After Young People…What’s Next for Netflix, which Produced “Asura’s Asylum” with a Superb Cast?
That classic Showa-era drama is now on Netflix!
Netflix, the video distribution service that released “The Groundhogs” and “Queen of Evil” in succession in the summer and fall of 2012, respectively, has released “Asura no Gotoku,” a new series directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (62), on Netflix. The new series directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (62) will be exclusively distributed from January 9, 2013.
Ashura no Gotoku” is a remake of Kuniko Mukoda’s classic home drama series broadcast on NHK from 1979 to 1980, with the late Haruko Kato playing the eldest sister, the late Kaoru Yachigusa playing the second sister, Ayumi Ishida (76) playing the third sister, and Jun Fubuki (72) playing the fourth sister in the NHK version. (72) played the fourth daughter. In the new Netflix version, the four sisters will be played by a superb cast, including Rie Miyazawa (51) as the eldest, Machiko Ono (43) as the second, Yu Aoi (39) as the third, and Suzu Hirose (26) as the fourth.
After the NHK drama version, a theater version of the film was released in 2003, directed by the late Yoshimitsu Morita. The cast of the film version included Shinobu Otake (67) as the eldest daughter, Hitomi Kuroki (64) as the second daughter, Eri Fukatsu (51) as the third daughter, and Kyoko Fukada (42) as the fourth daughter.
The total fee for the four sisters is expected to be quite high. The total fee for all four actors would have been quite high, and while it might have been possible to make the project work for a movie, it would have been difficult to make it work for any other major commercial broadcaster except for NHK.
Of the four, Miyazawa is remarried to former “V6” member Go Morita (45), and Aoi is married to Ryota Yamasato (47) of “Nankai Candies” and has a child, and in recent years they have been very selective about the films they appear in. Nevertheless, the fact that the film was directed by Kore-eda, now a master of the Japanese film industry, and was a Netflix film with a high fee may have encouraged the two to appear.
