Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 21st & 22nd Oct 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Mix (275)

2) Saiki Kusuo no Sainan (275)

3) Barry Seal (291)

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 14th & 15th Oct 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Gekijouban Fate/stay night Heaven's Feel I. presage flower (128)

2) War for the Planet of the Apes (374)

3) Outrage Saishusho (286)

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 7th & 8th Oct 2017

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas showing the movie:

1) Outrage Saishusho (285)

2) Narratage (287)

3) Ajin (316)

4) A Dog's Purpose (240)

5) Namiya Zakkaten no Kiseki (345)

6) Hidden Figures (63)

7) Dunkirk (346)

8) Sandome no satsujin (313)

9) Asahinagu (148)

10) Despicable Me 3 (359)

Source: Eiga.com

Special fan screening of new movie "Ajin" to be held at GV VivoCity on 7 October 2017

For those who are eager to watch "Ajin" starring Sato Takeru and Ayano Go and will be in Singapore on 7 October, you may wish to go for the special fan screening organised by GV. The screening will be at 4pm at GV VivoCity and allows you to get a limited edition Ajin notebook and poster. Of course, the price of the ticket will be more than the usual i.e. SGD 30.

For those who can "afford to wait" till the official release, take note that the movie will be shown in Singapore from 12 October.

Completion screening event of new movie "Ajin"

The completion screening event of new movie "Ajin" was held at Tokyo International Forum on 4 September which was attended by the director Motohiro Katsuyuki, THE ORAL CIGARETTES which sings the theme song as well as cast members Sato Takeru, Ayano Go, Tamayama Tetsuji, Shirota Yu, Chiba Yuudai, Kawaei Rina, Yamada Yuki and Hamabe Minami. About 4,000 people came for the event. The movie will be screened in cinemas from 30 September.

"Ajin" was first seralised in the manga magazine "good! Afternoon" from 2012 and has released 9 volumes to date which has accumulated sales of more than 5.4 million copies. The anime movie version was screened in November 2015 while the TV anime series was shown from January 2016. The title "Ajin" refers to a group of people who look like ordinary humans but will not die even if they sustain life-threatening injuries.

In the real-life movie version, Sato plays Nagai Kei who is a 26-year-old medical intern although the manga's setting is that Kei is a 17-year-old senior high school student. One day, he gets knocked down by a truck but is shocked to see his body recovering instantaneously on its own which makes him realise that he is an Ajin. As a result, Kei is kept under custody at the Ajin Research Institute where he is subjected to inhumane tests by the researchers. Just then, a Ajin terrorist Sato (Ayano Go) comes to rescue Kei but this is actually with the intention of getting Kei to join him in a mass massacre to take revenge against the non-Ajins. Kei then has to fight Sato and his accomplices even though he is the weakest Ajin who has yet to master how to control his power and IBM well.

Sato appeared on the round stage at the middle of the hall with a hand bazooka while THE ORAL CIGARETTES were performing at the beginning of the event. When asked about to reflect on the filming of the movie which has many action sequences, Sato said that there were many new things he experienced such as how to handle the action scenes so that they wouldn't look like meaningless battles especially since many of the characters are Ajins who will not die. As for Ayano, he joked that pushing Sato to the edge was fun for him and he liked the look on Sato's face during such scenes. However, he also commented that because they had deep trust in each other, they were then able to do the action scenes without pulling back and immerse themselves in the battle of wits as their bodies kept "resetting" in this movie.

When asked about if there was any change in their body conditions after the filming, Sato remarked that as his character was usually at the receiving end of attacks such as falling from a high spot, he found that he was always in pain. After the filming ended, he said that his neck had shrunk by 2cm which made everyone gasp. As for Ayano, he had to go through a tough diet and physical workout for as long as four months since he had to beef up as well for another movie before he filmed Ajin. The biggest change for him was that he found that he couldn't keep his arms close to his body anymore due to the increase in muscles while Sato lamented that it was tough to go on the diet with Ayano as he loves rice but couldn't eat it for 2 months.

Source: Eiga.com

Miyano Mamoru to be the voice actor for Nagai Kei's IBM in new movie "Ajin"

Miyano Mamoru will be appearing in the new movie "Ajin" starring Sato Takeru as the IBM (Invisible Black Matter) of the lead character Nagai Kei. The movie will be shown in cinemas from 30 September.

"Ajin" was first seralised in the manga magazine "good! Afternoon" from 2012 and has released 9 volumes to date which has accumulated sales of more than 5.4 million copies. The anime movie version was screened in November 2015 while the TV anime series was shown from January 2016. The title "Ajin" refers to a group of people who look like ordinary humans but will not die even if they sustain life-threatening injuries.

In the movie version, Sato plays Nagai Kei who is a 26-year-old medical intern although the manga's setting is that Kei is a 17-year-old senior high school student. One day, he gets knocked down by a truck but is shocked to see his body recovering instantaneously on its own which makes him realise that he is an Ajin. As a result, Kei is kept under custody at the Ajin Research Institute where he is subjected to inhumane tests by the researchers. Just then, a Ajin terrorist Sato (Ayano Go) comes to rescue Kei but this is actually with the intention of getting Kei to join him in a mass massacre to take revenge against the non-Ajins. Kei then has to fight Sato and his accomplices even though he is the weakest Ajin who has yet to master how to control his power and IBM well.

Miyano who played Nagai in the anime version, said that "Ajin" had been a memorable piece of work for him. As such, he was very excited and happy about being able to participate in the real-life adaptation movie and be the voice of Nagai's IBM even though he was also surprised by the offer. Under the instructions of the movie's director, he had a lot of fun during the recording where he did several versions so he's looking forward to see which ones will be selected for the final version of the movie.

Source: Eiga.com

Supporting cast lineup for new movie "Ajin" announced

The supporting cast lineup for new movie "Ajin" starring Sato Takeru was announced. "Ajin" was first seralised in the manga magazine "good! Afternoon" from 2012 and has released 9 volumes to date which has accumulated sales of more than 5.4 million copies. The anime movie version was screened in November 2015 while the TV anime series was shown from January 2016. The title "Ajin" refers to a group of people who look like ordinary humans but will not die even if they sustain life-threatening injuries.

In the movie version, Sato will play the lead character Nagai Kei who is a 26-year-old medical intern although the manga's setting is that Kei is a 17-year-old senior high school student. One day, he gets knocked down by a truck but is shocked to see his body recovering instantenously on its own which makes him realise that he is an Ajin. As a result, Kei is kept under custody at the Ajin Research Institute where he is subjected to inhumane tests by the researchers. Just then, a Ajin terrorist Sato who wears a cap comes to rescue Kei but this is actually with the intention of getting Kei to join him in a mass massacre to take revenge against the non-Ajins. Kei then has to fight Sato and his accomplices even though he is the weakest Ajin who has yet to master how to control his power and IBM well.

Ayano Go will be playing Sato, a former military man who tries to overturn the country by conducting a large-scale massacre. Due to his Ajin abilities, Sato is able to regenerate his body even after suffering life-threatening injuries. In order to prepare for this role, Ayano had to stick to a strict diet, dye his hair silver and do muscle training which made the staff exclaim as if his muscular body was the result of CG. Ayano revealed that there was one scene where he had to appear naked so he started physical training 4.5 months before the filming started in order to make himself appear as close as the Sato in the manga and show respect to the author, fans and all those who love "Ajin". In fact, the director Motoki Katsuyuki was so impressed with the result of Ayano's hard work that he used the image of his naked upper body as his mobile phone's wallpaper.

Sato's accomplices Tanaka Koji, Okuyama Masumi and Takahashi Kotobuki will be played by Shirota Yu, Chiba Yuudai and Yamada Yuki. As for the role of Tosaki Yu who is the head of Ajin Research under the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and wages war against the Ajin organisation, he will be played by Tamayama Tetsuji. Tosaki's bodyguard-cum-secretary Shimomura Izumi who is also a Ajin will be played by Kawaei Rina. Kei's younger sister Eriko will be played by Hamabe Minami.

Filming started in November last year and was concluded in Tokyo on 10 January this year while post-production works are expected to be completed in July. The movie is scheduled to be screened in cinemas from 30 September.

Sources: Natalie / Cinema Cafe / Nikkansports / Sanspo / Eiga.com

Sato Takeru to star in real-life adaptation movie of "Ajin"

Sato Takeru will be starring in the real-life adaptation movie of popular manga "Ajin" which will be directed by Motohiro Katsuyuki. This will be the first time that Sato and Motohiro will be working together. The movie will be shown in cinemas next year.

"Ajin" was first seralised in the manga magazine "good! Afternoon" from 2012 and has released 9 volumes to date which has accumulated sales of more than 5.4 million copies. The anime movie version was screened in November 2015 while the TV anime series was shown from January 2016. The title "Ajin" refers to a group of people who look like ordinary humans but will not die even if they sustain life-threatening injuries.

In the movie version, Sato will play the lead character Nagai Kei who is a 26-year-old medical intern although the manga's setting is that Kei is a 17-year-old senior high school student. One day, he gets knocked down by a truck but is shocked to see his body recovering instantenously on its own which makes him realise that he is an Ajin. As a result, Kei is kept under custody at the Ajin Research Institute where he is subjected to inhumane tests by the researchers. Just then, a Ajin terrorist Sato who wears a cap comes to rescue Kei but this is actually with the intention of getting Kei to join him in a mass massacre to take revenge against the non-Ajins. Kei then has to fight Sato and his accomplices even though he is the weakest Ajin who has yet to master how to control his power and IBM well.

Sato commented that although the real-life adaptation may be controversial due to the nature of the story, he thinks that now is a good time to do this as a reflection of the era which they are living in now. He revealed that he received the offer to act in this movie two years ago and started reading the original manga then. As a reader, he enjoyed the manga so he's also looking forward to the production of this real-life movie. He also hopes to make full use of the Ajins' immortal ability to make this an action film never seen before. As the Ajins can only be captured by immobilising them using anaethesia, they can cut off their arms if they are shot by the anaethesia guns and make their arms grow back again by "resetting" themselves with a gun shot to their heats. Besides how to show these scenes in the movie, another challenge will be how to show the Ajins' other self i.e. IBM (Invisible Black Matter) on screen. Other action scenes such as jumping over the rooftops of buildings will also be featured in the movie.

Director Motohiro revealed that he had wanted to work with Sato for a long time and that the latter was the No.1 choice by the staff for his cool appearance and passion hidden within. The supporting cast lineup will be announced at a later date.

Sources: Nikkansports / Eiga.com