Shinohara Ryoko & Nishijima Hidetoshi to star in new movie "Ningyo no nemuru ie"

Shinohara Ryoko and Nishijima Hidetoshi will be working together for the first time in the new movie "Ningyo no nemuru ie" (The house where the mermaid sleeps in) which is based on the same-titled novel by Higashino Keigo that marked his 30th anniversary as a writer in 2015 and sold more than 270,000 copies in the first month after it was released. The movie which will be directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko, will be shot between Jan and Feb 2018 and released in cinemas in November this year.

Harima Kaoruko (Shinohara) and her entrepreneur husband Kazumasa (Nishijima) who have two children, are already separated and about to get divorced after their daughter's primary school entrance exam. One day, their daughter Mizuho is found drowning in a swimming pool which leads to her becoming brain dead and having no hope of recovering. The couple are faced with the extreme option of accepting Mizuho's fate and allowing her organs to be donated to other people or wait for her heart to stop beating while extending her life by artificial means.

Shinohara who is a mother to two boys aged 9 and 5, said that as a parent, she wondered if she could be like Kaoruko when faced with such a difficult choice when she read the novel. As such, she believed that this was a story which will leave a mark on everyone's hearts and hoped that people would come to their own answers to this question after watching this movie. As for Nishijima who became a father last year, he expressed joy at working with Shinohara and Tsutsumi for the first time in this Higashino work and planned to approach this story with the utmost sincerity and dedication.

Sources: Eiga.com / Natalie / Nikkansports