Pinko Izumi to star in kung fu film

[Tokyograph News]

Actress Pinko Izumi, perhaps best known as Satsuki Kojima in the "Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari" drama series, is set to star in her first kung fu film.

The film, directed by Issei Oda, is titled "Kung fu-kun." Izumi plays the manager of a Chinese restaurant named Koraku (the name is taken from "Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari" with permission from that drama's screenwriter, Sugako Hashida). The other protagonist of the story is a young boy attending a Shaolin martial arts school in China. He defeats a series of foes as part of the school's training, and learns that his final enemy is in Japan. In his pursuit of the enemy, he encounters the Koraku restaurant.

The actor playing the young boy is 7-year-old Zhang Zhuang, who actually does attend a Shaolin school in China. He was selected from an audition of 2,000 people.

Filming already began on March 15. The movie is scheduled for release this spring.

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