Production press conference of new movie "Korou no Chi"

The production press conference of new movie "Korou no Chi" (The blood of the lone wolf) was held on 3 April which was attended by the director Shiraishi Kazuya, the original novel's author Yuzuki Yuko and cast members Yakusho Koji, Matsuzaka Toori, Maki Youko, Ishibashi Renji and Eguchi Yosuke. The movie is based on the same-titled novel by Yuzuki that had won the 69th Nihon Suiri Sakka Kyoukai Sho. Filming will begin in mid April at Kure, Hiroshima and the movie will be shown in cinemas next year.

The story is set during the Showa era before the anti-gang laws were enacted. Yakusho plays a police detective Ogami Shogo who is rumoured to be on good terms with gangsters while Matsuzaka plays a newbie detective Hioka Shuichi who is assigned to work with him on a case about the disappearance of an employee in a finance company rumoured to be a gang affiliate. While having reservations about Ogami's way of investigation which is bordering on being illegal, Hioka learns many things from Ogami. As the investigation develops, it results in a battle between gang members which causes Ogami to take drastic measures to resolve the situation. Maki will play Takagi, the mamasan of a club named Riko while Ishibashi plays Isogo Shohei, the leader of Isogo-kai and Eguchi plays Ichinose, the young leader of Otani-gumi. Other co-stars include Takito Kenichi and Taguchi Tomorowo.

Yakusho and Matsuzaka had collaborated previously in the movie "Nihon no ichiban nagai hi" and CMs and they had nothing but praise for each other. Yakusho also revealed that he was having problems with mastering the Kure dialect. When asked about the selling point of the movie, Yakusho said that although the novel is on the serious and dark side, they decided to inject some humour into the story and enhance the appeal of the individual characters to make the movie more interesting.

Sources: Eiga.com / Oricon