Snow Prince - Forbidden Love Melody is a 2009 Japanese film. This film is adapted from the 1872 novel A Dog of Flanders and is inspired by the 1971 film A Small Love Melody. Directed by Joji Matsuoka and written by Kundō Koyama—the scriptwriter for the film Departures, it is a poignant story of a middle class woman's teenage friendship with a poor artist. Shintaro Morimoto plays the role of Sota, the orphan artist who lives with his grandfather, and Marino Kuwashima plays the role of Sota's friend, Sayo. Together, they have to weather the many challenges that come their way because of their lowly social status. Snow Prince marked the film debuts of Morimoto and Kuwashima.

Tadanobu Satō , better known by his stage name Tadanobu Asano , is a Japanese actor. He is known for his roles as Dragon Eye Morrison in Electric Dragon 80.000 V, Kakihara in Ichi the Killer, Mamoru Arita in Bright Future, Hyozo Tashiro in Gohatto, Hattori Genosuke in Zatoichi, Kenji in Last Life in the Universe, A man in Survive Style 5+, Ayano in The Taste of Tea, Temujin in Mongol, Captain Yugi Nagata in Battleship, Lord Kira Yoshinaka in 47 Ronin and Hogun in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, based on the Marvel Comics character. In 2016, he appeared as the Interpreter in Martin Scorsese's Silence. Three years later, he portrayed Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi in Roland Emmerich's Midway (2019). He portrayed the thunder god Raiden in the 2021 film Mortal Kombat and will reprise his role in the upcoming sequel.