Tatsumi

Source: Nikkatsu

‘Tatsumi’

Japanese studio Nikkatsu has boarded international sales on revenge drama Tatsumi by rising filmmaker Shoji Hiroshi ahead of the EFM.

It marks the second feature of Hiroshi, whose crime drama Ken And Kazu played a string of festivals in 2016, following its premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival where it won the top prize in the Cinema Splash section for independent Japanese films.

His follow-up is also a crime drama that follows Tatsumi, a fisherman who doubles as a “cleaner” for gangland hits. But when his ex is murdered in front of her young sister, the two form an alliance to seek vengeance.

The cast is led by Yuya Endo, who took the central role in Arthur Harari’s Onoda: 10,000 Nights In The Jungle, which played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2021, and was more recently seen in box office hit Godzilla Minus One. He is joined by Kokoro Morita, known for features Life: Untitled and Ice Cream And The Sound Of Raindrops, and Goro Sato, whose credits include hit Netflix series Alice In Borderland.

The film premiered in the Asian Future section of Tokyo in October and a release in Japan is set for April 20. It will be presented to international buyers for the first time in Berlin next week.

Further titles on Nikkatsu’s slate include Shinya Tsukamoto’s Shadow Of Fire, Takumi Saitoh’s Home Sweet Home, time loop comedy River and Jojo Hideo’s S-friends and S-friends 2.