Haruki Murakami's 'After the Quake' short-stories set for film adaptation
The Japanese company, Bitters End, has acquired international rights for the film adaptation of After the Quake, a collection of short stories by celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami, reported Variety. Helmed by Inoue Tsuyoshi and produced by Yamamoto Teruhisa, the film includes four out of six stories from Murakami's popular 2000 book exploring Japan's earthquakes' aftermath and other global crises. Here's more about it.
Film adaptation explores the aftermath of Kobe earthquake
The stories in After the Quake were written in response to the 1995 Kobe earthquake, with each story indirectly addressing the disaster. All six stories are written in the third person and set within a narrow timeframe between the Kobe quake in February 1995 and Tokyo's poison gas attacks the next month. The film adaptation will focus on four of these stories: UFO in Kushiro, Landscape With Flatiron, All God's Children Can Dance, and Super-Frog Saves Tokyo.
'After the Quake' film in post-production, premiere expected in 2025
The film adaptation of After the Quake is in post-production. This development indicates that it might premiere at a major European festival in H1 2025. Bitters End launched its sales campaign just ahead of the Tokyo International Film Festival's TIFFCOM rights market. However, details of rights within Japan remain undisclosed. Bitters End—a 30-year-old distributor—is expanding its international sales. The company has also sold films by renowned Japanese and international filmmakers including Hamaguchi Ryusuke, Bong Joon-Ho, and the Dardenne brothers.
