Osamu Tesuka's dark tale of revenge "MW" to come to big screen

by Chris MaGee

Reading news of the latest Osamu Tezuka live-action adaptation at Tokyograph this morning gave me a moment's pause. Having recently watched both Tatsuya Mori's 1998 documentary "A" that followed members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system in 1995, as well Akihiko Shiota's fictionalized account of a similar cult in his 2005 film "Canary" I wondered if 13 years on Japan was ready for the story of one man's plan to release a poisonous gas not just in Japan, but around the world. That's the story of Ozamua Tezuka's manga "MW" which ran from 1976-1978. After foreign military scientists cover up a leak of a newly developed MW gas by exterminating the entire population of an island the only survivors, a psychopathic young man named Michio Yuuki (to be played by Hiroshi Tamaki) and a guilt-ridden priest, Yutaro Garai (Takayuki Yamada) seek revenge against not only the army that developed the gas, but the entire world by unleashing MW on an unsuspecting populace.

Pretty heavy stuff, so let's hope director Hitoshi Iwamoto, whose made his name by mostly directing TV series about high schoolers, is up for the task. Filming is currently under way in Thailand with "MW" set for release next year.