Sakurai Hinako & Yoshizawa Ryo to star in new real-life adaptation movie "Marmalade Boy"

Sakurai Hinako and Yoshizawa Ryo will be joint leads in the upcoming real-life adaptation movie of "Marmalade Boy" which is based on the same-titled manga by Yoshizumi Wataru that was serialised between 1992 and 1995 and sold 10 million copies. It was made into an anime series in 1994 and an anime movie screened in the following year before it was adapted to become a Taiwanese drama in 2001. At present, the sequel manga "Marmalade Boy little" is being serialised in "Cocohana". The movie's script will be written by Asano Taeko while the director will be Hiroki Ryuichi. The movie will be screened in cinemas next year.

Sakurai plays a senior high school student Koishikawa Mitsuki who is told by her parents that they are divorcing and planning to remarry by switching partners with the Matsuuras who they met during a trip in Hawaii. While still coping with the shock of this sudden development, Mitsuki finds that she has to live with the two newly-formed couples and the Matsuuras' only son Yuu (Yoshizawa) under the same roof. Although Yuu behaves coldly towards Mitsuki initially, the two of them gradually fall in love with each other.

Sakurai commented that she is excited just by thinking about how to portray Mitsuki in the current era even though the story was written more than 20 years ago when divorce, remarriage and cohabitation were very controversial and uncommon topics then. As she is still a relatively new face in the industry, she expressed her joy about being able to play this big role and view this as a challenge that she never imagined would come her way.

On the other hand, Yoshizawa who plays Yuu, a guy who looks sweet on the surface but is "bitter" within just like marmalade, said that he usually doesn't get to play such cool characters so he joked that he can finally make full use of his looks in his movie. He also called on everyone to look upon them favourably as they try their best for this movie.

Sources: Eiga.com / Sanspo