Production has wrapped on Miike Takashi’s latest film, “Mogura no Uta Final” (translation: Mole Song Final), the third and final part of his “Mole Song” action-comedy trilogy about a bumbling cop who goes undercover — and becomes a full-fledged yakuza.
The new film will open on November 19, 2021 with Toho distributing. Like the two previous films, “The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji” in 2013 and “The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio” in 2016, it is scripted by Kudo Kankuro, a scriptwriter-director who is almost as in-demand in his own sphere as the notoriously prolific Miike is in his.
The stories are based on a comic by Takahashi Noboru that has been running since 2005. As of May this year, it had sold 9.3 million copies in paperback editions.
In the film, which wrapped in mid-June, the cop-gangster hero, Reiji (Ikuta Toma), goes on a mission to stop a drug shipment with a $5.4 billion street value, with much of the action unfolding on a luxury cruise ship. Details about the story are sparse, but in the trailer just posted on YouTube the hero is shown stripped nearly naked and tied to a moving car like a hood ornament – a motif in previous franchise elements.
Miike has another new film, “The Great Yokai War: Guardian,” set for an August 13 release with Toho and Kadokawa co-distributing. A follow-up to his 2005 hit “The Great Yokai War,” it is another fantasy set in the world of yokai – Japan’s native variety of monsters and spirits – and is targeted at the family audience.
Source : Variety
