The official subsite for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Hana (Hana yori mo naho) is now functional.
The story and screenplay for Hana were written by Kore-eda. The movie's principal cast is as follows (listed order corresponds to order on cast page of official subsite): Jun'ichi Okada, Rie Miyazawa, Arata Furuta, Tadanobu Asano, Teruyuki Kagawa, Jun Kunimura, Yoshio Harada, Katsuo Nakamura, Tomoko Tabata, Yui Natsukawa, Renji Ishibashi, Ryûhei Ueshima, Yûichi Kimura, Seiji Chihara, Ryô Kase, Sei Hiraizumi, Moeko Ezawa, and Susumu Terajima.
Shochiku Co. Ltd. (Shôchiku K.K.) is scheduled to release Hana theatrically in Japan on June 3rd.
Below is a synopsis for Hana from the page for the movie on ShochikuFilms.com - the English-language website of Shochiku.
The time is 1702.
A young samurai, Sozaemon Aoki (AOKI Sôzaemon ... OKADA Jun'ichi), has left his countryside hometown and is now living in Edo (Tokyo), in search of Jubei Kanazawa (KANAZAWA Jûbei ... ASANO Tadanobu) - the man who killed his father.
He is living in a dilapidated tenement house, in the poor quarters of Edo. His neighbors in the so-called "row houses" are all good, solid folk who can never even hope to rise out of the squalor of their surroundings. Sozaemon, the provincial samurai, becomes friends with a variety of characters including a habitual drunk, an unsuccessful would-be petty official, a ragman, a perky girl, a doctor, and a scrivener. As the relationships between the characters unfold, we are led deeper into the blossoming love story of Sozaemon and the beautiful widow, Osae (O-Sae ... MIYAZAWA Rie).
Although he has never forgotten his task to find his father's enemy and to succeed in his vengeance, being around Osae and her son, Sozaemon feels a warm feeling inside, which leads to doubts about the entire act of revenge. However, to walk away from the revenge act (adauchi) could actually bring his entire family down; not only would he be without the reward from the Shogun, but also, as a samurai, his failure to seek revenge would be an act of cowardice, and a disgrace to the entire family name.
Sozaemon, still not being able to decide whether he should seek revenge, goes on with his everyday life, teaching the neighborhood children mathematics, reading, and writing. He wonders whether he can ever enjoy life without the specter of revenge and swordplay.
With the discovery of a rich, meaningful life rather than the meaningless death of a warrior, Sozaemon, together with his strange friends at the tenement row house, decides to plot the act of a lifetime....
Hana official subsite
ShochikuFilms.com: Hana