Another young star has been named to the cast of the summer’s big blockbuster movie. Oguri Shun (27, photo right) will play an elite bureaucrat in the second sequel to “Odoru Daisosasen” (Bayside Shakedown). The most commercially successful franchise in Japanese movie history has produced only spinoffs since 2003, so Odoru3 will be getting massive hype over the next few months. Oguri’s character is described as something “completely new” to the series, though it’s not clear if he will be an ally or an enemy of Detective Aoshima Shunsaku (Oda Yuji, 41, photo left). Odoru started out 12 years ago as a Fuji TV drama series and producer Kameyama Chihiro (53) said, “We wanted to have a bureaucrat character that was younger than Aoshima. And we thought Oguri could bring real style to the role.” Oguri himself said, “I’ve been watching this series since I was a kid, so I just didn’t want to mess it up!” His popularity will certainly add more fuel to the Odoru fire when the movie is released on July 3.
