Matsuyama Kenichi to star in new adaptation movie "Chinyuuki ~ Taro to Yukai na Nakamatachi"

Matsuyama Kenichi will be starring in the new adaptation movie for legendary manga "Chinyuuki ~ Taro to Yukai na Nakamatachi" which will be shown in cinemas from 27 February. The manga which was serialised by Man Gataro in Shukan Shonen Jump since 1990, accumulated sales of 4 million copies to date. Filming has been completed. Although news of the movie adaptation had been circulating online for some time, this is the first time that details for the movie have been announced. The original manga's author Man Gataro commented in jest that he had told the staff that he wanted the worst movie in film history to be made for his manga but they ended up making something which was interesting. As such, he joked that he should get the director of "XX no Kyojin" to remake the movie. The movie was directed by Yamaguchi Yudai while the script was written by Matsubara Shu.

Matsuyama plays the lead character Yamada Taro and will appear with his hair shaved off and wearing underwear only. With regard to this, he commented that he took on this movie since there was none so far which literally stripped him naked and he felt that this was a "good way" for him to take off his clothes. As Matsuyama had prior experience in playing characters from mangas which were widely praised e.g. Hiroshi from "Do Konjo Gaeru" and L from "Death Note", he was seen as the best person to take on the character of Yamada Taro although he didn't look too close to the image in the manga.

In order to stay true to the essence of the original manga, the movie version tried to replicate the same atmosphere and jokes Due to the fact that there were many vulgar lines which cannot be shown on TV due to censorship issues, it had been said that this was a work which couldn't be adapted into a real-life movie.

Details about the rest of the cast and story will be made known on a later date.

Source: Oricon