On January 4, 2023, a live-action film adaptation of the spin-off Rohan au Louvre (Rohan at the Louvre in the manga’s English localization) was announced. The film will premiere on May 26, 2023 and will star Issey Takahashi as Rohan Kishibe, as well as Marie Iitoyo as Kyoka Izumi.
The synopsis is as follows: Rohan Kishibe is on his greatest case yet. He is on the trail of the “darkest and most evil painting in the world”. As it turns out, the painting rests in the temple of beauty, the Louvre Museum. Thus, it is time for Rohan to leave Japan and travel to France to catch a glimpse of this cursed painting.
This film will be part of the same series as the recent live-action TV drama adaptation of Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, a spin-off series of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, featuring the manga artist Rohan Kishibe. In the series, Rohan encounters various supernatural phenomena. Rohan au Louvre can be considered the ninth episode of the drama series and was produced in parallel with the drama’s third season. Filming ended in Japan last fall and is currently continuing in Paris, France. The film was shot on location at the Louvre Museum, the Pont des Arts, the Champs-Elysées, the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile, the Pont Alexandre III Bridge, and the Place du Carrousel. It is unusual for a film to be permitted to be shot at the Louvre, and this is the second Japanese film to be shot there since All-Round Appraiser Q: The Eyes of Mona Lisa, which was released in 2014.
The Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan TV drama not only adapts the one-shot of the spin-off series, but also the story arcs of the original JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga. For instance, the drama adapted some of the story arcs of the fourth part of JoJo, Diamond is Unbreakable, modifying the characters to fit the plot of the drama.
Cast & Staff
- Cast: Issey Takahashi, Marie Iitoyo
- Original Story: Hirohiko Araki
- Director: Kazutaka Watanabe
- Screenplay: Yasuko Kobayashi
- Composer: Naruyoshi Kikuchi
- Costume Designer: Isao Tsuge
- Production: Asmik Ace, Inc., NHK Enterprises, P.I.C.S. Co
- Distribution: Asmik Ace, Inc.
Teaser Trailer
A teaser of the film has been released and can be viewed below:
Koki Uchiyama, who voiced Yoma Hashimoto in the OVA for The Run, narrates the trailer.
Source: @rohan_movie, Official Website
Staff Commentary
Issey Takahashi (Rohan Kishibe)
It has now been three years since I was first given the chance to play the character of Rohan Kishibe. Whether it be in a drama or in a movie, every time I am allowed to play Rohan Kishibe is an extremely special event in my life.
As I write this comment for the reveal, I am currently on-site in Paris. Ever since the first season of the drama, I have had an incredible Japanese team around me working hard to bring Rohan Kishibe to life. In addition to the Japanese filming crew here, we have been joined for the past few days by a local French team so professional and sincere that it feels like we’ve worked together on all three seasons. I am truly witnessing the creation of a one-of-a-kind masterpiece.
During the filming of the first season, I spoke to director Kazutaka about adapting “Rohan at the Louvre,” only seeing it as a pipe dream. I said to him then, “Someday, I hope we can actually start shooting in Paris.” And now, actually standing on the paved streets of Paris, I don’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable being Rohan, which I believe is due to the outstanding staff work supporting me. From the bottom of my heart, I am truly grateful that, despite being in a foreign country, nothing about playing Rohan has changed.
The Japanese part of the work, which was produced in parallel with the third season of the drama, plays just as important of a role as the French part we’re shooting right now. Topics such as bloodlines, inheritance, and the past play key roles in any work related to JoJo, and those topics will be explored in this work as well.
This work is conceptually part of the live-action “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan” drama, and the story functions as its ninth episode. If you’ve followed the drama series so far, you’ll naturally enjoy the movie, but I think people who don’t know anything about what Rohan’s been up to in his own series will enjoy it, too. One must inevitably face the past in order to exist in the present, and time can be both kind and cruel to everyone. Rohan is no exception: in this work, he too must interrogate his own existence.
I hope everyone who comes to the theater will enjoy this very unique work.
Marie Iitoyo (Kyoka Izumi)
The third season of the “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan” drama has just finished airing… To tell the truth, we’ve been working on filming this movie the whole time! Just as I mentioned in one of my lines in the last episode of the drama, Rohan-sensei finally goes to the Louvre! And as his editor, I’ll be going to Paris with him!
I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude toward the wonderful team that has always supported us, but also toward the new staff members who have joined us this time around and allowed us to perform in this wonderful new environment! Once we began shooting with the local staff team in France, I managed to overcome the language barrier between us and savor the excitement of helping bring a project of this scale to life.
It makes me so happy that another new episode is being added to this work, which everyone’s been looking forward to for a long time! Rohan-sensei and Kyoka face the mysteries hidden within the distant Louvre Museum, along with the past itself! I hope you all enjoy this work just as much as the last one!
Kazutaka Watanabe (Director)
The city of Paris seen in the movie ”The Conformist” is decadent and dismal. It’s not a city of flowers where people celebrate life, but rather a dark city filled with the stench of death and perversion. Ever since the project started three years ago, the visuals, artistic scenery, and costume design of “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan” have taken heavy inspiration from that movie.
When I visited Paris to begin shooting, I found a beautiful but cold world draped with thick and heavy clouds on the verge of falling, where the freezing-cold rain kept pouring down, just like in ”The Conformist”. And now, Rohan Kishibe is standing there.
It’s an odd feeling, a mix of déjà vu and exhilaration. But there is not a hint of sentimentality. Rohan is supposed to be there, and there he is. Filming begins as usual.
Yasuko Kobayashi (Screenwriter)
[Translated by HudgynS]When I first heard that “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan” was going to be made into a live-action series, I didn’t have the slightest clue that it would also become a movie. Also, as the series went on and we selected the original works to be adapted, “At the Louvre” was never included in our list of candidates. A two-piece story that unrealistic is now being brought to life.
This is one of the rare stories that focuses on Rohan himself. By all means, I hope you enjoy it in the theater.
About Rohan au Louvre
Before Ultra Jump published the manga on March 19, 2010, The Louvre Invites The Comics exhibit displayed Hirohiko Araki’s Rohan au Lovure at the Louvre Museum from January 22 to April 13, 2009.
The Louvre offered Araki to draw a manga to feature in their “bande dessinée” collection, making it the first manga published by Musée du Louvre Editions. Moreover, the manga is Araki’s first full-color work.
Bande dessinée refers to Franco-Belgian comics and the term is also called the “ninth art” (the other arts include architecture, sculpture, painting, etc.). Incidentally, this film is considered the ninth episode of the TV drama.
About Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan is a manga spin-off series of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It features the part 4 character Rohan Kishibe as the protagonist, who experiences several paranormal encounters.
The series started publication in 1997 and continues to this day. As of 2022, it consists of a dozen independent short stories involving Rohan. The chapters have been published in several different magazines over the years.
In 2020, NHK began adapting the series in TV drama format. The series stars Issey Takahashi and Marie Iitoyo as Rohan Kishibe and his editor Kyoka Izumi. The series has three seasons of 3 or 2 episodes each, broadcasted from 2020 to 2022. It received good reception and won a Galaxy Award in 2020.
