Leave My Girl Alone (1986)

Interesting facts

Leave My Girl Alone is a 1986 Japanese thriller film directed by Shun Nakahara and co-written by Nakahara with Hiroshi Saito, based on a novel of the same name by Jotaro Kuwahara. It tells the story of a financially desperate young woman who takes a job tutoring a rich kid, only to find herself entangled in a kidnapping plot. The film stars Kyoko Koizumi in the lead role, in addition to Ryo Ishibashi, Aiko Morishita, Teppei Yamada and Kaneko Iwasaki. Eiji Kawamura composed the film's score, while its theme song, "Embraced by a Dead Tree", was performed by Koizumi. Leave My Girl Alone was theatrically released by Toei Company on December 13, 1986, in Japan, where it was a financial success.

Production

Since the production of Be-Bop High School (1985), producer Yasuhiro Hasegawa had been planning to make a film with Kyoko Koizumi as the protagonist. Leave My Girl Alone was Koizumi's third feature film role. Due to the number of action scenes in the script, the studio insured Koizumi for ¥100 million.

Nakahara envisioned Koizumi's character as an Audrey Hepburn type; in writing the character, he was specifically inspired by Hepburn's performance in Charade. He also chose to take Koizumi's opinions of the story into account, and hired screenwriter Hiroshi Saito to make changes on set when required.

Much of the film was shot on location, including in Tokyo (specifically the district of Roppongi and the Meguro ward), Matsumoto, Lake Shirakaba, the Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery, Shimoda, and Shinjuku Station.

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