Well Go USA is officially warming up and stretching its muscles to release Bernard Rose’s latest period outing, Samurai Marathon. The film just premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival with the company now announcing its acquisition for a 2020 release (read our review).
Directed by Rose and scored by Philip Glass, the film is based on a true story about the first-ever marathon run in all of Japan. Set at the end of Edo period, Jinnai (Rurouni Kenshin franchise star Takeru Satoh), a secret ninja residing in Annaka village where he’s been assigned to survey activity.
Having acted hastily before the village Lord’s announcement of an intense race to further reinforce pride and discipline in Japan, he’s forced to defy his ninja oath and help stave off the assassins mistakenly out to kill the village Lord for defying Japanese rule.
via THR:
“Samurai Marathon is such an engrossing, often moving film — there were times it was difficult to catch a breath,” Doris Pfardrescher, president and CEO of Well Go, said Tuesday in a statement. “Staying true to tradition while finding a place in the quickly modernizing and progressing world is a rather timely [theme], and we feel audiences in North America will connect to this story.”
