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Himitsu - The Top Secret Live-Action Film Casts Kouji Kikkawa
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official website for the live-action film of Reiko Shimizu's Himitsu - The Top Secret psychological science-fiction manga announced on Wednesday that Kouji Kikkawa will play the character Kiyotaka Kainuma in the film. The site unveiled a visual of Kikkawa in costume (shown right).
The site describes Kainuma as a serial killer who opposes the 9th Forensics Laboratory, and was once involved in an incident where he killed 28 people. He plays a key role in the story, and is related to the darkest incident that has ever befallen the 9th Forensics Laboratory. The laboratory's section chief Tsuyoshi Maki (Toma Ikuta) confronts him in an important scene.
Kikkawa last worked with director Keishi Ōtomo in the first live-action Rurouni Kenshin film, where Kikkawa played Jin'e.
The film opens in Japan on August 6.
The mystery manga takes place in Japan five decades from now. Brain scanners have been perfected to the point that the government can retrieve up to five years' worth of memories from people's minds — even if they are dead. As they delve into people's minds to solve crimes, the investigators of the National Research Institute of Police Science's 9th Forensics Laboratory must weigh the ethical choices in the ultimate invasion of privacy.
Toma Ikuta (Hana-Kimi, We Were There, Akihabara @ DEEP, Honey and Clover, Mogura no Uta) plays Tsuyoshi Maki (pictured left in image at left), the brilliant laboratory head haunted by trauma. Masaki Okada (Hana-Kimi, Boku no Hatsukoi o Kimi ni Sasagu, Otomen, Mahō Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto, Space Brothers) plays Ikkō Aoki (right), the laboratory's new recruit. Chiaki Kuriyama (Battle Royale, Kill Bill, The Sky Crawlers) plays the forensic medical examiner Yukiko Miyoshi, and Nao Ōmori (Ichi the Killer, Helter Skelter, Parasyte) plays Shunsuke Manabe, a passionate detective (Manabe is a character created specifically for the movie, and he did not appear in the manga).
Director Keishi Ōtomo (live-action Rurouni Kenshin, Ryōmaden) began planning this film four years ago. Izumi Takahashi wrote the movie's script.
Source: Anime! Anime! (Katsunori Takahashi)
