009-1 Science-Fiction Action Manga Gets Live-Action Film

posted on 2013-06-14 21:30 EDT

Power Rangers' Kōichi Sakamoto directs & Mayuko Iwasa plays female cyborg agent

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009-1 The End of the Beginning, the live-action film based on the science-fiction action manga 009-1 by the late pioneer Shotaro Ishinomori, will open in Japan on September 7. Kōichi Sakamoto (Power Rangers, Daikaijū Battle: Ultra Ginga Densetsu The Movie) is directing, and Mayuko Iwasa (Boku wa Imōto ni Koi o Suru: Secret Sweethearts - Kono Koi wa Himitsu's Iku Yuuki, Detective Conan's Sonoko Suzuki, live-action Nodame Cantabile's Reina Ishikawa) stars as the titular cyborg agent Mylene "009-1" Hoffman.

The story is set in a world where the Cold War never ended, and the solitary cyborg agent 009-1 operates in the violent skirmishes waged between the two factions. The live-action film will recreate not only the manga's gun battles, but also 009-1's signature "breast guns."





Also starring are Minehiro Kinomoto, Nao Nagasawa, Mao Ichimichi, and Shizuka Midorikawa. Naoto Takenaka and Aya Sugimoto play top brass in the 00 organization. The film will play as the last showing in Tokyo's Shinjuku Wald 9 theater complex, followed by other theaters in limited release.

The project marks what would have been Ishinomori's 75th birthday this year. He launched the manga in 1967 as his first series in a seinen comic magazine (Futabasha's Manga Action), and it has been positioned as a more adult manga compared to his most famous work, Cyborg 009. The manga already inspired a 2006 television anime series, and ADV Films released that anime in North America. Funimation also reissued the anime on DVD, after picking up over 30 former ADV Films titles.