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Live-action Zokki Film Gets Sequel Series
posted on by Alex Mateo
The live-action film adaptation of Hiroyuki Ohashi's Zokki manga is getting a sequel titled ∞ Zokki Series. The 12-episode series will combine elements of a drama, documentary, and travel program.
The series will be pre-broadcast on the BS Japanext on April 3rd. There will be event screenings in the filming location of Aichi in May. The series will then begin streaming on Amazon Prime Video and other services in July.
Actors Naoto Takenaka, Takayuki Yamada, and Takumi Saitō are returning from the film to direct the series. Takenaka will direct the story "Hirata-san" from the recently published Zokki C, a sharp look at society through the perspective of a bookstore clerk. Yamada will direct "Kanshitо̄" (Watchtower) from Zokki B, a story about a man who monitors something on a mysterious watchtower. Saitou will direct "Scene 1," also from Zokki C, a story about a man and a woman in a hardware store.
The series will also feature a "Ura Zokki" documentary segment, which chronicles the series' production, similarly to the original compilation film of the same name. There will also be a new "Travel Zokki," a travel program that explores the charm of their filming locations in Aichi. Rena Matsui and Fuku Suzuki, who were in the Original Film, will be the travelers. Matsui is also narrating "Ura Zokki."
The Zokki film had an advance screening in Gamagori city in Aichi prefecture on March 2021, before a wider opening in all of Aichi prefecture in the same month. Both preceded the film's nationwide opening on April 2021.
The film first screened at the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival, and at the 40th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. Actors Takenaka, Yamada, and Saitou directed the film, with scripts by Yutaka Kuramochi.
The cast includes Riho Yoshioka, Fuku Suzuki, Shinnosuke Mitsushima, Yurina Yanagi, Sara Minami, Masanobu Andō, Pierre Taki, Yūsaki Mori, Jō Kujō, Mai Kiryū, Kumi Koda, Takehara Pistol, Yunho, Rena Matsui, Yūtarō Watanabe, Kōji Ishizaka, Ryūhei Matsuda, and Jun Kunimura.
The film had a companion film titled Ura Zokki that chronicled the film's production.
The original manga is a collection of some of Ohashi's earlier short manga works that he previously published independently, and contains many stories with humorous and pointed observations on life. Kanzen published the manga in two collected volumes in 2017. Zokki C launched in March 2021.
Kenji Iwaisawa directed an anime film adaptation of Hiroyuki Ohashi's "ON-GAKU" manga titled ON-GAKU: Our Sound. The film opened in Japan in January 2020. GKIDS licensed the film in North America, and it screened as part of the Japan Cuts festival in July 2020.
Source: Comic Natalie
