Despite being holed up in a Tokyo hotel room for a press junket, 28-year-old actress Asami Mizukawa is surprisingly upbeat. However, she gives an unusual response when asked about the new TV mini-series she is starring in.

"If you're looking for (light) entertainment, I'm sorry, I wouldn't recommend it," she says with a slight chuckle. "It's not fun to watch, that's for sure."

Mizukawa isn't joking; her new project is quite emotionally challenging. The six-part mini-series is a live-action version of the manga "Crime and Punishment — A Falsified Romance," which was written by Naoyuki Ochiai and inspired by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 1866 novel "Crime and Punishment." Ochiai's manga is just as provocative and intense as the original story, which is considered one of the most important works of modern Russian literature.