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Toronto Int'l Film Fest Hosts N. American Premiere of Makoto Shinkai's Weathering With You Film
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced on Wednesday that it will host the North American premiere of Makoto Shinkai's new film Weathering With You (Tenki no Ko) as part of its Special Presentations category. The film is eligible to win the Audience Award.
The 44th TIFF will be held at theaters in Toronto, Ontario from September 5 to 15.
Weathering With You opened in 359 theaters and 448 screens in Japan last Friday, July 19. The film sold 1,159,020 tickets to earn 1,643,809,400 yen (about US$15.22 million) in its first three days. The film sold 830,000 tickets and earned 1.185 billion yen (about US$10.98 million) from Saturday to Sunday.
Shinkai confirmed that the film will get a worldwide release, and releases have already been decided for North America, Europe, Asia, and South America. GKIDS has licensed the film for North America, and will give the film an "awards qualifying" theatrical run this year before a wider screening with subtitles and an English dub in early 2020.
GKIDS describes the film:
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if to suggest his future. He lives his days in isolation, but finally finds work as a writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strongwilled girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky...
The film stars Kotaro Daigo as Hodaka Morishima and Nana Mori as Hina Amano. (Note: last name romanizations are not confirmed.) Other cast members include:
(Note: character name romanizations are not confirmed.)
Shun Oguri as Keisuke Suga
Tsubasa Honda as Natsumi
Chieko Baisho as Tomi
Sakura Kiryu as Nagisa Amano
Sei Hiraizumi as Yasui
Yuuki Kaji as Takai
Shinkai is credited with the original work, and also directed and wrote the film's scripts for Comix Wave Films. Masayoshi Tanaka (your name., anohana, The Anthem of the Heart) designed the characters, Atsushi Tamura (The Cat Returns, Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin) was the animation director, and Hiroshi Takiguchi (The Garden of Words, Ajin) was the art director. STORY inc. is credited as producer, and Toho distributes the film. RADWIMPS' Yōjirō Noda composed five vocal theme songs for the film, and the group also provided 27 background music songs for the film. Tōko Miura sang RADWIMPS' "Grand Escape (Movie edit) feat. Toko Miura" and "Shukusai (Movie edit) feat. Toko Miura" theme songs for the film.
Shinkai also penned a novel adaptation of the film that debuted digitally and in print on July 18. The film's soundtrack shipped on July 19. A manga adaptation by Watari Kubota will launch in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine on July 25.
Sources: TIFF's website, Weathering With You's website, Anime! Anime! Biz (Koōtarō Nakase)
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