Masato Sakai to star in “Nichirin no Isan”

By kevin on April 22, 2010 at 9:05pm EDT

Earlier today, it was announced that Nichirin no Isan, a 1993 novel by Naoki Award-winner Jiro Sato (58) will be made into a film starring Masato Sakai (36).

The novel, which has sold over 500,000 copies to date, revolves around a top secret mission to hide Japanese treasures currently valued at a staggering 200 trillion yen near the conclusion of World War II. Sakai will play Major Mashiba, an intelligence officer with Japan’s Imperial Guard. Together with First Lieutenant Koizumi (Seiji Fukushi) and Master Sergeant Mochizuki (Shido Nakamura), Mashiba attempts to execute secret orders to hide these valuable treasures from the occupying forces of Douglas MacArthur in the hopes of funding the nation’s reconstruction at some point in the future.

Out of necessity, 20 young girls are enlisted to help with the mission without being informed of the details. Yusuke Santamaria (39) will play the girls’ teacher and Kaoru Yachigusa (79) will play one of the girls in the present day.

Kiyoshi Sasabe will be directing the film for distributor Kadokawa Pictures. Filming will begin on April 24th with a release planned for sometime in 2011.

via Tokyograph