Hodonaku, Owakaredesu:Minami Hamabe & Ren Meguro's Hot Topic: Mirai Shida & Keisuke Watanabe are a couple who lost their beloved daughter

It has been revealed that Mirai Shida and Keisuke Watanabe will appear in the film " Hodonaku, Owakaredesu " (directed by Takahiro Miki, scheduled for release on February 6, 2026), which will see actress Minami Hamabe and popular group "Snow Man" Ren Meguro Ren Keisuke Watanabe co-star for the first time. The two, who are acting together for the first time, will play a couple who lose their beloved daughter at an early age and hold a funeral.

The original work is the series "Hodonaku, Owakaredesu" (Shogakukan Bunko), Nagatsuki Amane's debut novel, which won the Grand Prize at the Shogakukan Bunko Novel Award and has sold over 400,000 copies. The story follows the heroine Shimizu Misora ​​(Hamabe), who works at the funeral company Bando Kaikan, and her strict mentor, funeral planner Urushibara Reiji (Meguro), as they team up to create the "best funeral possible."

Shida plays Kubota Rie, a mother who cannot accept the reality of her young daughter's death. Having lost her beloved daughter, she is overcome with an overwhelming sadness that she cannot bear. Shida commented, "Because the film deals with the theme of 'death,' I felt some anxiety and pressure about how to act, but within the short filming period, I made sure to act in a way that would clearly show the change in Rie's state of mind, which begins when she is unable to accept the death of her daughter. I think this film is one that makes you feel the warmth and love of people more than the sadness. I would definitely recommend watching it with someone special."

Watanabe plays Kubota Hiroyuki, Rie's husband who is grieving over the loss of their daughter but does his best to support her. This is Watanabe's first time playing a father, and he took on the difficult role of being there for his grieving wife while also carrying his own grief. He commented, "My heart was wrenched every day. During filming, I simply surrendered myself to the atmosphere that Shida exuded, and acted with emotion, as if torn between being a husband and a father."

"Actually, this is the first time I've cried so much over a script, and it took me three days to finish reading it," she revealed. "If the script moved me so much, I think the visuals will be even more amazing. Because it's a theme that everyone will experience someday, I'd be happy if people could watch it in the cinema and let their emotions flow and feel something from it. I think the highlights are in the parts that resonate with each viewer."