Wataru Hayakawa's THE WALL MAN (KABE-OTOKO)

Behind that wall... he's there

The official website for Wataru Hayakawa's The Wall Man (Kabe-otoko) is now online, and there's a teaser trailer for the movie on that site. The movie had what appears to have been its world première at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on October 22nd of last year, its international (i.e., outside-of-Japan) première at the 6th Gwangju International Film Festival (GIFF) on December 15th of last year, and its European première at the 9th Barcelona Asian Film Festival (BAFF) on April 30th. Tornado Film K.K. (K.K. Torunêdo Firumu) is scheduled to release it theatrically in Japan on September 15th. Pony Canyon Inc. (K.K. Ponî Kyanion) is the international sales agent for it.

The screenplay for The Wall Man (Kabe-otoko) was written by Hayakawa, based on the eponymous short manga "Kabe-otoko" by Daijirô Morohoshi (a.k.a. Daijirô Moroboshi). The movie stars Masato Sakai as Nishina, and Mayumi Ono as Kyôko.

Here's a synopsis for The Wall Man from Pony Canyon's website: "The 'wall man' ['kabe-otoko'] is a strange wall-dwelling creature that is neither human nor ghost. He observes the ways of mankind from his unique position, and television plays an important role in [his] existence. When Nishina tells his TV reporter girlfriend Kyoko what he has heard about this creature, she introduces the story on her show, setting off a bizarre chain of events..."

Those who are interested in The Wall Man may also wish to read the ScreenAnarchy articles on Takashi Komatsu's Inferno (Kidan); that movie was based on Morohoshi's short manga "Seimei no ki".

The Wall Man teaser trailer (streaming Windows Media)
The Wall Man official website
Tornado Film: The Wall Man
Pony Canyon: The Wall Man
TIFF: The Wall Man

GIFF: The Wall Man
BAFF: The Wall Man
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Inferno trailer (downloadable 8.7 MB WMV file)
Inferno artwork (200 KB JPEG)