After spending a good portion of the past decade bringing Fullmetal Alchemist to life on the big screen, director Fumihiko Sori is back to take on a new property with Hakkenden. Sori directs from a screenplay he adapted from Futaro Yamada’s novels in the early eighties, with a cast led by Koji Yakusho who scored Best Actor at the 76th edition of Cannes for his role in Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days.
For this, we get a full-on dive into the imaginative and spectacular samurai-themed world explored in Hakkenden, or “The Legend Of The Eight Dog Samurai” as some would know it. Sori’s Hakkenden casts Yakusho in the role of Edo period novelist Bakin Takizawa, who spent 28 years writing 106 volumes of his heroic tale (even as his health deteriorated) with the help of ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, played by actor Seiyo Uchino (Fullmetal Alchemist 2 & 3).
Also starring are Tao Tsuchiya (“Alice In Borderland”), Hayato Isomura (Tokyo Revengers 2), Haru Kuroki (Village), and Shinobu Terajima (The Three Sisters Of Tenmasou), along with Keisuke Watanabe, Jin Suzuki, Ri-Mitsuto Itagaki, Koji Mizukami, Kodai Matsuoka, Shuhei Uesugi, and Chiaki Kuriyama. Kino Films is touting an October release for the film, along with a rollicking first look teaser now online below!
