Yuko Takeuchi to star in "Team Batista"

[Tokyograph News]

Takeru Kaido's medical mystery novel "Team Batista no Eikou" is finally being turned into a movie. The book won the grand prize of the "Kono Mystery ga Sugoi! Awards" in 2005, and its popularity resulted in roughly 25 movie studios and television networks fighting over adaptation rights. In the end, TBS won out, and is teaming with Toho to release a film on February 9 of next year.

The story revolves around a university hospital and a team of doctors specializing in the Batista procedure, an alternative to heart transplantation. The team has a 100% success rate until they perform three consecutive operations that result in the patient's death. An internal investigation begins to determine the reasons for the failures.

The protagonist of the novel is a male doctor in his forties, but TBS suggested replacing the character with a young female. As a result, Yuko Takeuchi now plays the lead as Taguchi, a doctor in charge of the investigation. She initially declares the incidents as accidental deaths, but an eccentric employee from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (played by Hiroshi Abe) suddenly appears and asserts that the deaths were actually murders. Together, the two continue to probe the matter.

Yoshihiro Nakamura is directing. Filming begins on the 7th.

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