Speed Member Takako Uehara in movie Koitanibashi

SPEED member Takako Uehara (28) has been given her first starring role in a movie. She will headline the cast of "Koitanibashi: La Vallee de l'amour," directed by Koichi Goto, set for release this summer.

As an actress, Uehara won a Japan Academy Prize Rookie of the Year award for her role in the 1999 movie "Dream Maker." She has appeared in several other films since then, with her last one being the 2008 movie "Yume no Manimani."

In "Koitanibashi," Uehara plays Tomoko, a young woman who had headed to Tokyo to pursue her dreams but returns in frustration to her hometown. There, she becomes an okami (proprietress) at a hot spring inn and turns her life around. The story is based on "Ame no Naka no Hatsukoi: First Love in the Rain," a script that won the 1st Super Scenario Grand Prix.

Producers chose the Tottori prefecture for filming, which took place in November and December of last year.

Uehara's supporting cast includes Kensei Mikami, Miyuki Matsuda, Ichiro Ogura, Yuko Nakazawa, Hassei Takano, Mayuko Iwasa, Daijiro Kawaoka, Anna Tsuchiya, Shingo Katsurayama, Renji Ishibashi, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, and Hiroki Matsukata.

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