News
Taniguchi's Harukana Machi e Gets European Film
posted on by Mikhail Koulikov
Belgian film company Entre Chien et Loup is producing a live-action film based on Jiro Taniguchi's 1998 two-volume manga Harukana Machi e (Distant Neighbourhood). The original manga deals with a 48-year-old salaryman who returns to the town he grew up in, and is transported back in time to his youth. In 1999, the manga was awarded the Excellence Prize in the manga division of the year's Japan Media Arts Festival. In 2003, it won the Alph Art award for best story at France's Angouleme International Comics Festival. Taniguchi also created The Summit of the Gods, The Ice Wanderer, and other manga which have been licensed for English release by Fanfare/Ponent Mon.
The setting of the manga is Kurayoshi, a town in Tottori prefecture that is about five hours from Tokyo by train, but the film will be set in 1968 Paris. Sam Garbarski, whose 2007 Irina Palm was nominated for the grand prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, is directing the movie. The film is scheduled to be completed sometime next year with a budget of US$13.9 million.
Source: Variety
Update: The official English title of Harukana Machi e has been confirmed to be "Distant Neighbourhood" via the official website of Ponent Mon. Thanks, HellKorn.
