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Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu Manga Gets 2009 Film

The Sports Hochi newspaper reports that Mao Inoue, the star of Hana Yori Dango and Anmitsu-hime, will headline a live-action film adaptation of Kotomi Aoki's Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu romance manga in Fall of 2009. Inoue will play a girl named Mayu Taneda who experiences first love with a boy named Takuma Kakinouchi. However, Takuma tries to hide from Mayu the possibility that his heart will stop functioning at any moment after he turns 20. Masaki Okada (Hana Zakari no Kimi-tachi e, Robo Rock) will play Takuma. The film will begin shooting in the middle of next March.

Shogakukan serialized the original manga from 2005 to 2008 in Shojo Comic magazine, and it later published over 6 million copies of the manga's 12 compiled volumes. The manga won the best shōjo category in the 53rd annual Shogakukan Manga Awards. The manga is actually a spinoff of Aoki's earlier manga, Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru. The earlier manga was already adapted into a live-action movie and an animated video.

Inoue starred in Hana Yori Dango Final, the theatrical conclusion to the two manga-based Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) television series. The film opened in June and became this year's top live-action Japanese film by earning 7.7 billion yen (about US$82 million). She also starred in the live-action television special based on Shōsuke Kurakane's Anmitsu-hime shōjo comedy manga last January. She is set to reprise her princess role in a sequel next month.