"Nanase Futatabi The Movie" open next June

Actress Ashina Sei (26) is going to play the lead in "Nanase Futatabi The Movie" that is scheduled to open next June. Konaka Kazuya will take the director’s seat and bring this monumental sci-fi novel of Tsutsui Yasutaka to the big screen. It’s rather a surprise to see this work being turned into a movie, but with Ashina they got an actress who perfectly fits into the role of the young woman who can read the minds of the people around her.

Tsutsui’s "Nanase Futatabi" (Nanase Once More) and "Toki o Kakeru Shōjo" (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) are both considered as masterpieces among sci-fi novels. Nanase Futatabi tells the story of a young woman called Nanase who has the ability to read the thoughts of the people around here. She starts to meet other people with similar abilities and eventually ends up fighting against an organization that tries to hunt down all of those gifted people. There are already 4 doramas who adapted this storyline for the TV, but it’s the first time we get to see it as a movie.

For the producers it’s been a long process to turn this novel into a movie and they almost gave up on this idea. The biggest problem has been to find the right person for the leading role. "We want to stay as faithful to the original as possible." However, after more than 20 years of pursuing the plan to make the movie, they’ve finally found the perfect actress to play the role of Nanase.

Nanase was born with her supernatural abilities and therefore she had to experience a lot of difficulties and distress. Until the end she stays this cool beauty that she is, but not everyone can play such a role. That’s also the reason why all the dorama adaptions so far made her character into a very young and sweet girl, including the most recent one (Fall 2008) with Renbutsu Misako as Nanase.

Now thanks to picky producers we can finally see an adaption that will hopefully stay faithful to the original. Ashina Sei is an actress, but thanks to her other career as a model she adds a lot of style to the role. Her beautiful long black hair fits perfectly and her sad expressions are top-notch. "There is no better Nanase than Ashina."

Tsutsui is satisfied with their choice as well. "Of all the Nanase’s I’ve seen so far, she is the closest to the actual Nanase. When you look at her you can feel strength and dignity, that’s exactly how Nanase should be like." Ashina herself also talked a bit about this difficult role. "Nanase doesn’t think of her power as something special anymore. She doesn’t get surprised or amazed by her abilities, instead she feels like ‘Let’s just do it again…’ . I tried to convey those kind of feelings when playing as Nanase. The movie itself turned out as an absolutely fast-paced and thrilling experience from beginning to end without giving you even a single break to rest."

Let’s see it for ourselves when it opens in 6-7 months from now.