Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016: #53. Shinji Aoyama’s True Horror Story

Published on January 9, 2016

True Horror Story

Director: Shinji Aoyama
Writer: NA

Despite playing in the Cannes main competition two years in a row in the early 2000s (with masterpiece Eureka in 2000 and Desert Moon in 2001), Japanese auteur’s works are still largely unavailable in the US. His last feature, 2013’s The Backwater premiered at Locarno (nabbing Best Director) and failed to book any festival play in the US or distribution. During Cannes 2015, it was announced Aoyama would be directing True Horror Story, a Japanese-Malaysian co-production about supernatural phenomena plaguing a Japanese couple visiting Malaysia. Principal photography is rumored to begin early 2016, and we hope the project will benefit from the initial interest conveyed by the trades in early announcements.

Cast: NA

Production Co.: Roads to Shangri-La Inc.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available TBD (domestic/international)

Release Date: Though a start date has been unconfirmed, we are hoping Aoyama could have his latest ready to unveil in the fourth quarter, perhaps a return to Venice (where he last premiered in 2006 with Crickets).

Related Topics:Shinji Aoyama, Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2016, top-stories, True Horror Story

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.