EXCLUSIVE: Japanese director Ryota Kondo is set to begin filming horror Afunruparo (working title) this summer, produced by Synca Creations.
It will mark the latest feature from Kondo, whose 2024 debut Missing Child Videotape was produced by iconic horror director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On: The Grudge) and received its world premiere at Tokyo International Film Festival before maintaining a long run in Japanese cinemas.
The shoot will take place in Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island and home to the indigenous Ainu ethnic group. While plot details remain under wraps, “Afunruparo” refers to a cave on a cliff considered to be the entrance to the afterlife.
Produced by Synca’s Soojun Bae, the film is set to be completed in February 2027.
“The core horror portrayed in this film comes from ‘death’ that was never properly mourned because of human mistakes,” said Bae. “Its influence crosses the boundary between the dead and the living, disturbing those who remain alive — a phenomenon known in Japanese as ‘sawari’ – a spiritual curse or contamination.
“The fear we seek to evoke is similar to the moment audiences first watched the cursed videotape in Ring, or the first time Kayako appeared in Ju-On: The Grudge — the terrifying feeling of having stepped into a completely unknown realm beyond human understanding, where something unseen begins to quietly invade everyday life.”
Kondo won the grand prize at Kadokawa’s Japan Horror Film Awards in 2022, which led to the production of his first commercial feature, Missing Child Videotape.
His upcoming second feature, How To Generate A Perfect Crime (Gobyo de Kanzen Hanzai o Seisei Suru Houhou), is a suspense crime thriller in which an AI chatbot is used to help cover up an accidental killing. Gaga is set to release in Japan on September 11.
Synca producer Bae was at the Cannes market this week as part of the UniJapan booth.
Its sales slate also included Forest Of Sunekosuri, a supernatural feature about a young man who meets a series of mysterious characters in a forest. Starring Issey Takahashi (Rhapsody, Rhapsody) and Kodai Kurosaki (Brand New Landscape), it is directed by Kazutaka Watanabe, known for a live-action series adaptation of Hirohiko Araki’s manga Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan. The film opened locally on April 10.
“Japan is home to many masterful films featuring supernatural creatures, like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away and Pokémon,” said Bae. “Like those films, this is a pure yet cruel tale that brings the invisible back to life in the modern world, based on the creature known as the sunekosuri, and rendered with fantastical imagery.”
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