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Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Hirofumi Arai Join Cast for Live-Action Parasyte Films
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
Japanese film distribution company TOHO announced more cast members for the two live-action film adaptations of Hitoshi Iwaaki's Parasyte (Kiseiju) science-fiction horror manga on Tuesday.
The new cast members are: (from top, left to right) Tadanobu Asano as Gotō, Masahiro Higashide as Hideo Shimada, Miko Yoki as Nobuko Izumi, and Jun Kunimura as Hirama; (from bottom, left to right) Kazuki Kitamura as Takeshi Hirokawa, Hirofumi Arai as Uragami, Pierre Taki as Miki, and Nao Ōmori as Kuramori.
Shōta Sometani (live-action xxxHOLiC, All Esper Dayo!) will star in the films as Shinichi Izumi, Eri Fukatsu (Onnanoko Monogatari) will play Ryōko Tamiya, and Ai Hashimoto (Blood-C: The Last Dark, live-action Another, Sadako 3D) will play Satomi Murano.
Takashi Yamazaki (live-action Space Battleship Yamato, Always: Sunset on Third Street) is directing the films. Ryūta Kosawa (Always: Sunset on Third Street, Shōnen H) is writing the films' scripts. The first film is slated to open in Japan on November 29, and the second film will open in 2015.
The manga is also getting a television anime adaptation that will air on NTV starting this fall.
Iwaaki serialized the manga in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine from 1990-1995. The 10-volume series (later reprinted in an eight-volume version) has more than 11 million copies in print.
The manga takes place in a world where alien beings called Parasites come to Earth and start taking over humans by entering in through their noses and ears and attaching themselves to their brains. One alien called Migi is only able to take over high school student Shinichi Izumi's right arm, and is unable to control Shinichi completely. Migi and Shinichi learn to co-exist, and the two battle other Parasites who see humans only as food.
Mixxine, the company that eventually became Tokyopop, published Parasyte in its Mixxine magazine and later in compiled book volumes. Del Rey then republished the series from 2007-2009, and Kodansha Comics republished the manga again from 2011-2012.
Source: Eiga.com
