Yuya Yagira, the winner of the best actor award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, has been cast in Toei's film adaptation of best-selling Japanese novel The Bandage Club.

The film, which started shooting last week, is directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, whose credits include Ken Watanabe-starrer Memories Of Tomorrow. Satomi Ishihara, who appeared in H2: Kimi To Itahibi, a TV drama directed by Tsutsumi, has also joined the cast.

Japanese novelist Arata Tendo published The Bandage Club in February 2005 and the book has sold over 180,000 copies after becoming a cult phenomenon online.

Yagira stars as the mysterious ring leader of 'The Bandage Club'. A group of six teenagers, the club receives requests from grieving strangers online and then place 'bandages' at particular locations that haunt them with emotional pain.

The members film the entire mission and send back the recording to the strangers in the hope of alleviating their pain.

Shooting will wrap by early February and post-production is scheduled to be completed by early April. The film will be released on 250 screens nationwide this autumn.

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