Cast announced for Yusuke Iseya's "Seiji"

by Chris MaGee

It was only last week that we reported on Yusuke Iseya's return to the director's chair. The 34-year-old star of such films as "After Life", "Sukiyaki Western Django" and "Blindness" had already made his directorial debut in 2002 with the yakuza film "Kakuto", but now, 8-year's later, he is bringing audiences his sophomore film titled "Seiji".

At the time of or post there hadn't been any announcement of the cast for "Seiji", the story of a man named Seiji who operates a drive-in movie theatre and his interactions with the drive-in's female owner and its regular audience, but that all changed in the past couple of days. Tokyograph broke the news that Mirai Moriyama (above right) will play the lead role of a fourth year university student who comes across the drive-in while on a biking trip. It's there he encounters Seiji, the operator of the drive-in, played by Hidetoshi Nishijima (above left). It's through the running of the drive in that this young university student learns valuable life lessons.

Along with Nishijima and Moriyama "Seiji" will also star Nae Yuki as the drive-in's owner and Hirofumi Arai, Kenichi Takito, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Masahiko Tsugawa as its regular patrons. Look for "Seiji" in Japanese theatres next year.