Egoist

Source: Makoto Takayama, Shogakukan/TokyoTheatres, NIKKATSU CORPORATION

‘Egoist’

Japan’s Nikkatsu has sold Daishi Matsunaga’s LGBTQ+ romance drama Egoist to the US and a trio of territories in Asia.

The film has been picked up by Stand Releasing for the US, which is planning a release this autumn, alongside South Korea (Studio Elon), Taiwan (Sky Digi) and Hong Kong (Golden Harvest).

It stars Ryohei Suzuki as a fashion magazine editor who starts working with a young personal trainer, played by Hio Miyazawa, who has dropped out of school to support his ailing mother. Having lost his own mother early, the editor is fascinated by the young man and eventually they fall in love, but with a festering secret.

Produced by Robot Communications, the film premiered in competition at Tokyo International Film Festival last October.

Filmmaker Matsunaga previously directed 2015’s Pieta In The Toilet.