Source: Toho Co., Ltd.
Official Site: tsuminokoe.jp (Japan)

A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Shun Oguri x Gen Hoshino… an unsolved case that shook Japan.

Toho and Tokyo Broadcasting System have provided press notes and photos for their new crime thriller THE VOICE OF SIN (罪の声, Tsumi no Koe). The movie brings together two of Japan’s top actors — Shun Oguri (BOYS OVER FLOWERS series, SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO, MUSEUM, GINTAMA series) and Gen Hoshino (WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL?, MIRAI, SAMURAI SHIFTERS) — for the first time, and is based on the 2016 best-selling novel of the same name by Takeshi Shiota.

The film is directed by Nobuhiro Doi (BE WITH YOU, THE WINGS OF THE KIRIN) from a screenplay by Akiko Nogi (LIBRARY WARS series, I AM A HERO).

THE VOICE OF SIN opens in Japanese cinemas this Friday, October 30th.

STORY

What if you learned one day that you once committed a terrible crime but never knew it?

Shunya Sone (Gen Hoshino) is a 39-year-old Kyoto tailor living a happy domestic life with his wife and 5-year-old daughter.

One day, while rummaging through belongings, he finds an old cassette tape left by his deceased father. He is surprised to hear a recording of his own voice on the tape from over 30 years ago.

But that’s when the discovery turns troubling. 35 years ago, all of Japan was gripped in panic over a publicized telephone threat made to a major food company in which a criminal group used a child’s voice. And that voice was identical to Sone’s. At the time, the perpetrators had been toying with the media and police by sending frequent forecasts of impending poisonings of snacks sold by the maker. Despite having become an unprecedented case in Japanese crime history, the uproar ultimately subsided without any arrests ever being made and its statute of limitations expiring, leaving many unsolved mysteries. Sone is flabbergasted and frankly frightened by the tape. “That’s definitely my voice. But how and why?”

If this fact were to slip out to the media, he would be suspected without any causes, and it would surely bring shame upon his family. While fearful of learning the truth, Sone knows he must do whatever necessary to protect his name and his family, and begins tracing the past of his father.

Meanwhile, a 38-year-old mid-tier newspaper journalist, Eiji Akutsu (Shun Oguri) has been assigned to a feature about the unsolved case from years ago. He goes in search of new evidence beginning with testimony gathered by those were around at the time. His attention then turns to the child’s voice used by the criminals to threaten the food company by phone. The voices of three children, it turns out, were used. But who were these children? And where are they now?

From his witness testimony, Akutsu learns there is another man out there hunting down information about the case. It is Shunya Sone, owner of one of the “child voices” from the case. Meanwhile, Sone beings to sense danger mounting the deeper he probes into the past. Akutsu tries to approach Sone as he closes in on the truth, but Sone flees fearing that the media might come to learn of his relationship to the case.

So two men, one pursuing the other, find themselves bound by the same purpose but with opposing interests. Fate will finally bring them together in the same place at the end of their struggle.

“When children are involved in crime, it’s a harsh indictment on society.”

The two men anguish over the fate of the kids who were involved in the case, and seek to spare them from a bleak future. They become determined to find the truth behind a shroud of unsolved mystery. As they zero in on the real culprit, they expose the true crime behind an incident that tragically put children in harm’s way and tarnished people’s faith in society.

CREDITS

Japanese Theatrical Release: October 30, 2020 (Nationwide Roadshow)
Running Time: 140 Minutes

Cast
Eiji Akutsu: Shun Oguri
Toshiya Sone: Gen Hoshino
Yosuke Mizushima: Yutaka Matsushige
Masao Torii: Kanji Furutachi
Kazunobu Komura: Shohei Hino
Chiyoko Ikushima: Yukiko Shinohara
Nozomi Ikushima: Nanoka Hara
Tatsuo Sone (young): Satoru Kawaguchi
Mayumi Sone (young): Junko Abe
Michi Suto: Terue Shoji
Ami Sone: Mikako Ichikawa
Kazunobu Komura: Shohei Hino
Tatsuo Sone: Ryudo Uzaki
Mayumi Sone: Meiko Kaji

Staff
Director: Nobuhiro Doi
Original Story: “The Voice of Sin” by Takeshi Shiota (Published By Kodansha Bunko)
Screenplay: Akiko Nogi
Producers: Jun Nasuda, Shinya Watanabe, Junichi Shindo
Cinematographer: Hideo Yamamoto

Production Company: “The Voice of Sin” Film Partners
Distributor: Toho
World Sales: TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc.)

©2020 “The Voice of Sin” Film Partners

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About Toho Company. Ltd.

Founded in 1932, Toho Co., Ltd. is one of the leading entertainment conglomerates in Japan. Toho is best known worldwide as the producer of the Godzilla films, as well as most of the films by the world-renowned director, Akira Kurosawa. Besides film production, Toho also distributes Japanese films (earning the highest box office receipts for decades in Japan) as well as foreign films through its subsidiary, owns first class movie theaters throughout Japan, produces legitimate plays and musicals, and has more than 100 entertainment-related subsidiaries.