A live-action film adaptation of the Junji Ito horror story The Long Hair in the Attic is being developed by Toei, Thailand’s M Distribution, and South Korea’s SHOWBOX CORP. Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (Hunger, The Red Line) has been tapped to direct, and filming is planned to begin in 2027.
The Long Hair in the Attic (Yaneura no Nagai Kami) one-shot, originally published in 1988 in the now-defunct Asahi Sonorama’s Monthly Halloween, sees the woman Chiemi getting mysteriously decapitated after deciding to cut her hair, which she’d grown out for her ex-boyfriend. Mongkolsiri, per Screen Daily, says that he wants “to explore the psychological pressures surrounding beauty and identity, and translate that into a cinematic experience that is both emotionally grounded and visually striking” for the film.
According to Toei, the partnership leverages its knowledge in IP development, M Distribution’s commercial content production capabilities and theatrical network, and Showbox’s funding and international distribution abilities. It adds that the partners aim to build a film production model that can compete well on an international level.
The Long Hair in the Attic manga had a previous live-action adaptation, an episode that was part of the 2000 anthology The Hanging Balloons. It was also adapted into an anime for the Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre anthology.
Source: Press release (via Eiga Natalie)