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Live-Action Jūni-nin no Shinitai Kodomo-tachi Film Opens in Hong Kong in April
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Hong Kong film distributor Neofilms announced on Wednesday that it will begin screening the live-action film of Tow Ubukata's Jūni-nin no Shinitai Kodomo-tachi (Twelve Children Who Want to Die) novel in Hong Kong on April 11. Neofilms is streaming a Chinese-subtitled trailer for the film.
The film opened in Japan on January 25, and earned 339,218,900 yen (about US$3.08 million) to rank #2 in its opening weekend. The movie eventually earned a cumulative total of 1,320,217,700 yen (about US$11.94 million).
The cast includes Hana Sugisaki, Mackenyu, Takumi Kitamura, Mahiro Takasugi, Yuina Kuroshima, Ai Yoshikawa, Riku Hagiwara, Yūto Fuchino, Ryūta Bandō, Kotone Furukawa, and Aisa Takeuchi.
Yukihiko Tsutsumi (live-action 20th Century Boys, Beck, Ikebukuro West Gate Park) directed the film, and Yutaka Kuramochi wrote the script. Filming took place from late July to late August last year. Utena Kobayashi composed the music. The Royal Concept performed the film's theme song "On Our Way."
Takatoshi Kumakura launched a manga adaptation of the novel in Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine in June 2017 and ended it last November. Kodansha released the third and final compiled book volume on January 7.
Bungeishunju published the original novel in October 2016.
The story is a locked-room mystery where 12 kids go into an abandoned hospital to give up on life. In the room where they meet, a boy is already lying dead, and no one knows who he is. The novel was nominated for the Naoki Prize for 2016.
Ubukata debuted as a short story writer in 1996, and he won the Kadokawa Sneaker Grand Prize with the work "Kuroi Kisetsu" (Black Season). He won the Eiji Yoshikawa Award for New Writers in 2009 for Tenchi Meisatsu, and the Fūtarō Yamada Award in 2012 for Mitsukuniden. He wrote the original novel that inspired the Mardock Scramble anime films, and has also served as the series composition writer for Ghost in the Shell Arise, Psycho-Pass 2, Heroic Age, Fafner EXODUS, and Le Chevalier D'Eon.
Source: Neofilms' Facebook page
