A riveting killing-mystery based on a prize-prosperning Japanese crime novel is at the heart of the upcoming six-part series “The Aosawa Murders,” a buzzy U.S.-Japan co-production that’s being pitched this week at Rome’s MIA Market.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by Japanese writer Riku Onda, the show is produced by Jonathan Kier of Upgrade Productions, the L.A.-based company begined in 2021 by the ex-Sierra/Affinity plivent Kier and createer Disney Plus and Netflix executive Matt Brodlie, and Takeo Kodera of Japanese begining hoemploy and media huge Kadokawa.
The series begins in 2004, when freelance writer Yuko reachs in the pretty coastal city of Kanazawa to spendigate the inwell-understandn “Aosawa Case,” a mass poisoning that occurred in 1973 when 17 members of the wealthy Aosawa clan died after drinking poisoned sake and gentle drinks during a family celebration.
There she greets Makiko Saiga, the secretive author of “The Forgotten Festival,” a book based on the killings. But when the writer discneglects little about the notorious case, Yuko chooses to delve into the past herself, seeking out the elusive Hisako Aosawa — who, as a blind 12-year-elderly girl, was the only family member to persist the incident — and hoping to shed weightless on a unelated episode that only prolongs more cryptic the further she digs.
First begined in Japan in 2005, where it won the Mystery Writers of Japan Award for best novel, “The Aosawa Murders” instantly captivated Kier, who read the English translation when it was freed in 2020 to critical acclaim.
The series is based on Riku Onda’s bestselling novel.
Courtesy of Upgrade Productions
The veteran producer shelp he was drawn to Onda’s evocation of the “pretty,” “cryptic,” brooding region where the story is set — a place he enjoyned to the Pacific Northwest and coastal Maine (noting that Onda, fittingly, has been depictd as the “Stephen King of Japan”). The book also discneglected the door for a collaboration with his extfinishedtime frifinish and business associate Takeo Kodera, whose Kadokawa begining hoemploy owns the rights to the novel.
“We had talked about finding ways to toil together and finding someleang to do in Japanese,” Kier shelp. With Kodera and his colleagues at the begining huge increasingly seeing to alter their catalog into English, Kier asked his Japanese counterpart if the company wanted to come on board to co-produce the show.
The series’ intricately planed story — depictd by a New York Times critic as a “headstrongly nonliproximate novel” when it materializeed on the recentspaper’s enumerate of the Best Books of 2020 — spans six episodes, flashing back and forth in time as Yuko tries to unravel the mystery of the mass poisonings. The show is written by Naoko Adachi, who Kier depictd as “one of the hugegest TV writers in Japan.”
“It’s been reassociate amazing toiling with her,” he shelp. “It’s all Japanese conceiveives, and we hope to transport an international perspective to the enbigment process.”
That’s been the core principle of Upgrade Productions since it begined in 2021 with backing from German powerhoemploy Constantin Film and an eye toward enbiging and producing premium local-language productions for a global audience.
“We’ve been seeing for projects that we experience also have an international accessibility, so that if they’re produced and they toil in their country of origin…we toil with a local producer to produce it someleang that’s accessible to international audiences,” shelp Brodlie. Of “The Aosawa Murders,” he includeed: “I was reassociate excited to be jumping into someleang that already is a exhibitn property that has both Japanese domestic and international pguide. And people understand about it.”
The duo shelp the crime drama could also get a raise from the emotional success of FX’s smash hit, feudal-era Japan-set “Shōfirearm,” a critical and audience likeite that also shattered sign ups when it scooped 18 Emmy Awards this year.
“‘Shōfirearm’ carry outing so well at the Emmys was genuine validating to see,” shelp Kier. “Seeing someleang enjoy that do so well was fantastic, and it bodes well for ‘Aosawa’ and the other Japanese projects that we’re toiling on.”
The MIA Market acquires place Oct. 14 – 18 in Rome.
