News
Live-Action Fly Me to Saitama Film Available to Rent Digitally in Canada on August 21-23
posted on by Alex Mateo
The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) is offering Fly Me to Saitama, the live-action film adaptation of Mineo Maya's Tonde Saitama manga, as a digital rental in Canada on August 21-23. The JCCC is making the film available as part of its "Best of the Toronto Japanese Film Festival" season, which runs from Friday to August 23.
The film opened in Japan in February 2019.
Hideki Takeuchi (live-action Nodame Cantabile, Thermae Romae) directed the film, and Tomokazu Tokunaga (live-action Densha Otoko) wrote the script. Hanawa performed the film's theme song "Saitama-ken no Uta" (The Song of Saitama Prefecture).
There are two parts to the film: a "legend part" that focuses on Rei and Momomi, and a "modern part" that focuses on a certain Saitama family through whom the legend is told.
In the story, those who live in Saitama Prefecture are ruthlessly persecuted by those who live in Tokyo, so the citizens of Saitama Prefecture hide this fact from others. High school student Momomi Dannoura is the son of the governor of Tokyo, and he is also the student council president at Hokuhodo Academy, the top high school in Tokyo. One day, he meets Rei Asami, a mysterious transfer student who has returned from America. Rei and Momomi are captivated by each other, but Momomi knows Rei is from Saitama Prefecture. The manga tells the story of two people split by a prefectural border, a Saitama "Romeo and Juliet." The couple try to elope and start a revolution to liberate Saitama Prefecture.
The movie sold 191,000 tickets for 259,038,800 yen (about US$2.33 million) on in its opening weekend to top the Japanese box office.
Maya originally launched the one-volume manga in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume magazine in 1982. Takarajimasha published a new compiled version of the manga in 2015 titled Kono Manga ga Sugoi! comics Tonde Saitama. The manga has 660,000 copies in print.
Thanks to Jordan Scott for the news tip.
