Additional cast announcements for "Platina Data"

The cast lineup for suspense thriller movie "Platina Data" starring Ninomiya Kazunari and Toyokawa Etsushi has been expanded to include Suzuki Honami, Namase Katsuhisa, An and Mizuhara, as announced on 7 November.

Ninomiya plays Kagura Ryuhei, a genius scientist at the Special Analysis Research Centre, who helps the police solve a number of complicated cases but suddenly finds himself being fingered as the culprit of a series of murders when his DNA is found to be a match with that left by the criminal at the crime scene. Toyokawa plays Asama Reiji, the police detective who is in charge of tracking down Kagura who goes on the run to prove his innocence.

Suzuki Honami plays Mizukami Eriko, a doctor who is an expert in genetics. In the original novel by Higashino Keigo, this character is a man but has been changed in the movie. Namase plays Shiga Takashi, the chief of the research centre and works closely with Kagura. Mizuhara plays a genius mathematician Tateshina Saki while An plays Shiratori Risa, a newbie researcher in the research centre.

The novel "Platina Data" was actually meant to be a story which could be adapted into a movie but Higashino stopped working on the novel for a while before resuming work on it in 2006 and releasing it as a novel in June 2010. To date, the novel has sold more than 1 million copies as of November 2012.

Source: My Navi

I am in the midst of reading this novel and I must say, it does look like a promising piece of work! If handled properly, I'm sure the movie will turn out to be quite good. I don't think I've seen Shiratori so far in the novel so I'm wondering if she's a newly-added character. Maybe she will appear in the later part of the story? As for Suzuki Honami's role, the character is supposed to be a guy but I think there will be different sparks now that the setting has changed. Namase playing the role of Shiga looks like a pretty good match for now and I think his interaction with Ninomiya and Toyokawa should be worth checking out. What intrigues me most is Mizuhara playing the role of Tateshina Saki especially since Saki is described to be a fat and physically very unattractive woman who's absorbed in her mathematical research. However, the trailer seems to hint at a romantic line between her and Kagura!

For those who are interested, here is the trailer of the movie (not sure how long it will stay on YouTube though):