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2nd Ōoku Live-Action Film's Preview Streamed
posted on by Kimberly Grace
Asmik-Ace Entertainment began streaming a 94-second preview on Tuesday for the upcoming release of Ōoku: Eien - Emonnosuke・Tsunayoshi Hen, the second live-action film adaptation of Fumi Yoshinaga's Ōoku: The Inner Chambers manga. The film is slated to open in Japan on December 22, immediately after the Ōoku: Arikoto・Iemitsu Hen television drama based on the same manga ends.
The second film adaptation and television drama were both announced in January. The second movie will cover volumes 4-6 of the manga. Masato Sakai (Honey and Clover's Shuuji, Buddha: The Great Departure, Aoi Bungaku Series) will play the Ōoku member Emonnosuke, and Miho Kanno (Tomie's title character) will play the female shogun Tsunayoshi Tokugawa.
The upcoming television drama, titled Ōoku: Arikoto・Iemitsu Hen, will premiere on October 12. The drama will cover volumes 2-4 of the manga. Sakai will play Arikoto, the monk turned Ōoku member, and Mikako Tabe (Kimi ni Todoke's Sawako) will play the female shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa.
Fuminori Kaneko, a director best known for the live-action Kisarazu Cat's Eye and Ikebukuro West Gate Park television series, is returning to direct both the drama and the second film, and Minako Kamiyama is handling the scripts.
The manga already received a live-action film adaptation in October 2010. That film covered the first volume of Yoshinaga's manga, and it starred Arashi J-pop group member Kazunari Ninomiya (Tekkonkinkreet, Letters from Iwo Jima), and singer/actress Kou Shibasaki (Battle Royale, Dororo, Sekai no Chūshin de, Ai wo Sakebu) played Shogun Yoshimune herself.
The historical science fiction story takes place in an alternate-history version of medieval Japan, in which a bizarre disease has dwindled the male population. This has led to a matriarchal society where women outnumber men by 4 to 1. The shogun and de facto ruler of Japan keeps her own harem of men, or Ōoku.
Viz Media released the seventh volume of the manga in North America in July. The manga won the 2009 James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and it also won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2009.
[Via Manga-News]
