Tanimura out, Yoshinaga in for “The Chasing World” sequel

By kevin on December 14, 2009 at 8:28pm EST

When I the upcoming sequel to 2008’s surprise hit The Chasing World, I wasn’t quite sure if Mitsuki Tanimura would be returning to reprise her role from the first film. Apparently that will not be the case, as it’s been announced that 16-year-old model Jun Yoshinaga will be playing the same character in the sequel.

In the first film, Tsubasa Sato (Takuya Ishida) was pulled into a parallel world in which everyone with the surname Sato was chased down by relentless masked hunters at the command of a sadistic king whose exact motives didn’t become apparent until the film’s climax. While in this alternate reality, Sato meets up with a feisty girl he initially believes to be his sister (Tanimura), but the sister he knew in his own reality was in a catatonic state. Knowing that a death in one reality triggers one’s parallel counterpart’s death on the other, Sato does everything he can to protect the alternate version of his sister.

The film ended with Sato being sent to a 3rd reality, hinting at a sequel by showing Tanimura’s character leading a group of armed rebels in a post-apocalyptic warzone. It appears as though this is the point at which Yoshinaga will take over the role.

Phantom Film will be releasing The Chasing World 2 domestically in June 2010.

Source: Tokyograph