Jiro Taniguchi's A Distant Neighborhood Gets New Live-Action Film in October
This marks the first Japanese live-action adaptation of Taniguchi's acclaimed time-travel drama, after a decade of development and a prior European film that relocated the story from its original Japanese setting.
Reporting from 2 sources: Anime News Network, Crunchyroll News.
A new live-action film adaptation of Jiro Taniguchi's manga A Distant Neighborhood will open in Japan on October 9, 2026. BARCOS announced the project on Friday. Ryōhei Ōtani stars as the adult protagonist Hiroshi Nakahara, a 40-something salaryman who travels back in time to his 14-year-old self. Tōri Oikawa plays the younger Hiroshi. Momoko Isotani plays Tomoko Nagase, Hiroshi's childhood crush. Kenichi Takitō and Naho Toda portray Hiroshi's parents. Yoshinari Nishikoori wrote the script and directs. Eishi Segawa composes the music. The story is set in Tottori Prefecture, Taniguchi's hometown. Filming took place in Kurayoshi City, which retains the atmosphere of the mid-1950s to mid-1960s. Taniguchi serialized the manga in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1998. The manga previously inspired a 2008 live-action film co-produced by European companies that moved the setting to 1967 Paris. This new film is the first Japanese live-action adaptation. Plans for a Japanese live-action version had been in development for over a decade.
BARCOS announced the production on Friday, with a trailer and visual released the same day. The film is written and directed by Yoshinari Nishikoori, whose previous work includes RAILWAYS (2010), Tatara Samurai (2017), and Takatsugawa (2019). Ryōhei Ōtani, known for live-action Golden Kamuy and The Full-Time Wife Escapist, plays the adult Hiroshi. Tōri Oikawa plays the 14-year-old version. Momoko Isotani plays Tomoko Nagase, Hiroshi's friend and crush. Kenichi Takitō and Naho Toda play Hiroshi's parents. Eishi Segawa is composing the music. The original manga ran for 16 chapters in Shogakukan's Big Comic magazine in 1998 and was compiled in two volumes. It has won awards in Italy, Germany, and at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in France. Fanfare and Ponent Mon released the manga in English in 2009, with re-releases in 2016 and 2022. The previous 2008 live-action film, directed by Sam Garbarski, was a co-production between Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg, and moved the story from Japan to 1967 Paris.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.