Southeast Asian film distributor Purple Plan began streaming an English-subtitled video on Saturday for its screening of Naoko Yamada and Kyoto Animation’s A Silent Voice, Koe no Katachi, anime film. The video reveals that Purple Plan will screen the film in Singapore and Malaysia on March 9, 2017.
Purple Plan noted that the screening will be a regular daily screening and not a limited engagement. The film is based on Yoshitoki Ōima’s Koe no Katachi manga.
Main Characters
The story revolves around two protagonists, a boy named Shoya Ishida and a girl named Shoko Nishimiya. Shoko is a deaf transfer student who is bullied by her classmates, with Shoya leader of the bullying. Eventually, when the class is forced to take responsibility for bullying Shoko, the class turns to bullying Shoya to take the blame. Years later, both Shoko and Shoya met again.
The film earned 2.3 billion yen in Japan, and was the 19th highest-grossing film released in Japan in 2016. The film surpassed the box office earnings of Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion, which earned a total of 2.08 billion yen during its theatrical run in Japan when it opened in October 2013.
A Silent Voice also surpassed the earnings of the K-ON! anime film, similarly animated by Kyoto Animation and directed by Naoko Yamada, which earned 1.9 billion yen at the box office in 2011.
The film opened in Japan in September on 120 screens and ranked #2 at box offices in Japan in its opening weekend.
The film earned 283,000,000 yen (about US$2.8 million) and sold 200,000 tickets in its first two days. In comparison, Kyoto Animation’s 2011 K-ON! film earned 316,310,000 yen in its first two days on 137 screens.
The film’s cast includes:
- Miyu Irino as Shōya Ishida
- Saori Hayami as Shōko Nishimiya
- Aoi Yūki as Yuzuru Nishiya
- Kensho Ono as Tomohiro Nagatsu
- Yuki Kaneko as Naoka Ueno
- Yui Ishikawa as Miyoko Sahara
- Megumi Han as Miki Kawai
- Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Toshi Mashibasa
- Mayu Matsuoka as Shōya Ishida as an elementary school student
Naoko Yamada, director of Tamako Market, Tamako Love Story, and K-ON!’s two anime seasons and anime film, directed the film at Kyoto Animation. Reiko Yoshida, script writer of Non Non Biyori, K-ON! and Yowamushi Pedal, wrote the script, and Futoshi Nishiya, designer of Free!, Hyōka and Nichijō, designed the characters for animation.
Kensuke Ushio, music composer of Space Dandy and Ping Pong, composed the music at Pony Canyon. AIKO performed the film’s theme song “Ai wo Shita no wa” (Loving Is). Shochiku distributed the film.