Film News

Film Version of Spirited Away: Live On Stage to Appear on Screens This Spring

The stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki’s award-winning film premiered in Tokyo last year.

Zachary Stewart
New York City
Mone Kamishiraishi and Hiroki Miura appear in Spirited Away: Live On Stage at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre.
Mone Kamishiraishi and Hiroki Miura appear in Spirited Away: Live On Stage at Tokyo's Imperial Theatre.
(© GKIDS)

GKIDS, the producer and distributor of animation for adult and family audiences, announced that it has acquired the North American audiovisual distribution rights for Spirited Away: Live On Stage, which was filmed during the production's 2022 run at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo.

John Caird (Les Misérables) co-adapted (with his wife, Maoko Imai) and directed the production, which is based on Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-winning animated film about a young woman who is enslaved in a magical realm ruled over by a sorceress, and her great escape.

GKIDS will release two separate filmed performances of the production, starring Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi, double-cast as the lead heroine Chihiro. Character actor Mari Natsuki, who voiced the sorceress Yubaba and her twin sister Zeniba in the original motion picture, returns to her original role, accompanied by voice actor Romi Park.

GKIDS plans to release the film in theater this spring. Exact dates and venues have not been announced, but you can follow the film's official website here.