for all he has done.