Junji Itō’s ‘The Hanging Balloons’ Short Manga Gets Thai Film – News

Toei announced on Tuesday that it and Thai production company 13 Studio are producing a feature-length, Thai-language film adaptation of Junji Itō’s “Kubitsuri Kikyū” (“The Hanging Balloons”) horror short story. Thai director Taweewat Wantha (Death Whisperer 2, Tha Rae: The Exorcist, upcoming film Dawn of Soengsang) is directing the film.

Viz Media published the story in the Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories book under the title “Hanging Blimp” in 2017. Viz describes the story:

After an idol hangs herself, balloons bearing the faces of their destined victims appear in the sky…

The film project will shift the story’s setting to Thailand, offering a new interpretation to the story, but respecting the original work’s eerie worldview.

The short story debuted in Asahi Sonorama‘s Monthly Halloween magazine in 1994. It inspired a Japanese live-action film adaptation in 2000, and the story was also part of the Netflix anime series Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, which premiered worldwide in January 2023.

Toei, Thai film studio M Studio, and South Korean production company Showbox announced in May that they are jointly producing a live-action film of another short story by Ito, “The Long Hair in the Attic” (“Yaneura no Nagai Kami“). Sitisiri Mongkolsiri (The Red Line, Hunger, Inhuman Kiss) is directing the project which will begin filming next year.

Pan-Asian film and entertainment studio Through the Lens Entertainment and horror brand Fangoria Studios are collaborating to produce films based on Ito’s “The Mystery of the Haunted House” Parts 1 and 2, and “Bloodsucking Darkness.”

Strange -Itō Junji no Yoru mo Nemurenu Kimyō na Hanashi- (Strange –Junji Ito‘s Strange Stories for Sleepless Nights), a live-action omnibus series based on 13 manga stories by Ito, premiered on July 3 in the TV Tokyo channel’s “Drama 24” programming block.

Ito’s Uzumaki manga also inspired a four-episode anime mini-series that premiered on Toonami in September 2024.

Junji Ito “Collection”, a previous television anime of manga by Ito, adapted stories from the Itō Junji Kessaku-shū collection, as well as the Fragments of Horror book. The anime premiered in January 2018 and had 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed the series with English subtitles as it aired in Japan, and Funimation streamed an English dub. The anime included an adaptation of Ito’s Tomie story on its second and third DVD sets.

Ito’s Uzumaki and Tomie manga have inspired live-action adaptations, and his Gyo manga inspired an original video anime project.

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards inducted Ito into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame in July 2025. Ito previously won Eisner Awards for Lovesickness, Remina, Venus In The Blind Spot, and “Frankenstein.” Comic-Con International in San Diego awarded its Inkpot Award to Ito in 2023. The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards nominated Ito’s Black Paradox manga for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia in 2023.

Sources: Toei, Comic Natalie