Kazuo Ishiguro’s ‘A Pale View of Hills’ being adapted by Japan’s Bunbuku, UK’s Number 9

A feature adaptation of A Pale View of Hills, the debut novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, has begun filming in Japan.

The mystery drama is adapted and directed by Japanese filmmaker Kei Ishikawa, whose previous feature A Man scooped eight awards including best film at the Japanese Academy Awards following its premiere at Venice in 2022.

The upcoming film is presented by U-Next, Japan’s leading local streaming company, and produced by Bunbuku, the Japanese production company founded by Hirokazu Kore-eda, in association with the UK’s Number 9 Films, led by producers Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen.

Ishiguro serves as executive producer of the project, having previously worked with Number 9 as scriptwriter of Living, a 2022 adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa classic Ikiru, that secured Oscar and Bafta nominations. His previous novels to receive feature adaptations include The Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go.

Gaga Corporation aims to release the film in Japan in summer 2025. An international sales agent has yet to be named.

First published in 1982, the story unravels the secrets of a Japanese widow’s memories that move between post-war Nagasaki in 1950s Japan and the end of the Cold War in 1980s England.

The lead role of Etsuko is played by Suzu Hirose, known internationally for her roles in Kore-eda films Our Little Sister and The Third Murder, who won best supporting actress for the latter at the Japan Academy Film Prize in 2018.

Producers include U-Next’s Hiroyuki Ishiguro, whose credits include Mamoru Hosoda’s anime Belle, which premiered at Cannes in 2021; Miyuki Fukuma of Bunbuku; and Number 9’s Woolley and Karlsen. Bunbuku previously produced Kore-eda’s Cannes award-winner Monster and Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House.

In a joint statement, Woolley and Karlsen said they were confident the film would have “an international impact beyond Britain and Japan”.

“This is a film that truly reflects a British-Japanese cross cultural unity and a resonance, which given the vital message of disarmament that it contains can only be a positive addition to the world, not only of cinema,” they added.

Director Ishikawa, who is also known for Venice 2016 title Gukoroku – Traces of Sin, said: “What gave me the courage to face this great novel was the words of author Kazuo-san, who said, ‘I always believed that this story should be made into a film by the younger generation in Japan’.”

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