George Asakura's "Heibon Ponch" being adapted to the big screen

by Chris MaGee

The work of manga artist George Asakura (a pen name, George is actually a woman) has always reminded me more of the portraiture of the Vienna Secessionst artist Egon Schiele than her manga counterparts. Her brushy, expressionist style sets her apart from her contemporaries and so do her stories, and now one of her best known series "Heibon Ponch" is being adapted into a live-action film.

The manga tells a traditional odd couple story in very untraditional way. Aki Mishima is an overweight film director with bad skin and a phobia about women with large breasts. Mika Wanibuchi is an aspiring actress who thinks that all her career problems will be solved if she weren't so flat chest. This unlikely couple are thrown together after Mika murders a rival actress and the two go on the run from the law with Aki chronicling their life as fugitives on film. Their budding romance has Aki transforming into a handsome svelte version of himself while Mika is really arttracted to the out of shape Aki. Maybe they'll find a place where they're differences can be overcome... like the imaginary "Town of Big Breasts".

Strange, huh? Well, Asakura has hand picked a director whose output has been equally strange as her manga vision, Sakichi Sato. Sato not only directed the Tadanobu Asano and Sho Aikawa film "Tokyo Zombie", but also wrote Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer" and Gozu", so you can start to gauge just how off the wall this adaptation could get.

Sato (above left) will also star as Aki while gravure model Rina Akiyama (above right) will be making her feature film debut at Mika.

Thanks to Nippon Cinema for the details on this.