Interest
Demon Slayer Staff Addresses Infinity Castle Film's Trailer Leak
posted on by Ken Iikura-Gross
The posts state that "filming a movie inside a theater is a crime under the Law for Prevention of Unauthorized Recording of Films (Film Piracy Prevention Law)" in Japan. Further, unauthorized uploads to online platforms such as X, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook are copyright infringement. The posts conclude, "If copyright infringement occurs in violation of the Film Piracy Prevention Law or the Copyright Act, penalties may include up to 10 years imprisonment, or a fine of up to 10 million yen [about U$70,000], or both."
As of press time, the initial Japanese post received over 750 comments, over 18,000 reposts, and over 63,000 likes. While most of the comments are in Japanese, there are a handful in other languages, predominantly English. A cursory examination of the comments reveals mixed opinions among Japanese language and non-Japanese language comments.
Several Japanese commenters support the franchise staff's post, noting the 18-year-old “No More Eiga Dorobo” (literally, No More Movie Thieves) public service announcement campaign. While a minority, non-Japanese language commenters also supported the post, such as user @muchlaxe, who states, "So many of you are trying to justify committing a crime and coming off as incredibly victim blame-y instead, it's disgusting. you are not entitled to something just because someone else already got it."
However, other commenters also criticized what they consider a poor marketing campaign for Infinity Castle — most notably, the lack of an official trailer on official social media accounts besides two previous teasers and the exclusive trailer at the end of Mugen Train. User @ihaljjag's comments sum up the sentiment: "Attaching a trailer that's not even a minute long to a movie that came out five years ago—now that's some truly next-level marketing."
Some Legal Background
The Japanese National Government passed the Law of Prevention of Unauthorized Recording of Films in May 2007. The law was passed to protect the film industry from the distribution of films stealthy recorded in cinemas. Following the law's passage, the Eigakan ni Iko! Committee began its No More Eiga Dorobo campaign: a series of public service announcements running before films in theaters. The videos feature an anthropomorphic camera man being detained by a police light man. The most recent iteration of the commercial series features the caption “It is illegal to record any portion of this motion picture” in seven languages.Suspects were arrested or charged under the law for recording in theaters from Space Battleship Yamato Resurrection in 2010, Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer in 2011, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 2nd A's in 2012, The Wind Rises in 2014, Mugen Train itself in 2021, and Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet in 2021.
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train returned to Japanese theaters on Saturday. The film will also return to theaters in the U.S. and Canada with the exclusive trailer on Wednesday. The film began screening in Japan in October 2020, and it topped the box office in Japan for 12 consecutive weeks. The film became the first film ever to pass the 40 billion yen milestone. The film was the highest-earning film worldwide from 2020.
The film later aired on television as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Mugen Train Arc, a seven-episode arc that adapts the film. The season premiered in October 2021.
Crunchyroll, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Aniplex will screen the first film in the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle film trilogy in theaters, including IMAX and other premium large screen formats, in the United States and Canada on September 12. The first film will open in Japan on July 18. The film is set to open in over 150 countries and regions
Sources: Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba franchise's X/Twitter account (link 2) via Otakomu, Eigakan ni Iko! Committee's YouTube channel, WIPO's website
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