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Live-Action Homunculus Film Unveils Teaser Trailer, 4 More Cast Members

Avex Pictures began streaming a teaser trailer for the live-action film of Hideo Yamamoto's Homunculus manga on Friday. Avex Pictures also revealed four more cast members for the film.

The new cast members include (clockwise from upper left in image below):

• Ryō Itō as Manabu Itō, a medical student
• Yukino Kishii as a "mysterious woman"
• Seiyō Uchino as a yakuza boss
• E-girls group member Anna Ishii as a high school girl that has a connection with the protagonist

Gō Ayano (seen in costume right) plays the film's protagonist.

Takashi Shimizu, the creator of the Ju-On horror film franchise, is directing the film. The film will open in Japan on April 2 next year. In addition to opening in theaters throughout Japan, the film will exclusively stream on Netflix worldwide.

The film's story begins in Tokyo's West Shinjuku neighborhood, and that neighborhoods and other locales hosted principal photography from December 2019 to January 2020.

The psychological horror story centers on a man who agrees to let a medical student drill a hole in his skull to pay his bills. As a result of the bizarre experiment, the man's sixth sense is awakened, and the side effects haunt his life and those of the people around him.

The manga launched in Shogakukan's Weekly Big Comic Spirits magazine in 2003 and ended in 2011. Shogakukan released 15 compiled book volumes for the series, which has more than 4 million copies in circulation.

Before Homunculus, Yamamoto created Ichi the Killer, Okama Hakusho, and Voyeur. Viz Media published Voyeur and Voyeurs, Inc. manga in North America, while Ichi the Killer inspired several controversial live-action and animated adaptations. Cult-favorite-turned-mainstream director Takashi Miike oversaw the Ichi the Killer film that Media Blasters released in America, and he also made a voice cameo in the Ichi The Killer: Episode 0 anime that Central Park Media's U.S. Manga Corps distributed.

Source: Comic Natalie