Hikari Mitsushima Shines as Her Film ‘Last Mile’ Becomes a Major Hit

Is “Last Mile” Mitsushima’s representative work!? 

The movie “Last Mile,” starring Hikari Mitsushima (38) and directed by Ayuko Tsukahara, was released on August 23 and recorded an audience of 468,000 and box office earnings of 639 million yen over the three-day weekend from August 30 to September 1. It topped the “Domestic Movie Ranking” (according to Kogyotsushinsha) for two consecutive weeks, with cumulative results already surpassing 1.52 million in audience and 2.15 billion yen in earnings. 

This work is a suspense film depicting the events of a series of bombings that occurred in the same world as the popular TBS dramas “Unnatural” (starring Satomi Ishihara, 37, in 2018) and “MIU404” (co-starring Go Ayano, 42, and Gen Hoshino, 43, in 2020), created by director Tsukahara and screenwriter Akiko Nogi reuniting.

Mitsushima plays the role of Elena Funato, the leader of a logistics center confronting the series of bombings. The film’s title refers to the logistics service from the final hub to the end user, taken from the term that signifies the last segment of delivery by logistics providers to customers.

“A socially conscious work that highlights events within the logistics warehouse of a major online shopping service and the realities of large transport companies handling that distribution. While it has a serious underlying theme, it also includes mystery elements surrounding the bombings, making it highly entertaining. Recently, there haven’t been many live-action Japanese films of this kind, and with the popularity of ‘Unnatural’ and ‘MIU404,’ it had a rocket start.

As of August, the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film of the year is the latest adaptation of the popular comic ‘Kingdom: The Return of the Great General,’ starring Kento Yamazaki (30), which has surpassed 7 billion yen. Although it may not reach those numbers, its strong audience turnout suggests that this will likely become Mitsushima’s representative work,” said a film industry reporter.

Speaking of Mitsushima, she originally worked under the name “HIKARI” in the music unit “Folder.” Her appearance as a child actor in the 1997 film “Mothra 2: Battle in the Depths” became the trigger for her aspiration to become an actress, as she later revealed in an interview.

By the way, “DAICHI,” who was in the same group, is the singer-songwriter Daichi Miura (37). The unit effectively disbanded in 2003 after changing its name to “Folder5.” After transitioning to acting, Mitsushima changed agencies and gained attention for her intense performance in the 2009 film “Love Exposure,” directed by Sion Sono, where she received rigorous acting coaching. This led to her shining in the spotlight, winning numerous film awards.