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Makoto Shinkai's The Place Promised in Our Early Days Gets Stage Play

avex entertainment opened a website on Monday to announce a stage play adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's The Place Promised in Our Early Days (Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho) film. The stage play will run at the Tokyo International Forum from April 20 to 24, and at the NHK Osaka Hall on May 2.

The film's story is set in an alternate post-Second World War Japan, occupied and split in two, with the United States occupying Honshu and southern territories, and the Soviet Union occupying Hokkaido. In 1996, three teenagers living in Aomori, two boys and a girl, have always lived seeing the large tower in Hokkaido on the Soviet side, and promised to build a plane to cross the border and one day find out more about it. But when Sayuri, the girl, eventually slips into a coma, the three go their separate ways. In adulthood, Hiroki and Takuya reunite when they formulate a plan to rescue Sayuri, which involves using the tower's dimension-altering properties.

The stage play's cast includes:

• Yūdai Tatsumi as Hiroki Fujisawa
• Shō Takada as Takuya Shirakawa
• Momoka Itō as Sayuri Sawatari
• Kazuyuki Matsuzawa as Okabe
• Atsuko Asano as Okabe's Wife
• Wataru Kozuki as Tomizawa

Shigeki Motoiki is writing the script for the play, and Yūko Haitō is directing. Masato Kamata is composing the music. CoMix Wave Films is credited with cooperation, and Orega is credited with production cooperation.

The film debuted in 2004. ADV Films originally released the film theatrically in the United States and later on DVD in 2005. Shinta Kanō penned a novel adaptation of the film in 2005, and Sumomo Yumeka also drew a manga adaptation in Kodansha's Afternoon magazine in 2006.

Source: Cinema Today