Sky Castle (2024)

''Sky Castle'' () is a 2024 Japanese TV series; a remake of the hit 2018 South Korean television drama that also aired on Japan via JTBC. It was airing under the same title ''Sky Castle'' on TV Asahi's ''Thursday Drama'' slot since July 25, till September 26, 2024. The lead role is played by Nao Matsushita.

SKY Castle is an exclusive townhouse where only the wealthiest people can afford living. The series revolves around four families; housewives who want their kids to enter the best high school and their husbands who are neurosurgeons in the same hospital. These people's lives are connected in the most interesting ways possible.

After ''Sky Castle'' is airing in Japan, it is scheduled to be broadcast and streamed in over 140 countries and regions around the world on Amazon Prime Video and other platforms.

Cast

Main characters

Asami Sae (39)
:Original: Han Seo-jin
:Played by: Nao Matsushita
A gorgeous housewife whose real name is Yoko Baba and is married to a doctor. Her maiden name is Okura.
She is a perfect celebrity in the town house with an enviable career and looks. She has two daughters.
She hid the fact that she originally came from an orphanage called Wakanazono, and to save face, lied about her academic background and work history, saying that she graduated from Harvard University and that her parents were surgeons in the United States, but Izumi, who had moved in across the street, discovered that she was actually Yoko Baba.

Minamisawa Izumi (39)
:Original: Lee Soo-im
:Played by: Fumino Kimura
(10-year-old: Midori Nakano)
A novelist. A new resident of Sky Castle. Her maiden name is Kubota. She has a simple personality and a pure sense of justice that is unusual for a celebrity, and she has an excellent husband and son, whom she loves as her own child.

Natsume Misaki (36)
:Original: Jin Jin-hee
:Played by: Mary Jun Takahashi
A former housewife with aspirations of becoming an actress. She has a son. Natsume befriends Asami Sae just to get her daughter's secrets of being a top student in school.

Nikaido Kyoko (38)
:Original: Noh Seung Hye
:Played by: Manami Higa
She is a talented and beautiful housewife who also went on to graduate school. She has a son and befriends quickly with the new family's housewife. A woman who would do anything in order to protect her son.

Kujo Ayaka (46)
:Original: Kim Joo Young
:Played by: Koyuki
Exam coordinator. 100% of students in her care are accepted into their schools of choice. She is a strict person. This woman also earns Ruri's trust and the two get along so well.

Asami Family

Asami Hideyo (51)
:Original: Kang Joonsang
:Played by: Seiichi Tanabe
Sae's husband, a well-known neurosurgeon at the prestigious Teito Hospital,who has immaculate surgical skills and is liked by the hospital director for this. A surgeon who would do anything for respect, fame and is obsessed with maintaining a good track. He comes from a rich family, yet is focused on climbing the social ladder. He is also Miku Yamada's father. He used to date Nozomi Yamada, Miku's mother but the two broke up after his mother's rejection. Hideyo gets jealous of the new recruit, whom he looks at as a rival.

Asami Ruri (14)
:Original: Kang Ye Seo
:Played by: Miu Arai
Sae's eldest daughter. A new third-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School. She was spoiled by Sae and is always boasting about her good grades. She inherited her mother's extreme competitive nature, vainness, self-centeredness, and twisted personality, so she is disliked by those around her and has no popularity. She has a crush on the new neighbors' son.

Asami Maju (12)
:Original: Kang Yebin
:Played by: Noa Shiroyama
Sae's second daughter. A new first-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School. Compared to her sister, she is not as good at studying, so she is neglected by Sae and feels inferior. Maju thinks that her parents only care for Ruri. She befriends Miku shortly after the latter moves into their house.

Asami Yukino (73)
:Original: Madame Yoon
:Played by: Mariko Fuji
Hideyo's mother, who comes from a distinguished family. She hates her son's wife, Sae, who lies and has false academic credentials and career records. She constantly makes snide remarks and bullies her in every way possible.

Minamisawa Family

Minamisawa Kohei (45)
:Original: Hwang Chi-young
:Played by: Ryohei Otani
Izumi's husband, a neurosurgeon who graduated from a local medical school, was scouted by the hospital director and began working at Teito Hospital. A rival of Hideyo. A doctor who cares about his patients wellbeing and has a good heart.

Minamisawa Aoba (14)
:Original: Hwang Woo-joo
:Played by: Aito Sakamoto
Son of Kohei, who remarried Izumi after his wife died. A new third-year student at the prestigious Koyo Gakuen Junior High School. He doesn't show his interest in Ruri, but likes Miku.

Natsume Family

Natsume Ryotaru (42)
:Original: Woo Yang-woo
:Played by: Honda Riki
Misaki's husband and a neurosurgeon at Teito Hospital. He is foolish and befriends Hideyo.

Natsume Kensaku (14)
:Original: Woo Soo-han
:Played by: Fumi Matsufuji
Misaki's only son. A new third-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School, who hates studying. He gets along well with Sho and the other kids.

Nikaido Family

Wataru Nikaido (49)
:Original: Cha Min-hyuk
:Played by: Kosuke Suzuki
Kyoko's husband and a neurosurgeon at Teito Hospital. He thinks the most prestigious people are the ones on the top of the social pyramid, so in this mindset; he teaches his son at home. He is self-centered and has a strict personality.

Sho Nikaido (14)
:Original: Cha Seo-joon
:Played by: Fuga Shibasaki
Kyoko's only son. A new third-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School. A kind and quiet boy who dislikes his father's method of teaching and studying.

Saejima Family

Haruto Saejima (15)
:Original: Park Yeong-jae
:Played by: Riku Onishi
The only son of Tetsuto and Kaori. Despite not having very good grades, he managed to pass the highly competitive entrance exam for Teito Medical University High School.
However, he did not want to pass the exam, and wrote a diary about the real struggles of him preparing for the exam on the tablet that Sae had lent to Kaori, driving Kaori to suicide.

Kaori Saejima (46)
:Original: Lee Myung-joo
:Played by: Naho Toda
Haruto's mother. A woman with a seemingly perfect family and life. After seeing the diary that Haruto had written on the tablet, she committed suicide.

Tetsuto Saejima (55)
:Original: Park Soo-chang
:Played by: Jun Hashimoto
Kaori's husband. He is the head of the neurosurgery department at Teito Hospital and an elite who is expected to be the next hospital director. He is a good senior to Hideyo.

Others

Miku Yamada (14)
:Original: Kim Hye-na
:Played by: Sora Tamaki
A smart and kind girl who competes with Ruri and Aoba for grades. Later,she moves into the Asami house for tutoring Maju; who is excited for having a tutor. A new third-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School. She aims to become a doctor while working part-time jobs every day to care for her mother who is hospitalized at Teito Hospital and to pay for her treatment. She receives money from Rei by completing Yuma's school assignments. After seeing a photo in the picture book "Sky Castle," she finds out that Hideyo and Nozomi were dating and eventually finds out that he is her biological father. She harbors intense hatred for her half-sister Ruri, who has never known hardship. In the 9th episode, she suffers a tragic end.

Nozomi Yamada (41)
:Original: Kim Eun Hye
:Played by: Kurara Emi
Miku's mother, who was a nurse back when she used to date Hideyo. The two loved each other but later broke up after the rejection of Hideyo's mother. As time passed, she had become seriously ill and got hospitalized at Teito Hospital. Realizing that she didn't have much time left, she tried to contact Hideyo to tell him that he has a daughter, but failed. After this,she died.(Episode 4).

Eiji Nagamine (37)
:Original: Cho Tae-jun
:Played by: Ko Maehara
Ayaka's capable secretary. He is her right hand and Ayaka trusts him.

Rei Kato (40)
:Played by: Risa Naito
She is the mother of Kato Yuma, a new third-year student at Koyo Gakuen Junior High School.

Yuma Kato
:Played by: Yuto Otsuka
Rei Kato's son. He has Miku help him with his school assignments.

Sakura Akikawa (22)
:Original: Lee Ga Eul
:Played by: Arisa Matsuda
A former housekeeper for the Saejima family. She was a good friend to Haruto, but she suddenly left the Saejima family six months ago.

Takashi Okochi (68)
:Original: Choi In-ho
:Played by: Takehiko Ono
The director of Teito Hospital.

Guest

Episode 1

* Host
:Played by: Yuki Hirako ( Alco & Peace )
He is the moderator of an educational seminar hosted by Teishin Bank, which is open only to a limited number of VIPs.

* Receptionist
:Played by: Haruka Miwa
Registration for the seminar.
Yoko Baba

* Performer
:Played by: Honoka Yoshida

Episode 2

* Yoko Baba
A girl chasing the police car in which her arrested father is riding. When she was in sixth grade, she left the orphanage "Wakanaen" and was taken in by a relative, and became Okura Sae. Now that she is married, she uses the surname Asami.

* Teacher
:Played by: Maori
A teacher reads the picture book "Sky Castle" to Yoko Baba at Wakanaen, the orphanage where she is staying.

Episode 2

* Girls
:Played by: Orion Maeda, Sasara Yamamoto, Yo Funakawa, Hisaki Goto
They are the classmate of Yoko Baba and Izumi in elementary school. They bully Yoko when she finds out that she lied about her parents being doctors in America.

Episode 3

* Teacher
:Played by: Hajime Ishii
Examiner for the midterm exams of Koyo Gakuen Junior High School Class 3-Special A.

* Governor Hasuike
:Played by: Tsuyoshi Nakano
The surgery was performed by Kohei Minamisawa.

* Worker
:Played by: Masato Kato
Renovating the Nikaido family's children's room.

* Clerk
:Played by: Hideto Suzuki
The convenience store clerk where Asami Masaru tried to shoplift a magazine.

* Host
:Played by: Keiichiro Hashimoto
Moderator of Governor Hasuike's press conference upon his discharge from hospital.

Episode 4

* Shiori Kinosaki
:Played by: Kana Kajiwara
When Izumi was aspiring to be a high school teacher, she was a student of the school where she was doing her teaching practice. She was sending out an SOS and Izumi was unable to save her, leading to her suicide, which had a major impact on the way Izumi lived her life thereafter.

* Clerk
:Played by: Erika Natori
A clerk at the accounting reception desk of Teito Hospital.

* Doctor
:Played by: Hiroyuki Yamamoto
Yamada Nozomi's doctor.

Episode 5

* Neighbors
:Played by: China Kusumoto、Kaori Isoyama, Emiri Tokunaga、Satoko Kikuchi、Chisa Yamaguchi, Hatsumi Ishizuka
The residents of Sky Castle are talking about rumors, such as Sae's background, which she tried to stop Izumi from writing a novel, being a lie and having come from an institution.

Production

The series will be broadcast and streamed in over 140 countries and regions around the world on the other streaming platforms and on Amazon Prime Video. Most parts of the series were filmed in a condominium complex located in Yokosuka, Kanagawa prefecture.

Viewership

* The first episode will be extended by six minutes and broadcast from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, title=Sky Castle, id=33038101

Japanese-language television shows
2024 Japanese television series debuts
TV Asahi television dramas
Television shows set in Tokyo
Works about education
Japanese television series based on South Korean television series