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French Animated Manga Adaptation The Summit of the Gods in Curzon Cinemas
posted on by Andrew Osmond
The French CG animated film of Jiro Taniguchi's The Summit of the Gods (Kamigami no Itadaki) manga is now playing in Curzon cinemas in the U.K., before its release on Netflix on Tuesday November 30. The Curzon website lists the film playing at the following cinemas: London (Bloomsbury, Camden, Soho, Victoria, Wimbledon), Colchester, Sheffield, Knutsford, Oxford and Ripon.
The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Official Selection.
Patrick Imbert (Ernest & Celestine) directed the film, and Magali Pouzol and Imbert wrote the script with Jean-Charles Ostoréro collaborating. David Coquard-Dassault (Peripheria) was the film's art director. Amine Bouhafa composed the music. Diaphana Distribution is distributing the film in France, while Wild Bunch International has the international rights. Didier Brunner (The Triplets of Belleville, Kirikou and the Sorceress) is producing the film.
Cartoon Brew describes the film as a 2D/3D hybrid.
The manga is itself an adaptation of Baku Yumemakura's novel. The story follows Fukamachi, an avid wilderness photographer who discovers a link to the past in Kathmandu, Nepal. He finds a camera supposedly belonging to George Mallory, a mountaineer who went missing on Mt. Everest. After meeting Habu Joji, a well-known climber with a passionate drive for the mountain, the two set off to uncover a piece of lost history.
The series ran in Shueisha's Business Jump, and European company Fanfare / Ponent Mon publishes the manga in English. Taniguchi passed away on February 11, 2017.
The first volume was nominated for an Ignatz award in 2010, but didn't win. The English translation of the fourth volume was nominated for an Eisner award in 2014. Taniguchi was knighted in France in 2011.
