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Mary and the Witch's Flower Anime Film Opens in Singapore, Malaysia

Southeast Asian film distributor Purple Plan announced on Thursday that it will open Studio Ponoc and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Mary and The Witch's Flower (Mary to Majo no Hana) anime film in Singapore on October 12, and in Malaysia on November 2. The company is streaming an English-subtitled trailer for the film.

The film opened in Japan on July 8 and has earned 3 billion yen (US$28 million).

Hana Sugisaki (When Marnie Was There, live-action Blade of the Immortal) played the lead character Mary and Ryunosuke Kamiki (The Secret World of Arrietty's Sho, your name.'s Taki) played Peter. The rest of the cast includes (from left to right in the image below starting with the top row):

• Fumiyo Kohinata as Doctor Dee
• Yūki Amami as Madame Mumblechook
• Hikari Mitsushima as Red-haired Witch
• Eri Watanabe as Banks
• Shinobu Ōtake as Charlotte
• Jirō Satō as Flanagan

Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who directed Studio Ghibli's Arrietty and When Marnie Was There, directed Mary and The Witch's Flower, and also penned the script for the film alongside Riko Sakaguchi, who wrote the screenplay for Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya. Takatsugu Muramatsu (When Marnie Was There) handled the music. Yoshiaki Nishimura was credited as producer. The staff page on the film's website further noted that many former staff from Studio Ghibli have joined Ponoc in the film's production. SEKAI NO OWARI performed the film's theme song "RAIN."

The film is based on Mary Stewart's book The Little Broomstick. Studio Ponoc scouted locations in Shropshire, U.K., the setting of the original novel. Amazon's description of the original The Little Broomstick novel describes the story:

It is Tib the black cat who leads Mary to the strange flower in the woods. When she discovers a little broomstick shortly afterwards, she is astonished to feel it jump in to action. Before she can gather her wits, it is whisking her over the treetops, above the clouds, and in to the grounds of Endor College, where: 'All Examinations Coached for by A Competent Staff of Fully-Qualified Witches.' Here she discovers evidence of a terrible experiment in transformation - deformed and mutant animals imprisoned in cages. In the moment after her broomstick takes off, she realises that Tib has been captured. Returning to the College the following day, she manages to free the animals, but not before the Head of the college, Miss Mumblechook, and her colleague, Doctor Dee, have seen her. Mary manages to flee ...but the evil pair are in hot pursuit!

Nishimura founded Studio Ponoc on April 15, 2015. Nishimura named the studio after the Croatian word for "midnight," signifying the beginning of a new day. Nishimura left Ghibli at the end of 2014. Yonebayashi also left Ghibli at around the same time. Yonebayashi previously stated that he wanted his next film to be the "opposite" of When Marnie Was There.