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Shun Oguri Plays Novelist Osamu Dazai in No Longer Human Biographical Film

Director Mika Ninagawa revealed on December 3 that she is directing a new film based on the life of the famous Japanese author Osamu Dazai titled after the author's most well-known novel, No Longer Human (Ningen Shikkaku). Shun Oguri (seen below) will star in the film as Dazai. Filming began in November, and will conclude this month. The film opens in Japan in 2019.

The film will not adapt Dazai's No Longer Human, but will instead be a fictional biographical account of Dazai's life seen from the point of view of Dazai and three women: his wife, and two mistresses. In real life, Dazai and his mistress Tomie drowned themselves shortly after Dazai finished penning No Longer Human.

Dazai's original Ningen Shikkaku novel follows a young man's deepening alienation from the rest of the world, despite his attempts to maintain a cheery facade. The story was adapted into a four-episode segment of the Aoi Bungaku television anime in 2009, and an anime film version of this segment was green-lit soon after. The anime version features original character designs by Death Note artist Takeshi Obata.

Shinchosha's Weekly Comic Bunch and Monthly Comic @ Bunch magazines serialized a manga adaptation of the novel by Usamaru Furuya from February 2009 to April 2011. Vertical later published the three-volume manga adaptation in North America. The now-defunct digital manga platform JManga previously offered East Press' manga adaptation. Junji Ito launched a manga adaptation of the novel in Shogakukan's Big Comic Original magazine in May 2017, and ended it on April 20. Shogakukan published the manga's third and final volume on July 30.

Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web