Matt Schley
September 22, 2024 
Yoshiyuki Okuyama (left) with Makoto Shinkai (right) | (c)2025「秒速 5 センチメートル」製作委員会
5 Centimeters Per Second, the Makoto Shinkai anime from 2007, is getting a live-action film adaptation in Japan. The film will be released in fall 2025.
The movie will star Hokuto Matsumura, a member of the group SixTONES, who played Sota in Shinkai’s film Suzume. It’s being directed by Yoshiyuki Okuyama, a commercial and music video director whose debut film, At the Bench, will be released this November. The screenwriter is Ayako Suzuki, who co-wrote this year’s Rude to Love.
The film is produced by Spoon and distributed by Toho.
In a statement about the project, Shinkai said:
5 Centimeters per Second, which I directed nearly 20 years ago, was a very immature and unfinished work. However, because of that incompleteness, it is still a work that has been loved for a long time. I would never be able to make, or reproduce, a film like that today, in which I simply put all my initial impulses – my longing and awe for the unknown – into it. That is why I am so excited that director Okuyama and his young and dedicated team are working on a new 5 Centimeters per Second. The fact that a most trustworthy actor, Hokuto Matsumura, will be playing the lead role is also one of life’s wonders.
The original 5 Centimeters per Second was written, directed and produced by Shinkai. Here’s how Discotek describes it:
Young love, missed connections, and unrequited feelings collide in a romance from Makoto Shinkai, the visionary director of Weathering With You and Your Name. Told in three vignettes, 5 Centimeters Per Second: A Chain Of Short Stories About Their Distance explores the joys and heartache of falling in love set against the backdrop of the breathtaking visuals that define Shinkai’s work. Takaki yearns to spill his heart out for childhood crush Akari, but both of their families move away before any feelings can fully blossom. They stay in touch, but eventually drift apart with school and new friends to distract them. As the seasons pass, Takaki navigates his relationships while haunted by all the things he left unsaid with Akari, his first love.
Source: Comic Natalie
Note: Shinkai’s statement was machine translated and then edited while referring to the Japanese original.
