Netflix is getting deeper into enterprise with the hitmaking Japanese director Hitoshi One. The streamer on Monday revealed that it has inked an unique five-year take care of the filmmaker, whose most up-to-date challenge, Tokyo Swindlers, grew to become a global sensation over the summer time. Below the settlement, Netflix will solely produce and distribute One’s sequence and movie output for the following half-decade.
Tokyo Swindlers debuted on Netflix in July and ranked on the platform’s world prime 10 listing for non-English TV for 5 consecutive weeks. At residence in Japan — a market Netflix has been courting aggressively — it held the No.1 spot for all TV sequence for six consecutive weeks.
“Mr. One has generously demonstrated his creative talents in Tokyo Swindlers, a thrilling story with quirky characters full of humanity,” stated Kaata Sakamoto, Netflix’s head of content material in Japan.
A flashy, over-the-top heist saga, the present follows a group of actual property con artists — together with stars Go Ayano, Etsushi Toyokawa and Kazuki Kitamura — as they attempt to pull off their greatest heist but after catching wind of a major piece of property price 10 billion yen.
Hitoshi One made his movie directorial debut in 2011 with a well-received movie adaptation of the bestselling manga, Moteki. The film earned him the “Most Popular Title” award at thirty fifth Japan Academy Awards. Different profession highlights embrace the hit coming-of-age comedy Bakuman. Tailored from a manga of the identical title, the movie received one of the best director prize on the thirty ninth Japan Academy Awards. On the small display screen, he received the grand prize in the TV class at Japan’s sixtieth Galaxy Awards — a ceremony organized by Japan’s Broadcast Critics Affiliation — for the 2020 Fuji TV drama Elpis: Hope or Catastrophe.
“Two weeks after Tokyo Swindlers started streaming, I received a proposal from Netflix for an exclusive contract. I was surprised at how quickly I responded, but I realized that I was drawn to the distribution medium, a genre that is not yet as established as film and TV dramas,” One stated in a press release.
He continued: “The high level of awareness toward filmmaking among the Netflix staff, whom I worked with for the first time on Tokyo Swindlers, and the ideal creative environment they presented, which I had never experienced in films or TV dramas before, left a strong impression. I am very excited about the new projects and productions that I will create with Netflix.”
Over the previous few years, Netflix has been steadily constructing out its Japanese live-action pipeline, increasing past the bankable anime class that served as its early native content material emphasis in Tokyo. Alongside Tokyo Swindlers, different profitable Netflix titles out of Japan this yr embrace motion hits Metropolis Hunter and Home of Ninjas, in addition to the truth sequence smash The Boyfriend. Nonetheless to come back this yr is Past Goodbye, a romance sequence impressed by a real story skilled by Netflix govt producer Makiko Okano. The title will premiere subsequent month on the Busan Worldwide Movie Competition.
