RED BY HBO, the Asian movie and entertainment channel of HBO Asia, has announced that the live-action film adaptation of Marmalade Boy will make its television premiere this Friday.
The film will premiere on the channel’s “Stay Home Friday” movie block on Friday, January 3, at 10:00pm PHT, with an encore telecast on the next day at 11:40am PHT.
©2018 “Marmalade Boy” Film Partners
One day high school student Miki learns from her parents that they are getting divorced. They announce that they’ve decided to swap partners and remarry with the Matsuura couple, who they met while traveling. The families end up living together, including the Matsuura’s son Yuu, which leads to unexpected events. (Synopsis from JFDB)
Marmalade Boy is a live-action film adaptation of a shoujo manga series by Wataru Yoshizumi, also known for the romantic comedy manga series Ultra Maniac, which was serialized in Shueisha’s Ribon magazine from May 1992 to October 1995.
The manga series has published a total of eight tankobon volumes, which was also released in English in North America.
The manga has inspired a long-running anime series, which ran in Japan from March 1994 to September 1995, an anime film prequel, and a Taiwanese drama series starring F4 member Ken Zhu.
Ryuichi Hiroki, who directed the 2016 live-action film adaptation of Wolf Girl and Black Prince, also directed the Marmalade Boy film, as well as writing its screenplay together with NANA live-action film screenplay writer Taeko Asano.
The film was produced by Warner Bros. Pictures (Japan), which was released in Japanese cinemas in April 2018.
Hinako Sakurai, who played the lead role “Yuu” in the live-action film adaptation of the shoujo manga series You, I Love, starred in the film as “Miki Koishikawa” and Ryo Yoshizawa, who played “Sogo Okita” in the live-action film adaptation of the comedy manga Gintama, starred as “Ryo Yoshizawa”.
Marmalade Boy’s television anime adaptation was aired through terrestrial broadcaster GMA-7 in March 2003, but was abruptly removed from the schedule a couple of weeks later without an explanation.
