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Mamoru Oshii's Live-Action Blood Friends Film Gets 1-Night Screening on February 5
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Director Mamoru Oshii revealed on Friday that his Chii Tomodachi (Blood Friends) film will have a one-night event screening at Tokyo's Theatre Shinjuku on February 5. The film's official website is streaming a trailer for the film.
The film was originally intended to open in April 2020, but has been delayed due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation.
The film appears to be similar to Oshii's "dark fantasy" film, which had a screening at the Sanuki Film Festival in 2019 that was only decided at the last minute.
The film also appears to share characters and the same broad concept as Oshii's recent Vladlove anime series. That anime is also similarly inspired by Oshii's earlier Chimamire Mai Love visual novel story.
The cast includes:
- Erika Karata as Maki Watabe
- Ichika Osaki as Jinko Sumida
- Nazuki Amano as Kaoru Konno
- Mikoto Hibi as Nami Unten
- Nina Makino-Hillman as Mai
- Tamami Matsumoto as Chihiro Chimatsuri
- Rena Matsui as Motoko Nagino
- Studio Ghibli producer and former head Toshio Suzuki as Eito Bando
- Toshio Kakei as Shinkuro Ban
The film centers on Maki, Jinki, Kaoru, and Nami, four girls who are part of their school's "blood donation club" who all enjoy having their blood drawn. One day, Maki encounters Mai, a girl all in black, in the blood donation room. After Mai has an encounter with the school nurse, Maki takes her to their club room, where they discover that Mai is a vampire that is unable to attack humans. The four resolve to donate their blood for Mai's sake.
In the film's previous 2019 screening, Oshii stated that filming for the film took four months, and that dubbing for the film only concluded one week before the screening in the 2019 festival.
The official YouTube channel for Vladlove streamed a English-subtitled "special version" of the show's first episode in December 2020. The anime formally debuted the first six episodes online in February 2021 on ABEMA and Amazon Prime Video in Japan, alongside other subscription and rental streaming services in Japan. Crunchyroll began streaming the first six episodes that same day. The second half debuted in March 2021.
Sources: Chii Tomodachi film's website, The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web
