Mitsushima Hikari to star in new movie "Umibe no sei to shi"

Mitsushima Hikari will be starring in the new movie "Umibe no sei to shi" (The beach's life and death) which will be her first solo leading role in a movie in 4 years. The film is based on the books "Shima no Hate" by the late Shimao Toshio who was a navy lieutenant sent to Kagoshima's Kakeromajima towards the end of WWII and later became a writer after the war ended as well as his wife Miho's "Umibe no sei to shi".

The movie uses the Shimaos as a model to describe how Toe (Mitsushima) falls for a man named Saku in the last days of the war. Toe is a teacher at a national school who meets Saku who is newly posted to the island and becomes drawn to him when she sees him learning how to sing the island's songs while being slightly intoxicated. However, when the couple finally get together, Toe is torn by her love for Saku who is awaiting orders to go out to battle.

Mitsushima revealed that as her grandmother comes from Amami Oshima, she feels that part of her roots are from there too so she was really happy to be able to film there and sing the folk songs of the island. In addition, she wants to show the conflicted emotions experienced by Toe through the movie.

The movie will be shown in cinemas from July 2017.

Source: Eiga.com