Marché du Film: Makoto Tanaka's THE VANISHED (AME NO MACHI)

Distribution rights for Makoto Tanaka's The Vanished (Ame no machi) - not to be confused with Naoto Kumazawa's Vanished (Oyayubi sagashi) - are to be offered for sale by Eleven Arts Inc. at this year's Marché du Film in Cannes, which runs from May 16th to 26th. Progressive Pictures K.K. (Puroguresshibu Pikuchâzu K.K.) released the movie theatrically in Japan on March 25th of last year, and on sale DVD (PRDV-0003; NTSC, region 2, Japanese SDH) there on August 25th of last year; the DVD is being distributed by Geneon Entertainment K.K. (Jeneon Entateinmento K.K.).

The screenplay for The Vanished (Ame no machi) was written by Tanaka in collaboration with Satoko Okudera, based on the eponymous short story "Ame no machi" by Hideyuki Kikuchi. The movie's principal cast is as follows: Sôkô Wada (a.k.a. Toshihiro Wada), Yôko Maki, Riko Narumi, Tsutomu Takeshige, Mitsuki Nagashima, Chihiro Maebashi, Tôru Shinagawa, Ken Mitsuishi, Ken Yasuda, Noriko Eguchi, Shungiku Uchida, Asami Katsura, Hideyuki Kikuchi (see above), Naruyoshi Kikuchi (he also composed/performed the closing theme song for the movie), Kôichi Ueda, Moeko Ezawa, and Kôjirô Kusanagi.

Here's a synopsis for The Vanished from Eleven Arts' website: "Sôta Kaneishi, a freelance writer for a lowbrow tabloid magazine, visits a local town to investigate the mysterious case of a dead child whose internal organs are completely missing. While he is interviewing a doctor in the town morgue, the dead child suddenly jumps off the stretcher and runs away. With the help of Fumio Kôsaka, a female member of the town hall staff, Sôta further investigates the incident of the sudden disappearance of a group of children that happened there 35 years ago. They find a photo album of children at the now-deserted elementary school, and one of the children in a photo, taken 35 years ago, is the dead boy who ran off from the hospital..."

For more information on The Vanished, see Twitch's fourth, third, second, and first articles on it.

The Vanished trailer #2 (Japanese w/ English subtitles; downloadable 3.8 MB MOV file)
The Vanished trailer #1 (Japanese w/o subtitles; downloadable 5.8 MB WMV file)
Geneon Entertainment: The Vanished Japanese sale DVD
YesAsia.com: The Vanished Japanese sale DVD
Eleven Arts: The Vanished