Award-winning romance manga Water Flows Toward The Sea (Mizu wa Umi ni Mukatte Nagareru) by Rettou Tajima is getting a live-action film, and it’s set to open in Japan in June 2023. The adaptation will star Japanese actress Suzu Hirose as Chisa Sakaki, a 26-year-old worker who doesn’t smile.
Author Tajima expressed her excitement for the movie, describing the finished film as “cute” and assuring fans they will enjoy Suzu Hirose’s beauty in the film.
“As a Japanese film fan, I honestly wanted to see the film. The finished film was…cute! You can fully enjoy the tone of colors, the cats, the boys and girls, the cuteness of middle-aged men (including Naotatsu’s father), and the beauty of Suzu Hirose in this film,” Tajima shared.
According to the award-winning author, what really impressed her was the last scene of the film.
“I was surprised at the emotional feeling that only visual images can create when combined with music, which can’t be expressed in manga,” she explained.
Launched in 2018 in Kodansha‘s Bessatu Shonen Magazine, Water Flows Toward The Sea helped Tajima bagged the New Creator Prize of the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2020.
Its story was described on the film’s official website as follows:
Naotatsu is staying at his uncle’s house to commute to high school. However, on the pouring rainy day, he is they are picked up at the nearest station by a grim-faced adult stranger, Sakaki-san. The house he was taken to was a strange share house where Sakaki and the other residents were all eccentric. While living together, Naotatsu begins to have a faint crush on Sakaki-san, who spends her days in an indifferent manner. However, there is an unexpected fate between himself and Sakaki-san, who declares that she is “not interested in romance.” –An unexpected encounter on a rainy day moistens their dry hearts.
You may watch the teaser trailer for the movie below:
Commenting on the role, Suzu Hirose compared herself to the character she is set to portray.
“When I heard about it, my honest impression was, “Why me?” It’s the first time I’ve ever played a role that’s so cool and hard to grasp emotions, but it’s also a role I’d like to try someday. It was a lot of fun to actually participate in the shooting,” Hirose shared.
“I myself am the type to endure, so there were many parts that I could understand her feelings. She doesn’t expect too much from people because of a certain past event, and she has a proper belief in herself. I cherished the way she met someone she wanted to believe in, and how her tightly tied threads began to unravel,” she continued.
Tetsu Maeda will direct the film, with Satomi Oshima as the Screenwriter.
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