‘The Blue Breaks’ Advances Tokyo Gap-Financing Push — SkimNews
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- The Blue Breaks was among the projects at this year’s Tokyo Gap-Financing Market, where producers made headway on the remaining financing and on finding international co-production partners, sales agents and distributors.
- Uchiyama Takuya adapted Machiya Ryohei’s 2016 novel as a Japan-Italy co-production; its protagonist, Shukichi, is a rootless part-time worker whose encounters with a Korean-descent boxer and terminally ill Toko culminate in a journey to Korea.
- Differentia and Antropica are working on The Blue Breaks’ screenplay, casting and financing; the shoot is planned for 2027, completion for 2028, and the team is targeting an international festival premiere.
- Uchiyama Takuya said Machiya’s 2016 novel was published in the year Uchiyama began making films and that Machiya wrote it at Uchiyama’s current age; his own discomfort with masculine expectations inspired an aim to acknowledge longstanding diversity with lightness and romantic love.
- Satoh Naomi said the producers connected through their shared experience of not fitting expected roles and that films resisting categories are hard to finance in Japan; she cited Numb’s Berlinale selection as proof Takuya’s work could resonate beyond Japan.
- Parsifal Reparato said The Blue Breaks’ appeal lies in rethinking family and identity, while Antropica, active in Asia including Vietnam, views the project as a way to deepen ties with Japanese cinema under the Italy-Japan bilateral co-production framework.
Why it matters: Uchiyama Takuya and co-producers Differentia and Antropica gained concrete financing and distribution traction at TIFFCOM, while screenplay, casting and remaining financing still stand between the project and production. The international partners, sales agents and distributors provide a route beyond Japan and Italy, but the shoot is not planned until 2027, with completion in 2028.
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