Kyoko Fukada and Kippei Shinna in film Renai Gikyoku

Hard to believe, but popular actress Kyoko Fukada has not had top billing in a film since Mayumi Miyasaka’s “Tenshi”, which was released over 4 years ago. Today comes word that Fukada will be making her return to leading lady status the hard way in Renai Gikyoku: Watashi to Koi ni Ochite Kudasai (literally “Love Drama: Please Fall in Love with Me”), playing a role consisting of 3 distinct parts.

The film is an adaptation of playwright Shoji Kokami‘s hit stage play “Renai Gikyoku”, and Kokami himself will direct. Fukuda will play a popular television screenwriter named Mayumi Taniyama and actor Kippei Shiina will play a totally clueless TV producer named Mukai in his first purely comedic role. Taniyama is suffering from writer’s block, so when Mukai enthusiastically requests to work from one of her scripts, she asks him to fall in love with her first.

Fukada’s role is broken down three parts as the story bounces back and forth between fantasy and reality: the real-life screenwriter selfishly abusing a man for her own purposes, the lonely housewife in her script, and the gorgeous woman in the fictional housewife’s script.

The rest of the cast includes Takashi Tsukamoto, Masatoshi Nakamura, Misa Shimizu, Masahiko Nishimura, and Jun Inoue.

“Renai Gikyoku” will begin its gradual nation-wide release in Japan on September 25, 2010.

nipponcinema