There aren't a ton of directors that I'll follow them no matter what they're working on, but Japanese director Hirokau Koreeda is one. The director behind Our Little Sister, I Wish, and Like Father Like Son keeps his family dramas pretty low-key. More often than not I miss the announcements of them completely, not realizing he has a new movie until right before they come out. So it's a special treat for me to learn details on his next project, thanks to Variety.
Koreeda will reunite with Like Father Like Son's Masaharu Fukuyama for an untitled film that sounds like quite the departure. Penned by Koreeda, the story follows a hotshot win-at-all-costs defense attorney who reluctantly takes on the case of a convicted killer and ex-con. The convict will be played by Koji Yakusho, probably best known to American audiences for Memoirs of a Geisha and 13 Assassins. Here's how Koreeda describes Fukuyama's protagonist...
“He is a person whose professional credo is that he doesn’t need to know the truth. He takes a certain pride in that. But in dealing with what looks at first glance to be a criminal in a simple murder case, his sense of values is shaken and he really wants to know what is true.”
Shooting will begin later this month with a September release date planned. I wouldn't be surprised to see it hit some of the latter year festivals.
