Toei announced on Tuesday that it is teaming up with Thai production company 13 Studio to produce a feature-length, Thai-language film adaptation of “Kubitsuri Kikyū” (“The Hanging Balloons”), a horror short story by celebrated manga artist Junji Itō. Thai director Taweewat Wantha — known for Death Whisperer 2, Tha Rae: The Exorcist, and the upcoming Dawn of Soengsang — is attached to direct.
Story Background
The short story originally appeared in Asahi Sonorama’s Monthly Halloween magazine in 1994. Viz Media later published it in the anthology Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories under the title “Hanging Blimp” in 2017. Viz describes the premise:
After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing the faces of their destined victims appear in the sky…
The Thai film will relocate the story’s setting to Thailand, offering a fresh interpretation while staying true to the eerie atmosphere of Itō’s original work. The story previously inspired a Japanese live-action film in 2000 and also featured in the Netflix anime series Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, which premiered worldwide in January 2023.
More Itō Adaptations in the Pipeline
Toei is also co-producing a live-action adaptation of Itō’s “The Long Hair in the Attic” (Yaneura no Nagai Kami) alongside Thai film studio M Studio and South Korean production company Showbox, as announced in May. Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (The Red Line, Hunger, Inhuman Kiss) is directing, with filming set to begin next year.
Meanwhile, pan-Asian studio Through the Lens Entertainment and horror brand Fangoria Studios are collaborating on films based on Itō’s “The Mystery of the Haunted House” Parts 1 and 2, and “Bloodsucking Darkness.”
On the television front, the live-action omnibus series Strange -Itō Junji no Yoru mo Nemurenu Kimyō na Hanashi-, adapting 13 of Itō’s manga stories, premiered on July 3 in TV Tokyo’s “Drama 24” programming block.
Anime Adaptations and Awards
Itō’s Uzumaki manga inspired a four-episode anime mini-series that premiered on Toonami in September 2024. The earlier television anime Junji Ito “Collection”, which adapted stories from the Itō Junji Kessaku-shū collection and Fragments of Horror, ran for 12 episodes beginning in January 2018, with Crunchyroll streaming subtitled episodes and Funimation providing an English dub.
On the awards front, Itō was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame in July 2025. He has previously won Eisner Awards for Lovesickness, Remina, Venus In The Blind Spot, and “Frankenstein,” and received the Inkpot Award from Comic-Con International in San Diego in 2023.
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