Junji Ito’s Manga Horrors Hit Harder as Live-Action TV
The artist’s macabre short works have been adapted into eerily freaky 30-minute bites for television. We got a sneak preview of the next episode airing on HBO Max.
Director Yûta Shimotsu describes the events of the new episode in the J-horror anthology show Strange: Junji Ito's Tales for Sleepless Nights, but his words could apply to any episode of the series. The manga artist who created the title stories is known for blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist in his eerie narratives.
The first season of the show aired on TV Tokyo this summer and is now available on HBO Max in the US. The show's first two episodes, "Lovesickness (Part 1 of 3)" and "The Bully," are already on HBO Max, while the US premiere of "Face Thief" was shown at New York Comic Con. "Face Thief" is based on a story by Junji Ito titled "The Face Burglar" and follows a new girl at school named Machida who encounters a strange classmate named Kamei.
The episode explores themes of conformity and peer pressure, turning the unsettling twist into a critique of Japanese society. Director Shimotsu expressed his desire to change the ending of "Face Thief" for his live-action version, but the episode still manages to capture the slow-burning atmosphere of the original comic, which first appeared in Monthly Halloween in 1987.
Junji Ito appeared at NYCC in a video message, describing "Face Thief" as an early tale inspired by the chameleon's ability to change its appearance. He also mentioned that the new adaptation was brought to life by a fresh team of actors and directors who focus on slow, creeping dread rather than jump scares. Director Shimotsu finds the essence of Ito's work through stillness in performances and camerawork that mimics the comic book pages.
He hopes to further preserve the fidelity to the original material in the upcoming seasons by shooting at least one episode in black and white, Ito's preferred style. When asked which of Ito's works he would most like to adapt next, Shimotsu earned applause by answering Uzumaki, a groundbreaking horror manga that has been adapted several times already, including a recent 4-part anime series for Adult Swim.
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