[news] New movie announced: Pika☆★☆nchi: Life is Hard tabun Happy (2014)
It's been 7 years since they last filmed a movie together (Kiiroi Namida in 2007), and now they're back together again for a sequel to their Pikanchi series! It is called Pika☆★☆nchi: Life is Hard tabun Happy, set to be shown for one month in only one theater this year.
Like earlier, I'm going to put all the information down in bullet points in no particular order:
- Directed by Tsutsumi Yukihiko again, this film will take a look at how the five childhood friends are doing 10 years later, with all of them in their 30s and living their own lives.
- Bon (Matsumoto Jun) met his soulmate in Okinawa who was already married (presumably he stole her away from her husband).
- Takuma (Ninomiya Kazunari) tours around the world with his guitar and has become a bit of a "big daddy" in the process.
- Haru (Ohno Satoshi) has married his first love (the older woman from before) and is the father of one child.
- Chu (Sakurai Sho) is still married but does not see eye to eye with his wife when it comes to raising his now-11 year old son, and it seems she has taken their kid and left.
- Shun (Aiba Masaki) runs a ramen shop on a boat called "SHUN 麺" (SHUN men, translated as SHUN noodles).
- Like the previous movies, Inohara Yoshihiko (of V6) will also make an appearance.
- This movie is not actually a full length, full production movie, hence the "2.5" rather than calling it Pikanchi 3.
- Originally proposed by Arashi themselves, Jun explained that it was more of a spin-off to commemorate their 15th anniversary that is more laid back and more fun than before.
- Both previous Pikanchi movies were not shown in theaters across the country; Pika★nchi was only shown in one venue, and Pika☆☆nchi was shown in two venues. Their popularity has grown by leaps and bounds since, but they've chosen to go with a small scale release again to keep the tradition going.
- The movie will be shown for a limited time from August 1 to August 31 of 2014 at the Tokyo Dome City Hall.
- 250,000 people are expected to watch this film, which will be shown 4 times a day.
- Filming will start in the middle of this month and last for about a month.
- There might be a proper Pikanchi 3 down the road!
EDIT: Forgot to add that they will not be releasing a new single for this as they do not consider it to be a proper release :)
EDITx2: Official site is up! http://www.pika-nchi.com/ Tickets cost 1500yen each and will be available for sale starting from July 13th at 12:00 PM with Lawson Tickets.