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Live-Action Manga Adaptation Himizu Scheduled for U.K. Cinema Release in April
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The live-action film of Minoru Furuya's manga Himizu, directed by Sion Sono (Suicide Circle, Strange Circus), will have a U.K. cinema release in late April from Third Window Films. This will follow Himizu's U.K. premiere at the Terracotta Far East Film Festival. (The festival site currently still has details of the previous festival in May 2011; next year's festival is scheduled for April 12-15.)
Furuya is known for his gag manga Ike! Ina-chuu Takkyuubu (which inspired the Ping Pong Club comedy anime), but Himizu is a far starker tale. 18-year-old actor Shōta Sometani (live-action Uso-tsuki Mii-kun to Kowareta Maa-chan, Always: Sunset on Third Street '64) plays Yūichi Sumida, an abused middle school boy; a certain incident sets him on a descent into darkness. 16-year-old actress Fumi Nikaidō (Sono's Gama no Abura) plays Keiko Chazawa, Sumida's female classmate and stalker. Both actors won the Best New Young Actor or Actress Award for their roles in Himizu at the Venice Film Festival in September.
The original Himizumanga ran in Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine from 2001 to 2003, and Kodansha compiled and published four book volumes.
Source: twitchfilm.com
