Producer Ohno Atsuko of Hassaku Labs, whose Fukada Koji movie “Nagi Notes” is competing on the Cannes Film Festival this yr, is reteaming with writer-director Pan Nalin on “The Man Who Walks,” an English-language love story at present in casting and looking for co-production companions on the Cannes Film Market.
The movie’s central determine is the world’s solely immortal man, drawn right into a romance with a Japanese scholar whose life’s work facilities on historical texts about dying. The manufacturing is deliberate for Tokyo and a number of areas throughout Japan. The screenplay was written by Nalin and developed by his Monsoon Movies manufacturing firm in session with L.A.-based author Tinker Lindsay.
The reunion extends a artistic relationship solid on Nalin’s “Valley of Flowers,” a manga-inspired epic on which Ohno served as co-producer.
“Pan Nalin and I worked together on ‘Valley of Flowers’ — part of which was shot in Tokyo. That film dealt with the same preoccupations: immortality, reincarnation, a love that refuses to be extinguished by time. When he brought me this screenplay, we weren’t starting from zero. I believe in his vision, and that belief was built on something we had already made together,” Ohno stated.
Nalin added: “‘The Man Who Walks’ is a cinematic meditation on time, memory, nature and the fragile weight of the human heart. I have remained deeply fascinated by ancient scriptures like the Egyptian Book of the Dead, or Bardo: Tibetan Book of the Dead, or even Maya Book of the Dead known as the Ceramic Codex. But when you imagine a love story with these epic backdrops, what you get is a contemporary romance celebrated through nothing but a simple act of walking.”
Nalin’s earlier function “Last Film Show” was Oscar-shortlisted within the worldwide function class in 2023 and was launched theatrically in Japan by Shochiku Studios. The movie is ready for theatrical launch in France this summer season; it was offered worldwide by Studiocanal to distributors together with Samuel Goldwyn Movies within the U.S., Medusa in Italy and Shochiku in Japan.
Ohno says: “This film asks a question that humanity has never stopped asking — what lies beyond death. Is there hope on the other side, or only silence? A man who has walked the earth for 3.3 million years carries that doubt and that longing in every step. What moves me is watching him search for an answer he may never find — and the way Pan Nalin renders that search in images of breathtaking beauty. In a world full of uncertainty and anxiety, I believe this is a story that will reach deep into the hearts of many people.”
Ohno’s current credit embrace “Love on Trial” by Fukada Koji, which screened at Cannes Premiere in 2025, and “Sleep No More” by Edwin, which premiered at Berlinale 2025.
Nalin is represented by Lindsay Williams on the Gotham Group in Hollywood.
