“A Pale View of Hills,” the debut novel of Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, is being adapted as a feature film. The picture is now in production and being directed by Japan’s Ishikawa Kei.
The film is presented by U-Next, Japan’s leading local streaming company. Production is by Bunbuku in association with Number 9 Films, the U.K. company headed by Stephen Woolley (“The Crying Game”) and Elizabeth Karlsen.
Gaga Corporation will handle distribution in Japan after the film’s anticipated completion in summer 2025. No sales agent or international distributor has been attached.
Number Nine Films previously produced “Living,” the Ishiguro-scripted, Bill Nighy-starring adaptation of Kurosawa Akira’s classic film “Ikiru,” and earned two Oscar nominations.
Gaga describes the film as: “a mystery drama that unravels the secrets of a Japanese widow’s memories that cross over between post-war Nagasaki, Japan in 1950sand England in 1980s, the end of Cold War era.”
Published in 1982, “A Pale View of Hills” is the story of a middle-aged Japanese woman who lives a lonely existence in England. When her younger daughter visits, the pair discuss the suicide of the woman’s older daughter and the woman’s attempts to start a life in a new country. Hirose Suzu (“Our Little Sister” and “The Third Murder,” both directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu) stars as the younger daughter.
Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki, Japan, and moved to the U.K. aged five, with his parents. He was educated in the U.K. but spoke Japanese at home. In interviews, he has said that the dual cultural roots had a significant impact on his writing. And also that the Japan depicted in his first two novels was largely imaginary.
Ishiguro, who holds U.K. citizenship, became a literary sensation with his 1989 third novel, the upper-class British-set “The Remains of the Day.” That was adapted as a Columbia Pictures-distributed film directed by James Ivory in 1993.
Director Ishikawa is known for “Gukoroku -Traces of Sin” and “A Man,” which both premiered in the Venice Film Festival. “What gave me the courage to face this great novel was the words of the author, who said, ‘I always believed that this story should be made into a film by the younger generation in Japan’,” said Ishikawa.
U-Next’s Ishiguro Hiroyuki will lead the producing team of the film. His previous work includes the Cannes-premiered animation “Belle” by Hosoda Mamoru.
Bunbuku has credits including the Cannes’ best screenplay award-winner “Monster” and the Netflix series “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House,” both directed by Kore-eda.