Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda has shot a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s bestselling manga Look Back, sales of which will be handled by Goodfellas outside Asia.
The coming-of-age story about two girls pursuing their dreams of becoming manga artists was filmed in Nikaho City in the northwest of Japan and is now in post-production ahead of a planned release in late 2026.
Daiju Koide is producing under the K2 Pictures banner, which will also distribute the film in Japan. The film has secured further distribution in Taiwan and South Korea.
The manga was previously adapted as an animated feature by Kiyotaka Oshiyama, which proved a major box office hit in Japan last year, grossing more than $12.8m and getting picked up by Prime Video.
Kore-eda is a regular at Cannes with titles including Monster, Broker, Like Father, Like Son and Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, which went on to secure an Oscar nomination.
The filmmaker said he was captivated by the poignant story of Look Back. “On a return trip from Kyoto to Tokyo, I was drawn to a figure’s back on the cover of a book in a bookstore at Shinagawa Station,” said Kore-eda.
“Without thinking, I picked a copy up. That was my first encounter with Look Back. That night, I read it in one sitting. Though manga and film are different genres, as a fellow creator, I felt the desperate resolve behind this work. I could feel, almost painfully, that Mr. Fujimoto simply couldn’t move forward without creating this piece. For me, Nobody Knows was that kind of work.”
After this, Kore-eda received an offer from producer Daiju Koide to adapt Look Back into a live-action film and was given the opportunity to meet the author. Backing the live-action adaptation, Fujimoto said: “If director Kore-eda is going to film Look Back, I have nothing more to say. I’m looking forward to it.”
Fujimoto is primarily known for vengeance stories such as Fire Punch and Chainsaw Man, which have sold more than 34 million copies worldwide. The animation adaptation Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is on release now and has earned $173m at the global box office to date.
Look Back marked a departure from this style when it was published on manga platform Shonen Jump+ in 2021, recording more than 2.5 million views on its first day and selling a total of 900,000 copies. It was later published in 37 countries worldwide and sold over 750,000 copies internationally.
Kore-eda also has another feature underway – Sheep In The Box, produced by Fuji Television Network, Gaga, Toho and Aoi Pro. It is set for an early summer 2026 release and Goodfellas is handling sales outside Asia, while Gaga holds the rights for Asian territories.
K2 Pictures is a relative newcomer to the Japanese production scene and was launched in 2023 with an ambition to move away from Japan’s traditional “production committee” model and adopt a fund-based approach to filmmaking. In 2024, it launched its first film fund and began production. As well as Kore-eda, the company collaborates with creators such as Takashi Miike and MAPPA, Japan’s largest animation studio.
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