An Ominous Hand Across the Face of Haruka Shimazaki! Poster for Horror Film Gekijourei Revealed!

| 48 / 46 Group | Posted by Kai Okudara on Jul.10.2015

Sponsored Links

The poster for “Gekijourei”, the film starring Haruka Shimazaki (AKB48) and directed by Japanese horror film legend Hideo Nakata has materialized! It is truly creepy with the puppet hand covering her face!

“Gekijourei” comes 20 years after Nakata’s breakthrough film “Joyuurei” which showed the eerie and horrific phenomena in a film studio, shifting the stage to the “theater”. Here is the trailer.

Contributor Wanted!!

Shimazaki plays Saori, a young actress that plays a supporting role in a new play as the other actors quarrel amongst each other during the production. Tensions escalate further after a ball-jointed puppet is brought into the theater as a prop and all sorts of unexplainable accidents begin to occur.

Shimazaki won the role via an audition open to all the members of AKB48. Rika Adachi plays Saori’s best friend Kaori who harbors a secret. Riho Takada plays Aoi, an actress who is a rival of Saori. Keita Machida (Gekidan Exile) plays Izumi, a stage crew member who investigates the mysterious incidents with Saori.

Nakata praised Shimazaki for her “tense face that was able to express doubt and determination which added an extra dimension to her character”, during rehearsals. He continued by adding, “Whenever she shook in terror with her ‘large feline eyes’ of hers, I was leaping with joy on the inside!”

Nakata explains that the terror of “Gekijourei” is “similar to ‘Joyuurei’ in that the ‘devil’ that lurks within the crevices of ‘theater = fiction’. This ‘devil’ won’t stop its ‘invasion of reality’, getting onto the stage during rehearsals, the dressing rooms, the storage warehouse, or the trap door cellar under the stage.” He continues, “I am very aware of the sensation of speeding and horrifying grotesqueness,” leading us to expect a Japanese horror film with not just the quiet, sticky kind of horror, but a film that allows us a completely new kind of experience.

“Gekijourei” will be released in theaters across Japan on November 21, 2015.

Gekijourei Official website : http://gekijourei.jp/