[Mai82Go]

^Yes. Co Stars are (besides Ninomiya Kazunari) Tamaki Hiroshi, Horikita Maki, Sadao Abe, Tadayoshi Okura and Aoi Nakamura (one of my favourites, he is so cute). Really good cast.

Did you read the manga? Kou plays the no-nonsense Shogun, a really cool female character!

From nipponcinema

Back in December, it was announced that a new film adaptation of Fumi Yoshinaga’s Ooku manga was in the works and that it would star Kou Shibasaki and Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya in the two lead roles. Then in February, a new batch of co-stars was announced including Maki Horikita, Hiroshi Tamaki, Sadao Abe, and Tadayoshi Okura (of Kanjani8).

Today it was revealed that the cast will also include Kuranosuke Sasaki, Emi Wakui, Mitsuko Baisho, Muga Takewaki, and Aoi Nakamura, among others.

The film is set in an alternate an alternate version of Japan in which a disease has drastically decreased the male population, turning the nation into a matriarchal society in which young men are treated as a precious commodity never to be risked in sports or war. Within the story, gender roles and names are typically reversed. Ninomiya stars as a commoner named Mizuno who enters the Ooku (inner palace) in order to earn money for his family by becoming a member of the all-male harem. Soon, new shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune (Shibasaki) selects him as her first consort, triggering a long-standing Ooku tradition which could mean his death.

As previously reported by Tokyograph, Horikita will play O-nobu, the childhood friend of Mizuno who has feelings for him; Tamaki will play an elite member of the O-chuurou class named Matsushima; Abe will play a low-ranking member named Sugishita who has given up on advancing any further; and Okura will play Mizuno’s rival, an expert swordsman named Tsuruoka

Among the newly-revealed co-stars, Sasaki will play Fujinami, the senior harem adviser and Wakui will play Kano Hisamichi, a childhood friend of Yoshimune.

“Ooku” will be released in Japan on October 1, 2010