Yosuke Eguchi, Hidetaka Yoshioka, and Hideaki Ito are co-starring in a TV Asahi drama special. The show will be a big-budget production directed by Yasuo Tsuruhashi, who handled last year's television remake of Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low."

Titled "Keikan no Chi," the drama is adapted from a Jo Sasaki novel that placed 1st in this year's "Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!" rankings and was nominated for the Naoki Prize. The story spans three generations of policemen, starting with Seiji (Eguchi), a Pacific War veteran who becomes a cop but dies in a fire near his home. His son Tamio (Yoshioka) follows in his footsteps as a police officer, but he is killed in the line of duty by a drug addict. Ito plays the third generation, a cop assigned to a secret investigation that leads him to the mysteries behind his father's and grandfather's deaths.

Filming started in mid-August and is expected to run for 3 months, with locations ranging from Kyushu to Hokkaido. TV Asahi will broadcast the special in 2009.