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Always: Sunset on Third Street Gets 3rd Film in 3D
posted on by Egan Loo
Takashi Yamazaki (live-action Space Battleship Yamato, Returner, Ballad) will direct the third live-action film based on Ryohei Saigan's nostalgic San-chōme no Yūhi - Yūyake no Uta manga, and the Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 film will open in stereoscopic 3D in Japan in 2012.
The original manga, a 1990-1991 television anime series adaptation, and the first two live-action films followed the lives of people in a Tokyo neighborhood as the iconic Tokyo Tower rises above them. The new film is set in 1964, the year that Tokyo hosted the Summer Olympics that came to symbolize Japan's post-war revival. The third film's timeframe is actually not covered in the original manga, but Saigan approved the production of the film and contributed various ideas to the screenplay. (1964 is also the setting for THINK Corporation's Showa Monogatari/Showa-Era Story anime film and television series.)
Yamazaki is shooting the third film in stereoscopic 3D, unlike some recent films like Alice in Wonderland and The Last Message Umizaru which were shot in 2D and then converted into stereoscopic 3D. Yamazaki and Ryota Kosawa co-wrote the screenplay as they did for the first films. Similarly, Naoki Satō is returning from the first two films to compose the music. Hidetaka Yoshioka, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Koyuki, Maki Horikita, Masako Motai, Tomokazu Miura, and Hiroko Yakushimaru will reprise their respective roles from the previous two films.
The first Always: Sunset on Third Street film opened in November of 2005, and it would win 13 of its 14 nominated categories at the 29th Japan Academy Prize ceremony. The second film opened in November of 2007 and earned over 4.5 billion yen (about US$55 million).
Source: Cinema Today
Image © 2012 Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 Production Committee
