Yoji Yamada now working on "Otouto"

[Tokyograph News]

Film director Yoji Yamada, whose recent works include "Kaabee" and "Love and Honor," is currently working on a new movie scheduled for 2010. Titled "Otouto," the movie stars actress Sayuri Yoshinaga and comedian Tsurube Shofukutei, who both appeared in "Kaabee."

"Otouto" will be Yamada's first film with a modern setting since "Jugosai: Gakko IV" in 2000. "Otouto" is said to be an homage to Kon Ichikawa's 1960 movie of the same name.

Yoshinaga and Shofukutei play an older sister and younger brother in this family piece. Yoshinaga's character is a widow working in a Tokyo drugstore who lives with her daughter and mother-in-law. Her brother Tetsuro is an aspiring comedian who causes trouble for the family, but one day he learns that he doesn't have long to live.

Yu Aoi will play Sayuri's daughter Koharu, while Ryo Kase plays Koharu's friend.

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