‘The Big Bachi’ Table Read in Little Tokyo

A table read of select scenes from “The Big Bachi” will be held Sunday, Oct. 23, at 2 p.m. at Far East Lounge, 353 E. First St. in Little Tokyo.

The event, a fundraiser for the upcoming film “The Big Bachi,” will close with a Q&A session where you can interact with the filmmaking team and performers. All donations are welcome.

A noir set in 1960s Los Angeles, the film focuses on Mas Arai — a nuclear bomb survivor, gardener, expecting father, compulsive gambler and borderline alcoholic. “Amateur detective” will join the list when a mysterious man from Japan threatens to resurface long-buried secrets from Mas’ past. Call it what you will — bad karma, divine punishment, what goes around comes around, bachi — but the past isn’t finished with Mas Arai. Not just yet.

The screenplay is based on Edgar Award-winning author Naomi Hirahara’s novel “Summer of the Big Bachi,” which introduced the character, who was inspired by her late father, a gardener and Hiroshima survivor. Her Mas Arai series also includes “Gasa-Gasa Girl,” “Snakeskin Shamisen,” “Blood Hina,” “Strawberry Yellow,” and “Sayonara Slam.”

The team includes director Derek Shimoda, who produced the feature film “In My Life” and the acclaimed documentary “Secret Asian Man”; producer Oliver Ike, associate producer of the feature film “Emoticon”; screenwriter Mark Tasaka, frequent collaborator with Shimoda and a supervising producer on a hit reality show; and producer Koji Steven Sakai, writer of five feature films, including “The People I’ve Slept With” and “#1 Serial Killer.”

The goal of the “Big Bachi” Kickstarter campaign is to raise $100,000, a small amount by Hollywood standards, for actors, locations, equipment, food, and other necessities. The deadline is Nov. 4. Once funding has been established, the producers pledge to make a quality independent film with minimal resources.

For more information, visit www.thebigbachi.com.