Maki Horikita's role in ALWAYS: Sunset on Third Street highlighted

The film ‘ALWAYS: Sunset on Third Street’ was recently broadcast on Japan Television’s Friday Roadshow. The film, directed by Takashi Yamazaki and based on the manga by Ryohei Nishigiani, is set in Tokyo during the high economic growth period of the Showa era.

A key point of interest is the character Mutsuo Hoshino (played by Maki Horikita), a young woman who moved from Aomori to work at an auto repair shop. While the character was originally a male named Rokuro Hoshino in the source manga, the film adaptation changed the character to a female. Horikita’s performance, which included using a Tohoku dialect, earned her the Japan Academy Film Prize for Newcomer of the Year.

The film is part of a successful franchise that includes sequels ‘ALWAYS: Sunset on Third Street 2’ and ‘ALWAYS: Sunset on Third Street ’64’, both of which were significant box office hits in Japan.