18×2 Beyond Youthful Days
2024 Taiwanese film / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days (Chinese: 青春18×2 通往有你的旅程) is a 2024 Taiwanese-Japanese romance film directed by Michihito Fujii and produced by Chang Chen. Starring Greg Hsu and Kaya Kiyohara, alongside an ensemble cast including Joseph Chang, Shunsuke Michieda, Haru Kuroki, Hitomi Kuroki, and Yutaka Matsushige, the film follows a recently fired Taiwanese video game developer (Hsu) on a solo trip to Japan, reminiscing about a past romantic entanglement with a Japanese backpacker (Kiyohara) that never blossomed into a relationship.
18×2 Beyond Youthful Days | |
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Directed by | Michihito Fujii |
Written by | Michihito Fujii Hirokawa Hayashida |
Produced by | Chang Chen |
Starring | Greg Hsu Kaya Kiyohara |
Cinematography | Keisuke Imamura |
Edited by | Tatsuma Furukawa |
Music by | Takashi Ohmama |
Production companies | Jump! Boys Babel Label |
Distributed by | Happinet Phantom Studios (Japan) Activator Co.(Taiwan) |
Release dates |
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Running time | 124 minutes |
Countries | Taiwan Japan |
Languages | Mandarin Japanese |
Adapted from a travelogue published on the internet by Taiwanese video game developer Jimmy Lai in 2014, the film was stuck in development hell before Japanese filmmaker Fujii joined the project in 2019, turning it into a collaborative film between Taiwan and Japan. Fujii spent four years penning the screenplay, while lead actors Hsu and Kiyohara were announced to be part of the production in March 2023. Principal photography commenced in Japan in the same month and continued in Taiwan in April. Following the completion of filming in May 2023, the film underwent six months of post-production.
The film held its world premiere at the Ambassador Theatre in Taipei, on 14 February 2024, followed by a theatrical release on 14 March and 3 May, in Taiwan and Japan, respectively.