Motorrad director Vicente Amorim’s new English-language actioner, Yakuza Princess, will be sold internationally at this year’s virtual European Film Market according to an exclusive at Variety. XYZ Films has acquired worldwide sales rights apart from Latin America on the pic which stars actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, with newcomer, Japanese-American singer and songwriter Masumi in the title role.
Based on the graphic novel “Samurai Shiro” by Danilo Beyruth and set in the expansive Japanese community of Sao Paulo in Brazil — the largest Japanese diaspora in the world — “Yakuza Princess” turns on orphan Akemi (Masumi), who turns 21 and finds out she is the heiress to half of the Yakuza (Japanese crime syndicate) empire. The other half, however, wants her dead, and her one hope is an amnesiac gaijin (foreigner, played by Rhys Meyers) who awakes in hospital believing that an ancient sword ties their two fates together.
The film also stars Tsuyoshi Ihara and Kenny Leu. Amorim also wrote the film along with Fernando Toste, Kimi Lee and Tubaldini Shelling, the latter who is producing the film next to Andre Skaf, Filmland International and XYZ Films.
Yakuza Princess is currently in post-production and will screen for buyers in time for this year’s 33rd EFM from March 1 through 5.