News
Nobody Knows' Kore-eda Brings Air Doll to Cannes
posted on by Egan Loo
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day II: The Cannes International Film Festival has confirmed that director Hirokazu Kore-eda will screen his manga-based live-action Kūki Ningyō (Air Doll) film as part of the festival's Official Selection this year. The film will run in the Official Selection's Un Certain Regard (A Certain Glance) section. Both the film and Yoshiie Gōda's original manga recount the relationship between an inflatable sex doll (Korean actress Bae Doo-Na of The Host, Linda Linda Linda) and its owner, a video shop clerk (20th Century Boys, Ping Pong's Arata Furuta).
The original Kūki Ningyō manga was published in 2000, and Kore-eda has said that he has been interested in making a film based on the manga since then. Kūki Ningyō is currently scheduled to open in Japanese theaters in the fall. Kore-eda won the best director's award at the 1995 Venice Film Festival for Maborosi (maboroshi no Hikari) and has been nominated for awards at the Cannes Film Festival for Nobody Knows and Distance.
In 2007, another of Gōda's manga, Happily Ever After, also served as the source material for a live-action film. Yukihiko Tsutsumi directed that movie, and it played at several film festivals around the United States last year. Viz Pictures will release the Happily Ever After DVD in May.
Source: MTV Movies Blogs
Image © 2009 Kūki Ningyō Production Committee
