Asahiyama Zoo Story: Penguins in the Sky

Story

Based on the true story of Asahiyama Zoo in Hokkaido, the northernmost zoo in Japan. The unpopular zoo welcomes a new zoo keeper, young Yoshida (Yasuhi Nakamura), who has more affection for insects than people after years of being bullied at school when he was young. Yoshida soon realizes that Asahiyama Zoo is facing a financial crisis and the zoo director Takizawa has been doing everything in his power to save the zoo from closing down.

Moved by Takizawa's passion, Yoshida and other zoo keepers came to share the zoo director's belief that one's dreams can come true, and together they tackle this seemingly impossible task of revitalizing Asahiyama. A breakthrough arrives in the form of "Behavioral Exhibition," a method that is pioneered by Ashiyama's zoo keepers and which eventually makes the zoo renowned throughout the world.

Cast

Toshiyuki Nishida as Zoo Director Kanji Takizawa

Yasuhi Nakamura as Tsuyoshi Yoshida

Ai Maeda as Makoto Ogawa

Keiko Horiuchi as Sanae Ikeuchi

Takashi Sasano as Saburō Isogai

Zen Kajiwara as Tokuya Mitamura

Hisako Manda as Hatoko Hiraga

Sansei Shiomi as Genta Tobe

Naomasa Musaka as Teruo Mitani

Hiroyuki Nagato as Keisuke Nirasaki

Ittoku Kishibe as Seinosuke Yanagihara

Akira Emoto as Itsurō Usui

Mitsuru Fukikoshi

Yūki Amami

Taro Ishida

Houka Kinoshita

Akaji Maro

Junichi Haruta

Staff

Director: Masahiko Makino

Writer: Koshimizu Yasuhiro

Music: Ryudo Uzaki, Haseo Nakanishi

Committee members Producers: Kadokawa Pictures, NTT DoCoMo, Japan Film Fund

Distributor: Kadokawa Pictures

Theme Song

「夢になりたい」("I want to dream") 谷村新司 Tanimura Shinji (songwriter: Tanimura Shinji Arrangement: Yoshiharu Setoya)