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Live-Action Ajin Film's Philippine Opening Delayed to January 31
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Philippine film distributor Pioneer Films began streaming an English-subtitled trailer last week for Ajin, the live-action film based on Gamon Sakurai's Ajin - Demi-Human manga. The video reveals that the film's screening has been delayed to January 31.
The film was previously slated to release in the Philippines last year on October 11, but was delayed. Pioneer Films then rescheduled the film last month for January 24.
The film opened in Japan last September, earning 271,612,100 yen (about US$2.40 million) and selling 210,000 tickets over 341 screens in its opening weekend.
The cast includes:
- Takeru Satoh as Kei Nagai (center left)
- Gou Ayano as Satō (center right), the antagonist and member of an ajin terrorist group that wants to befriend Kei
Left column, top to bottom:
- Tetsuji Tamayama as Yū Tosaki, a member of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and Ajin Control Commission
- Rina Kawaei as Izumi Shimomura, an ajin who is Tosaki's secretary and bodyguard
- Minami Hamabe as Eriko Nagai, Kei's younger sister
Right column, top to bottom:
- Yuu Shirota Kōji Tanaka, a member of an ajin terrorist group
- Yudai Chiba as Okuyama, a member of an ajin terrorist group
- Yūki Yamada as Takahashi, a member of an ajin terrorist group
Mamoru Miyano, the voice of Kei from the earlier anime series, voiced Kei's IBM (Invisible Black Matter) in the film.
The film's setting is Tokyo in 2017. In the film, Kei is a medical intern, with his age changed to match Satoh's.
Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass, Space Travelers, Bayside Shakedown) directed the film. The live-action film project invited the action filming team of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin films to work on the project. The Oral Cigarettes (Noragami Aragoto, Sagrada Reset) performed the film's theme song "BLACK MEMORY."
In the original manga's story, an immortal first appeared on an African battlefield 17 years ago. Later, rare, unknown new immortal lifeforms began appearing among humans, and they became known as "Ajin" (demi-humans). Just before summer vacation, a Japanese high school student named Kei Nagai is instantly killed in a traffic accident on his way home from school. However, he is revived, and a price is placed on his head. Thus begins a boy's life on the run from all of humankind.
The manga already inspired a 3D CG anime film trilogy, two television anime seasons, and three original anime DVDs by Polygon Pictures.