"Ankoku Joshi" to be screened as scheduled following Shimizu Fumika's retirement declaration

The upcoming movie "Ankoku Joshi" will be screened as scheduled on 1 April as announced by the movie companies Toei and Showgate on 15 February following one of the co-leads Shimizu Fumika's sudden retirement declaration. Promotional activities such as the completion screening event in Tokyo on 21 February will proceed as normal but with Shimizu absent from the cast lineup. According to the movie companies, Shimizu was scheduled to take part in the promotional activities but her agency had informed that this would no longer be possible and asked for her withdrawal from the lineup. The movie companies also apologised for this last-minute change as it has never happened that the lead of a movie is absent from the screening event.

"Ankoku Joshi" which features Shimizu and Iitoyo Marie as the co-leads, is the real-life adaptation of the 2013 same-titled mystery novel by Akiyoshi Rikako. It talks about how Shiraishi Itsumi (Iitoyo) the Madonna of an all-girls' senior high school fell to her death under mysterious circumstances with a lily bell flower in her hand which leads to suspicion falling on the five members of the literature club which Shiraishi set up for having caused her death. After taking over the reins, Sumikawa Sayuri (Shimizu) who is Shiraishi's best friend, organises a regular reading session where she engages the rest of the members to talk about Shiraishi's death and the five of them take turns to expose who is the true culprit by mixing lies and truth during the discussion. Co-stars include Seino Nana, Tamashiro Tina, Kojima Riria, Taira Yuna and Chiba Yuudai.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sanspo