J-movie Terraformars Set on Future Mars Unveils Epic Cast of Oguri Shun, Yamashita Tomohisa, and Yamada Takayuki

By all that is holy I need this movie NOW. The epic cast of upcoming J-movie Terraformars has been filming since May but the movie is headed to Iceland next month for a full scale location shoot, and finally revealing to the public the crazy insane awesome cast assembled for this wild Mars ride. Terraformars, adapted from a popular shonen manga, is led by veteran leading man Hideaki Ito with a youngster cast consisting of Oguri Shun, Yamashita Tomohisa, Yamada Takayuki, Takei Emi, Kikuchi Rinko, Kato Masaya, Kosugi Kane, and many more.

I had a genuine “sorry? come again?” moment when I read the cast list. Seriously, Yamapi, Shun, and Takayuki in the same movie? Even throwing in popular wet blanket Emi doesn’t dim my raging need for this movie. Even more exciting is having Terraformers directed by critically acclaimed Japanese director Miike Takashi, who has directed so many movies I can’t even list them all if I tried but some of his most famous works include Audition, Crows Zero (reuniting with both Shun and Takayuki), 13 Assassins, and most recently in As the Gods Will. Miike Takashi directing this bunch in a crazy future space movie set on Mars armed with a hefty budget. Oh hells yeah!

Terraformars sounds like a movie Hollywood would be itching to make, with a plot that is a cross between Starship Troopers and Pitch Black. I already love it on storyboard alone. The last Japanese live-action movie to be set in the space frontier was Space Battleship Yamato starring Kimura Takuya back in in 2010 so it’s beyond high time to rocket more Japanese acting talent out to space.

Synopsis:

Due to depleting natural resources and overpopulation, humans look to Mars as their next habitat. Terraforming is the project to change Mars’ environment to accommodate humans. For this project, cockroaches are sent to Mars and mutated to walk. In the year 2599, 15 poor Japanese are sent to Mars to take out the cockroaches. They are unaware of what they are up against.


Comments

J-movie Terraformars Set on Future Mars Unveils Epic Cast of Oguri Shun, Yamashita Tomohisa, and Yamada Takayuki — 29 Comments

    • same here. WOW.
      can you please add a “like” button on your post Koala?
      i’ll click it 1,000times.
      i’m speechless that i don’t really have anything to say but
      1,000 likes!!! WOW 🙂

  1. Takashii Miike+Yamada+Oguri? Can’t wait to see that Crows Zero chemistry again. Yamapi just adds to the pretty I suppose.

    • hhh my reaction exactly, I ws thinking what is yamapi doing there with all these people who can act but then why not some more pretty, I just hope he doesn’t have a bigger role than oguri and takyuki yamada

  2. hell yeah ! takatuki yamada and oguri shun are such powerful actors, easily the best in their generation 🙂 cn’t wait to see this, thanx for sharing the great news

  3. Basically I guess Miike knew he has to make up for the terrible actors consisting of Yamapi, Takei and Shinoda Mariko and get the rest of the cast to be super awesome. Seriously Shun, Takayuki, Hideaki with Kikuchi Rinko and Rila Fukushima!
    I’m looking forward to it because of them!

    • It’s what he’s been doing lately, which is pretty disappointing. He had Takei Emi paired with Tsumabuki Satoshi in For Love’s Sake (a movie that also had the amazing Ando Sakura), and Fukushi Sota was the lead of As the Gods Will – opposite the likes of Kamiki Ryunosuke, Sometani Shota and Lily Franky.

      I guess it’s mostly a money thing and agencies insisting on their “talent” being cast, but I don’t think it’s for the benefit of the films and I’m not very likely to watch with this kind of casting. I prefer quality over popularity and I very much doubt these recent movies Miike has been churning out will become “critically acclaimed”.

      • Absolutely, even though he also had Kuroki Meisa in Crows Zero. Well she was there just to be ogled at anyway.
        I definitely think it’s like you said agencies pushing their talent and saying it’ll bring fans of that “actor” to watch the film.
        I wish Miike would stop that, just continue making crazy movies. I’m just happy that Rinko is finally getting some work in Japan.

  4. Interesting news. I don’t think Yamapi and I have been introduced in a miniseries or movie, but I have been introduced to Takei and she is expressly unimpressive in scenes. I wish agencies would stop trying to make stars out of so-called actors.

    • If that’s the source material they are using, they will have a problem with the audiences in the West. There’s not enough talent in the world to overlook those images.

    • I’d been so excited for the cast, but seeing that, well, it ruins everything. How can something be so blatantly racist? I’m disappointed in the cast and crew for choosing such a picture. Thanks for pointing this out D.

      • Yeah, sorry to be a party pooper, but I was totally excited about this movie too until I looked up the manga and my jaw dropped…

        No. Just. No.

    • Wait What. I’v read the manga and thoroughly enjoyed its apocalyptic like setting. But calling the manga racist to me is a bit of a stretch. The enemy are evolved cockroaches… so what colour should the artist draw them in?? Red, blue or green??? Black seems quite appropriate. If he drew them in a shading that denoting brown, then would the manga be racist to indians?! That blog post said the way the characters held guns,” seems familiar.” Seems familiar to what? you tell me.

      Think we are OVERanalysing it here. Also once again on the colour topic, it’s a manga you can only draw in black and white! And the colours of black and white have always been the comparison of darkness and light. MAYBE there undercurrents of subtle racism maybe there isn’t but to me it seems like a big stretch to call the manga obscenely racist.

  5. I really like the idea of Oguri Shun, Yamashita Tomohisa and Yamada Takayuki together in a movie. But I’m just not sure this story is my cup of tea. For starters, I just really don’t like cockroaches. Humanoid looking ones may just traumatize me for life. And for me it seems to go downhill from there, with the horror sci fy dystopian reality (not my sort of story) and the apparent racist imaginery (that’s just weird). On the other hand, this is an adaptation and they may change this up enough that may result in something watchable for me (though they’d basically have to change everything). I’ll wait and see.
    Though, all things said, I’d really wish they’d just take this cast and make a Macross movie instead.

  6. oh wow, i watched the anime, that is pretty intense and death, death, death. so dont expect for everyone to survive. i wonder how the effects will be

  7. Big fan of Shun, the Director and i like Yamapi too but i cant support a movie following the most clear racist manga i have ever seen. I knew japanese people are not used to blacks but come on…. The writer is writing Aryan fantasy crap that loves eugenics. Shame ruined this great cast for me.

    Even mindless action manga cant be this stupid about Nazi hero killing others….

    • LIKE!! Even from the first picture shown in the website above, it’s pretty blatant that it depicts black men as the evolved cockroaches. Adolf, Eva…to say it’s NOT racist? puh..lease!

  8. WHAT. A STELLAR CAST..This movie just raised its level on so many heights.. When the movie releases and the cast comes out to promote the movie, Japan is going to get crazy.. I can’t wait for this movie myself! 😀

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