Hot young male actor Toma Ikuta, who starred in the hit Takashi Miike gang actioner “The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji,” has been announced as the lead in the revenge thriller “Grasshopper”, Variety said.

Based on a novel by Kotaro Isaka (“Golden Slumber,” “Fish Story”) that has sold 1.27 million copies in Japan, the picture stars Ikuta as a junior high teacher who quits his job and infiltrates the underworld to find the killer of his lover.

Also in the main cast are Tadanobu Asano (“47 Ronin,” “Thor”), playing a killer-for-hire who drives his victims to suicide and Ryosuke Yamada of the Hey! Say! Jump! boy band, playing a knife-wielding hitman.

Directed by Tomoyuki Takimoto, who worked with Ikuta on the 2013 sci-fi thriller “Brain Man,” the pic starts shooting today (July 7) and will be in theaters in 2015, with Kadokawa producing and distributing.