EXCLUSIVE: Beijing-based sales agent Rediance has secured sales rights to Wayne Wang’s Diary Of A Mad Old Man, starring Lily Franky and Fan Bingbing, ahead of its world premiere at Toronto.
Set in Tokyo, the drama revolves around an aging patriarch who suffers a near-fatal stroke but discovers that his libido rages on despite his weakening body. He is drawn into an intimate relationship with his caregiver daughter-in-law, who is a former bar hostess from Shanghai with a shady past.
It is based on renowned Japanese writer Junichiro Tanizaki’s 1961 novel of the same name - the last he wrote after having a stroke in his 60s.
The Japan-US production is produced by Shozo Ichiyama through Japan’s Fourier Films and LA-based Francey Grace, with financing from various countries, including Cinetrain SA (Switzerland), Berjaya Entertainment (Malaysia), Nobu Pictures and Tannpopo (Japan), and Melograno Films (US), which is also co-selling for North America.
Japanese actor Franky is well known for his starring role in Hirokazu Koreeda’s Shoplifters, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2018 and was Oscar-nominated. Fan won best actress at last year’s Golden Horse Awards for her performance in Mother Bhumi. The cast also includes Takumi Saito, Youki Kudoh and Asana Mamoru.
The screenplay is by Kelvin Wyles with Koichi Furuya as cinematographer and Ashley Pagan and Masahide Koura as editors.
The film will play in the Gala Presentations section of TIFF.
Hong Kong-born US-based Wang is a Toronto regular, having presented a string of films at the festival such as 1993’s iconic Chinese American film The Joy Luck Club and more recently 2020’s Coming Home Again based on a short story by Korean American writer Chang-Rae Lee.
His 1995 independent feature Smoke starring Harvey Keitel and William Hurt won the Berlinale Silver Bear, while 2007’s Thousand Years Of Good Prayers won the Golden Shell for best film at San Sebastian.
“As I approach my late 70s, I am increasingly aware of my own aging,” said Wang. “Like Tanizaki, I find myself caught between the will to live and the shadow of mortality. When I went to Tanizaki’s residence in Kyoto (now a museum), I sat at his desk where he wrote this novel, felt his spirit move powerfully through me and felt compelled to adapt the work into a film with the encouragement of Shozo Ichiyama.”
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