Yoshinaga Sayuri and Sakai Masato will be acting together in the new movie "Kita no Sakuramori" (The Northern Sakura Protector) which will be directed by Takita Yojiro. The movie which will also be Yoshinaga's 120th film in her career, will be shot in Abashiri, Hokkaido from 16 February till summer this year.
The story stretches over 30 years from the days of WWII to after the war where Eren Tetsu (Yoshinaga) flees Sakhalin in 1945 due to the attacks by the Soviet Union and ends up in Abashiri in Hokkaido. However, she has to grapple with the bitterly cold weather and hunger while keeping her two sons alive. Time goes by to the year 1971 when Tetsu is still waiting for her missing husband and lives on her own. Her second son Shujiro returns to Hokkaido after making it big in the United States and they start living together in Sapporo. Just then, Tetsu who is very advanced in age, starts to have issues due to the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) she developed during the war.
Preparations for the movie first began in February last year which involved a trip to Sakhalin last autumn. Although the filming in Abashiri will be very tough due to the cold weather, Yoshinaga is positive about playing a strong mother who braves the cold to wait for spring to come. As for working with Sakai again since the anime movie "Tezuka Osamu no Buddha Akai Sabaku yo! Utsukushiku" back in 2011, she is very happy about the reunion and that she can go all out in her acting against Sakai who is such a good actor. On the other hand, Sakai said that their mother-and-son relationship this time is filled with a lot of sadness but he is eager to work with her again and hopes to show his improvement over the years.
The movie will be shown in the spring of 2018.
Source:
Eiga.com
