Sakurai Sho to star in new real-life adaptation movie "Rapurasu no Majo"

Sakurai Sho will be starring in the new real-life adaptation movie "Rapurasu no Majo" (Laplace's Witch) directed by Miike Takashi which will be the commemorative work to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Higashino Keigo's debut as a writer. The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Higashino, will be Sakurai's first leading role in a movie since "Kamisama no Karute 2" 4 years ago and his first collaboration with Miike in 9 years since "Yattaman". The novel which had sold more than 280,000 copies to date, had 12 companies fighting for the adaptation rights.

The story describes how two cases of people poisoned to death by hydrogen sulfide at hot springs in two separate locations seem unrelated at first but it turns out that they were acquaintances. As such, the police approaches Professor Aoe Shusuke (Sakurai) who is also a geochemist to assist in their investigations to confirm if the deaths were due to accidents or foul play. During the process, Aoe meets a mysterious girl Uhara Madoka (Hirose Suzu) who appears at the crime scene and seems to have the power to predict when a natural phenomenon will happen. While Aoe is trying to ascertain if Madoka is involved in the cases, Madoka will be searching for a missing young man Amakasu Kento played by Fukushi Souta.

Filming began from 16 March and is expected to wrap up in late April. The movie will be shown in 2018.

Sources: Nikkansports / Sponichi / Sanspo / Oricon / Eiga.com