Saturday, November 05, 2016

Sato Takeru to star in real-life adaptation movie of "Ajin"

Sato Takeru will be starring in the real-life adaptation movie of popular manga "Ajin" which will be directed by Motohiro Katsuyuki. This will be the first time that Sato and Motohiro will be working together. The movie will be shown in cinemas next year.

"Ajin" was first seralised in the manga magazine "good! Afternoon" from 2012 and has released 9 volumes to date which has accumulated sales of more than 5.4 million copies. The anime movie version was screened in November 2015 while the TV anime series was shown from January 2016. The title "Ajin" refers to a group of people who look like ordinary humans but will not die even if they sustain life-threatening injuries.

In the movie version, Sato will play the lead character Nagai Kei who is a 26-year-old medical intern although the manga's setting is that Kei is a 17-year-old senior high school student. One day, he gets knocked down by a truck but is shocked to see his body recovering instantenously on its own which makes him realise that he is an Ajin. As a result, Kei is kept under custody at the Ajin Research Institute where he is subjected to inhumane tests by the researchers. Just then, a Ajin terrorist Sato who wears a cap comes to rescue Kei but this is actually with the intention of getting Kei to join him in a mass massacre to take revenge against the non-Ajins. Kei then has to fight Sato and his accomplices even though he is the weakest Ajin who has yet to master how to control his power and IBM well.

Sato commented that although the real-life adaptation may be controversial due to the nature of the story, he thinks that now is a good time to do this as a reflection of the era which they are living in now. He revealed that he received the offer to act in this movie two years ago and started reading the original manga then. As a reader, he enjoyed the manga so he's also looking forward to the production of this real-life movie. He also hopes to make full use of the Ajins' immortal ability to make this an action film never seen before. As the Ajins can only be captured by immobilising them using anaethesia, they can cut off their arms if they are shot by the anaethesia guns and make their arms grow back again by "resetting" themselves with a gun shot to their heats. Besides how to show these scenes in the movie, another challenge will be how to show the Ajins' other self i.e. IBM (Invisible Black Matter) on screen. Other action scenes such as jumping over the rooftops of buildings will also be featured in the movie.

Director Motohiro revealed that he had wanted to work with Sato for a long time and that the latter was the No.1 choice by the staff for his cool appearance and passion hidden within. The supporting cast lineup will be announced at a later date.

Sources: Nikkansports / Eiga.com

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