Luna Fujimoto, Show Kasamatsu & Takehiro Hira To Star In Japan-Set Thriller ‘The Degrees Of Pain’
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. production outfit Storiesbound is gearing up to shoot psychological thriller The Degrees Of Pain in Japan with Luna Fujimoto, Show Kasamatsu and Takehiro Hira joining the cast. Directed by Donie Ordiales, the project is scheduled to film entirely in Japan fr…
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. production outfit Storiesbound is gearing up to shoot psychological thriller The Degrees Of Pain in Japan with Luna Fujimoto, Show Kasamatsu and Takehiro Hira joining the cast.
Directed by Donie Ordiales, the project is scheduled to film entirely in Japan from the fourth quarter of 2026 with Wowow Bridge assisting the shoot. It will be shot by cinematographer Takuro Ishizaka, whose credits include Hikari’s Rental Family, starring Brendan Fraser, which also recently filmed in Japan.
Fujimoto works across Asia and the U.S. with credits including Blade Of The 47 Ronin, Sniper: G.R.I.T. Global Response & Intelligence Team and Jackie Chan action drama The Shadow’s Edge.
Kasamatsu is known for his roles in HBO/Wowow series Tokyo Vice and Disney’s Japanese-language series Gannibal. Hira’s credits include Shogun and Rental Family. He also starred in Ordiales’ 2024 action thriller Crosspoint, a Philippine-Japanese collaboration, along with Philippine actor Carlo Aquino.
The cast of The Degrees Of Pain also includes Japanese actress Rila Fukushima and veteran actor-director Naoto Takenaka, along with supporting actors Pervis Taylor, Ivan Collazo, Kosei James Ono, Masahiro Usui and Sho Ikushima. U.S. cast members will be joining the production with their participation to be announced soon.
Written by Steven LeFever, Mark Tonderai and Cordero Sinclair, the story follows an American writer who travels to Tokyo to be reunited with an actress he’s fallen in love with, only to become entangled with her powerful family and their gatekeepers.
Executive producers on the film include Aaron and Brandon Gilbert, Anky Cyriaque, Bobby Yan and Rodney Hazard.
The producers plan to apply for Japan’s cash rebate, which was relaunched at the end of March 2026 as a two-year scheme with the upper limit set at $10M (JPY1.5BN) per project. The rebate has been drawing a steady stream of international productions to shoot in Japan, recently including Rental Family, The Smashing Machine and Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters Season 2.
