Kumiko Aso and Yo Oizumi to play a pair of punk rockers in new film "Good Morning Everyone!"

by Chris MaGee

I've mentioned again and again my love/ hate relationship with the subgenre of Let's-start-a-band films that have come out of Japan in the past decade. It seems that everyone loves a musical underdog story, be it a group forming for the first time or an old band returning to the stage to reclaim their former glory. There's a new film that's just finished shooting that falls into that latter category.

Toru Yamamato, best known for being the second unit director on such films as "Sakuran" and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", is currently in post-production on "Good Morning Everyone!" This adaptation of Toriko Yoshikawa's novel stars Kumiko Aso (above left) and Yo Oizumi (above right) as former bandmates in a punk group who are now raising their teenage daughter, even though Oizumi's character is not her blood father. Apparently Aso went through a month's worth of guitar lessons to play in scenes with Oizumi as the band's lead singer.

Call me a little more than suspicious, but I find the idea of Yo Oizumi and especially Kumiko Aso as members of a punk band to be a little hard to believe. I guess we'll have to wait until next year when "Good Morning Everyone" is slated for release in Japan.

Thanks to Tokyograph for this piece of news.