Akiko Itoyama's "Bakamono" gets a movie

[Tokyograph News]

The love story "Bakamono," by award-winning author Akiko Itoyama, is being turned into a movie starring Hiroki Narimiya (26) and Yuki Uchida (33). The film will be directed by Shusuke Kaneko, who recently helmed the live-action "Death Note" films.

Itoyama, who won the Akutagawa Prize in 2006, published "Bakamono" in September of last year. In the story, Narimiya plays Hide, a college student who meets an older woman named Gakuko (Uchida) through his part-time job. He is deeply into her, but one day she suddenly tells him that she's getting married, and they go their separate ways. Hide eventually graduates and finds a job, but the emptiness he feels leads him to alcoholism. Gakuko, on the other hand, gets into an accident and suffers a life-changing injury. Years after their initial parting, the two happen to meet again, but they are both very different from how they once knew each other.

Narimiya and Uchida will be portraying their characters over a span of roughly ten years in the story. One of the highlights of the movie is said to be a love scene between the two. Filming is expected to wrap up next month, with a release date set for spring 2010.

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