14-year-old actress Ai Hashimoto stars in adaptation of Yusuke Yamada’s “Avatar”
Posted by Kevin Ouellette on November 10, 2010 3:16am EDT (2 years ago)
Filed under: Future releases, Cast updates, Movie announcements
Coming off her performance in Tetsuya Nakashiima’s much discussed 2010 film Confessions, 14-year-old model/actress Ai Hashimoto has been cast in the lead role in Atsushi Wada’s Avatar.
The upcoming film is based on a book by Yusuke Yamada, whose stories have repeatedly managed to strike a cord with teens and tweens in recent years. Both the 2008 sleeper hit “Real Onigokko” and this summer’s “Batsu Game” were based on his works.
Yamada’s themes often involve games that turn deadly, a la “Battle Royale”, and Avatar will be in a similar vein. Hashimoto plays an ordinary second-year high school student named Michiko who becomes so obsessed with impersonating her SNS (Social Networking System) alter ego that she eventually blurs the line between fantasy and reality. When she obtains a rare avatar called “Ava Q” (presumably an abbreviation of “Avatar Queen”), she begins committing crimes leading up to and including murder for the sake of raising her online status above her classmates and collecting more of the site’s virtual currency.
This will mark Hashimoto’s second starring role, having starred in her 2009 film debut “Give and Go”. However, she’s apparently not too nervous about it. “There’s no pressure,” she said, “but I do feel a sense of responsibility.” She added that it was difficult to maintain the base character of the more reserved Michiko, but once she made the drastic transformation to the intense Queen character, she enjoyed the freedom of being able to go all out with her performance.
The supporting cast includes Rikako Sakata, Nako Mizusawa, Haneyuri, Kazuma Sano, Mizuki Sashide, and Mio Otani.
“Avatar” is slated for a nation-wide theatrical release in spring 2011.
Sources: Tokyograph, Eiga.com
- Yusuke Chiba and Tatsuya Nakamura team up for the theme of "I'm Flash!"
- Teaser for "Good Morning Everyone!" starring Kumiko Aso and Yo Oizumi
- Cat-filled special video for Naoko Ogigami's "Rent-a-Cat"
- New Trailer + making-of clip for Mika Ninagawa's "Helter Skelter"
- Full trailer for "Another" starring Kento Yamazaki and Ai Hashimoto
- Teaser for Shion Sono's "The Land of Hope"
- Suzuka Morita and Mariya Suzuki to star in two new horror movies
- And the new Sadako is... Ai Hashimoto!
- Comedian Teruyoshi Uchimura working on a film version of "Bokutachi no Koukan Nikki"
- Cannes trailer for Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone In Love"
- More cast members revealed for Takashi Miike's "Aku no Kyoten"
- Inudo and Higuchi's "The Floating Castle" to be released on November 2nd
- Former SDN48 member Megumi Ohori to star in "Kuchisake-onna Returns"
- Seishiro Kato to play a young Satoshi Tsumabuki in Takashi Miike's "For Love's Sake"
- KAT-TUN's Kazuya Kamenashi to star in Satoshi Miki's next film
- Behind the scenes clip released for Takeshi Kitano's "Outrage Beyond"
- New trailer for Gisaburo Sugii's "GuskÅ Budori no Denki"
- Trailer for idol-centric J-horror "Kotsutsubo"
- Trailer for the re-release of Toshiaki Toyoda's "9 Souls"
- First teaser for life-switching comedy "Kagi Dorobou no Method"
