The film 'Katai', which portrays two women rooted in Japan and Korea whose lives become intertwined due to a single medical mistake, has officially confirmed its release for February 5, 2027 alongside its first reveal. Singer and actor Kang Ji-young (Jiyoung) and Erika Karata star together as co-leads. The cross-nationality casting—where a Korean actor plays a Japanese character and a Japanese actor plays a Korean character—has particularly drawn attention.
On the 8th, Nakachika and Flyfree Entertainment opened the official website for 'Katai', releasing a teaser trailer, teaser visual, and behind-the-scenes stills. The two protagonists of the film are Jihyun and Nanako. Jihyun is a Korean studying at a university in Japan, portrayed as an intelligent and steadfast character. She meets Nanako, who is bright and outgoing unlike her, and the two gradually form a deep bond.
However, even while building a new life in a foreign land, Jihyun harbors unspoken emotions, while Nanako, studying medicine and envisioning her future, feels an unbridgeable distance in her relationship with her mother. Then one day, Nanako confronts the secret of her birth—resulting from an error made during assisted reproductive technology procedures.
The film is based on the novel of the same name, 'Katai', by author Shiho Tanimura, who debuted with 'Whales of the Aquarium' and won the Shimase Award for Love Stories for 'Umineko' (Black-tailed Gull). 'Katai' is an uncommon expression even in Japanese, meaning a fault, error, or negligence—a weighty term used to describe the mistake in the assisted reproductive process. Beyond simply uncovering accidents and secrets, the story raises questions about bloodlines, true family, and who one truly is.
The most talked-about aspect of this casting is that the nationalities of the roles and actors are swapped. Korean actor Kang Ji-young plays the Japanese character Nanako, while Japanese actor Erika Karata plays the Korean character Jihyun.
Kang Ji-young, a former member of the girl group Kara, began her acting career in Japan with the 2014 drama 'Hell Teacher Nube' and recently marked her 12th anniversary of activities. To be recognized solely for her acting, she pursued her acting career in Japan under her Kanji name, 知英 (Jiyoung), rather than Kang Ji-young, subsequently appearing in various works such as 'Assassination Classroom', 'Higanbana: Girls' Crime Squad', and 'Reon'.
In particular, she became a hot topic in the Japanese remake of the BBC drama 'Orphan Black', titled 'Orphan Black: 7 Genes', where she played seven different roles, including Izumi Odagiri, who speaks in the Akita dialect. In Korea, she starred as a lead in works such as 'Sweet Munchies', 'Doenjang-i', and 'I Kill You'. Earlier this year, she appeared in 'Punch-Drunk Woman' starring Ryoko Shinohara, and in October, she is slated to appear in the WOWOW Japanese drama 'MR: Medical Representative'.
Meanwhile, Erika Karata pursued Korean activities with Korean management, appearing in domestic dramas such as 'Arthdal Chronicles Part 3' and 'Arthdal Chronicles: The Sword of Aramun'. She has continued her acting career through various works recently, with Netflix's 'The Queen of Villains' ranking No. 1 on Japan's Netflix weekly chart for three consecutive weeks.
Kang Ji-young introduced her character Nanako as someone who was born and raised in Japan but is actually genetically Korean by DNA, explaining that for Nanako, meeting Jihyun felt like encountering 'another family'. She emphasized that while what happened is sad, there are also connections born from it, asking audiences to watch the story of the two women unfold.
Erika Karata shared that this work marks her first time taking on the role of a Korean character, noting that there was much to learn from the preparation stage, including Korean pronunciation. As Jihyun faces questions such as 'Who am I?' and 'What is family?' upon discovering the truth hidden behind her birth, Karata said she also asked herself those same questions while acting.
Original author Tanimura commented that while the novel approached the 'unforgivable mistake' from a medical perspective, the film delicately captures how the main characters will live moving forward. Director Yamamoto, who helmed the project, noted that when first reading the original novel, he was deeply impressed by the subtlety and beauty of the characters' nuanced emotions even more than the plot itself, and that he worked with the cast and crew to bring that beauty to the screen. He added that filming the setting where fates are swapped across Korea and Japan made him feel the emotional distance between nations experienced by people living in modern times even more acutely.
Kang Ji-young has been cited as a representative case of a former Korean girl group member establishing herself as a lead actor in Japanese cinema, and recently she has been expanding her scope of activity back and forth between Korea and Japan. Last June, she won the Asia Cultural Bridge Award at the Asia Cultural Festival, solidifying her position as a symbolic figure in Korea-Japan cultural exchange. Karata is also rebuilding her filmography by appearing in several works in succession. Anticipation is growing over how the narrative structure of this film, expanded to issues of nationality and identity, will bring the questions posed by the original novel to life on the screen.
'Katai' is scheduled to premiere across Japan on February 5, 2027.
