News
Cinema Asia Releasing Adds Live-Action Smuggler Film
posted on by Kimberly Grace
The new distribution company named Cinema Asia Releasing has acquired the North American rights for the live-action adaptation of the one-volume manga Smuggler. Ko Mori of Eleven Arts and producer Tim Kwok of Convergence Entertainment founded Cinema Asia Releasing last year, and the company has already acquired the rights to several Korean and Thai titles. The company plans to release 8 to 10 films a year theatrically, with other acquisitions available on DVD or video on demand.
Smuggler focuses on Ryōsuke Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki), a failed actor with serious debt problems. His loan shark arranges a job for him as part of a corpse disposal team, which transports the bodies of victims of gang hits out of the city and sees to it that they are never seen again. However, with the team accepting work from both sides in an escalating mob war, life for Kinuta and his colleagues gets increasingly dangerous.
Tokyopop published the original Smuggler manga in America in 2006. The official website for the film began streaming a trailer last July, and the film premiered in Japan last October.
Source: Screen Daily via Crunchyroll
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