Toei, 13 Studio to Adapt Junji Ito's 'The Hanging Balloons' as Thai Film

Toei and Thai production company 13 Studio announced on October 13, 2026 that they are producing a feature-length Thai-language film adaptation of Junji Ito's horror short story 'Kubitsuri Kikyu' ('The Hanging Balloons'). Thai director Taweewat Wantha is directing the film.

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

Wantha's previous credits include 'Death Whisperer 2' and 'Tha Rae: The Exorcist', with 'Dawn of Soengsang' among his upcoming films.

Ito's original short story debuted in Asahi Sonorama's Monthly Halloween magazine in 1994. It inspired a Japanese live-action film adaptation in 2000 and was adapted as part of the Netflix anime series Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, which premiered worldwide in January 2023. Viz Media published the story in the Shiver: Junji Ito Selected Stories book under the title 'Hanging Blimp' in 2017.

The adaptation is one of several projects based on Ito's work. In May 2026, Toei, Thai film studio M Studio, and South Korean production company Showbox announced they are jointly producing a live-action film of another Ito short story, 'The Long Hair in the Attic', directed by Sitisiri Mongkolsiri, which will begin filming next year. Through the Lens Entertainment and Fangoria Studios are also collaborating on films based on Ito's 'The Mystery of the Haunted House' Parts 1 and 2, and 'Bloodsucking Darkness'. 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, 2025 in TV Tokyo's 'Drama 24' programming block.

Ito was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame in July 2025.