Akadot - News - Minetaro Mochizuki's Manga Into Feature Film


Akadot Retail - Pop Japan Mercantile

10/21/02 (Tokyo, Japan) - Minetaro Mochizuki's popular manga series Dragon Head will come alive on the big screen as a live action feature film in Japan. Daughter of the famous Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda, 16 year-old SAYAKA will make her feature film debut in this movie. Also, starring in the movie is 21 year-old rising star Satoshi Tsumabuki. Tsumabuki was nominated for the 2001 Japan Academy Awards' best newcomer category for his performance in the hit sports-comedy Waterboys.

Mochizuki's Dragon Head manga series was featured in Weekly Young Magazine from September 1994 to December 1999. The story is an intense mystery about Teru Aoki (Tsumabuki) who is returning home on the bullet train from a class trip with his teacher and classmates. While the train is passing through a tunnel, the train runs off the tracks and crashes. Everyone aboard the train except Teru seems to have died in the accident. However, while Teru stumbles around through the darkness and the rubble, one of his female classmates, Ako Seto (SAYAKA) grabs his ankle. Apparently she is one of the rare survivors of the crash. When they finally escape the dark and deadly tunnel, they discover a world of mass destruction. Unaware of what happened or the cause of the destruction, they must struggle to survive in an unforgiving enviroment, which resembles an apocalyptic Tokyo.

With an enormous budget of 15 hundred million yen (approximately 13 million dollars), many scenes were filmed on location in the Middle Eastern country of Uzibekistan. This area was chosen because it is six times the size of Tokyo Dome. The film crew was able to construct huge sets and used 80 tons of ash to create a "destroyed" Tokyo for the movie.

This is not the first of Mochizuki's works to be transformed into film. His manga entitled Samehada Otoko to Momojiri Onna (Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl) was also produced into a live action movie. Dragon Head is scheduled to open in Japan during autumn of 2003.