'Platonic Sex," the memoir by popular talent and former AV queen Ai Iijima, has sold more than 1.2 million copies in Japan and, translated into Chinese and Korean, has become the "bible" of young women throughout Asia. It tells the story of a teenage runaway who, free from the obligations of family and school, does just what she wants to until she discovers what it is that's really important to her.
This fall the book will be realized visually both as a TV drama and as a feature film. The drama, broadcast in two two-hour parts this week on Fuji TV (part 1 Monday night and part 2 on Friday, both at 9 p.m.) stars Mari Hoshino as Kana, the character that represents Ai Iijima.
Sixteen-year-old Kana is picked up by the police for juvenile vagrancy and taken home, where, not for the first time, she is beaten by her father. She runs away again and starts trading sex and companionship for money, falls into a live-in relationship and eventually drifts into the burgeoning adult-video world. After she becomes pregnant, however, her priorities are thrown for a loop.