Koji Shiraishi and Malaysian director Ryon Lee team up for J-horror flick

Koji Shiraishi is is best known for J-horrors like ‘Noroi: The Curse’, ‘Carved: A Slit-Mouthed Woman’ and ‘Sadako vs Kayako’. Photo: Filepic

Japanese horrormeister Koji Shiraishi is in talks to shoot a movie in Malaysia. The filmmaker was in Kuala Lumpur early March to discuss a collaboration with Malaysian director Ryon Lee.

Shiraishi is known for J-horrors like Noroi: The Curse (2005), Carved: A Slit-Mouthed Woman (2007) and Sadako vs Kayako (2016). His latest is a live-action adaptation of the psychological manga thriller Funouhan or Impossiblity Defence.

Lee has a diverse repertoire, but is most known for scripting and helming horror flicks like Seventh (2014), The Transcend (2014) and Haunted Hotel (2017). He will be writing the screenplay, which will likely revolve around Malaysian ghost stories.

Pre-production has already begun, with Shiraishi gleefully declaring: “It will be a very scary and very entertaining movie which is going to be a big hit!”

Koji Shiraishi was in KL to learn about being Malaysian. Photo: Toybox Projects

During the early stages of discussion, Shiraishi met up with Aron Koh of Lomo Pictures and Yuri Aizawa of Toybox Projects. It will be Shiraishi's first film made in Malaysia, so he met with a few locals to learn about the culture and lifestyle.

He said that he plans to shoot in a small town to achieve a more sinister ambiance, but he also intends to film some scenes back home. Shiraishi hails from Fukuoka, Japan.

“We hope to hold auditions to cast Japanese and Malaysian actors, and use music from both countries,” said Aizawa, whose company Toybox Projects is bringing The Hyde Acoustic Concert Tour 2018 Asia Live to KL in May.

“It will be very Japanese stylistically, but we hope to strike a balance with a Malaysian script,” said Koh, whose last movie Haunted Hotel was a joint Malaysia-Thai-China production that combined cross-cultural elements. That film starred Thai actress Aom Sushar, Chinese actor Leon Li Chuan and Malaysian actor Teddy Chin.

Principal photography for Shiraishi's movie is expected to begin early 2019, as he is now busy with his own Japanese projects while Lee works on a Malaysia-Hong Kong horror flick.