Yoshimitsu Morita directs Eita and Ken'ichi Matsuyama in upcoming train otaku film

by Chris MaGee

Yoshimitsu Morita (above left) is a director whose career has had a very interesting trajectory. His 1983 films "The Family Game" has been widely acclaimed as one of the best Japanese films of the 1980's and it routinely appears in Japanese cinema history books to illustrate the boom in independent film production in Japan. Over a decade later Morita would have a huge hit on his hands with "Lost Paradise", an erotic romance co-starring Koji Yakusho and Hitomi Kuroki. It ended up being one of the biggest box office earners in Japan in 1997. Another ten years on Morita was helming Toho's remake of Akira Kurosawa's "Sanjuro". While it performed well at the box office many critics wondered if the world really needed a remake of this Kurosawa classic. Obviously Morita has had more than three films in his three decade career, but this gives you an idea of the range of projects that his filmmaking talents have encompassed. Now Tokyograph is reporting on another entry into Morita's 27 film career.

"Bokutachi Kyuukou ~A Ressha de Ikou~" will bring Morita's fascination with trains to the big screen. The film will co-star Eita and Ken'ichi Matsuyama (above right in a promo image) as two trainspotters who travel the length and breadth of Japan's railway lines savoring their love for locomotives. Morita is apparently as crazy for trains as his two lead characters and is responsible for penning the script for "Bokutachi Kyuukou". According to the Tokyograph report Morita promises trainspotters that 80 different models of trains will chug across the screen in this new film. Japanese movie audiences and train hobbyists will have to wait until the fall of next year for that to happen though.