[News] Sato Eriko and Kitamura Kazuki to star in the hard-boiled thriller ‘Night People’.

[News] Sato Eriko and to star in the hard-boiled thriller ‘Night People’.
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On November 8, it was announced that actress Sato Eriko will be playing a bewitching and mysterious woman who toys with men in the upcoming movie ‘Night People‘.

Sato made herself a name as an actress with her award-wining performance as an overly ambitious and narcissistic woman in the 2007 hit movie ‘Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!‘

‘Night People’ is based on a short story titled ‘Tokai no Yajuu‘ from one of award-winning author Osaka Go’s early collections of short stories ‘Joujou Kanteinin‘. It’s a thrilling story that revolves around a stolen sum of money of 200,000,000 Yen (2.5 million USD).

Sato plays ‘Moeko’, a puzzling woman who suddenly appears in the bar of ‘Shinji’, played by actor Kitamura Kazuki. ‘Shinji’ is completely captivated by this woman, and before he knows it, he’s already wrapped around her finger. Sugimoto Tetta makes the very unique and distinct trio of actors complete as an elusive and ominous detective.

In addition to the sheer tension created by the individual performances of those three actors, the movie is said to depict some intense gunfights as well. One of the bigger shootouts was even filmed in the middle of an actual gangland war.

The title ‘Night People’ was picked as an homage to American author and screenwriter Barry Gifford. One of the names in the movie is also an homage to the late comedian and actor Naito Chin. Both of those names should ring a bell for fans of hard-boiled fiction and give them an idea of the style they were trying to pursue with this movie.

The movie is directed by Kadoi Hajime who made himself a name with his movie ‘Kyuuka‘ (international title: ‘Vacation‘) that touched on the topic of the death penalty in Japan. It screened at the Montreal World Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival among others in 2008 and gained him international recognition. Five years later, he’s back with a suspense-packed hard-boiled thriller.

Kadoi incorporated even more twists into ‘Night People’ than the original short story, which is not always a good thing, but Osaka himself has already praised the movie adaptation. He commented, “After watching this movie, you will certainly want to read the original it’s based on. Even I myself immediately went to read my own story again. (laughs) To be honest, it’s difficult to tell which version is better.”

‘Night People’ is going to hit selected theaters in early spring 2013.