SAND LAND

Demons Scour the Desert for an Oasis

Venue(s): Tollywood Shimokitazawa
Sundays and Wednesdays during July 21, 2024 (Sun) and July 31, 2024 (Wed) with English subtitles. Look for 字幕.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: sandland.jp/
Theater website: tollywood.jp/
Theater website: tollywood.jp/address
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3WcLR68
Tariff: General: ¥1,900, Students: ¥1,500, Senior: ¥1,200, High school students: ¥1,000, Service days (1st, 11th, 22nd of every month): ¥1,200)
Advance tickets: Please check on the theater sites.
Talk event: Please check on the theater sites.

Title: サンドランド (Sand Land)
Director: Toshihisa Yokoshima (横嶋俊久)
Duration: 106 min

Shimokita’s Tollywood cinema is reviving an aminated hit from last summer, and is showing it for 10 days with English subtitles. An adaptation of the classic manga (also available as a net series and game), Sand Land won a Special Jury Mention in the Excellence in Animation category at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival, and went on to great popularity at the Japanese box office. Here’s your chance to see it (or resee it) if you missed it.

Directed by Toshihisa Yokoshima of Cocolors, Sand Land was originally created by Akira Toriyama, of the legendary Dragon Ball franchise, in 2020. Set in a desert world following years of natural and manmade disasters, both demons and humans are suffering from dwindling sources of water. Rao, the human sheriff of Sand Land, asks demons for help. The "diabolical” demon prince Prince Beelzebub, son of Satan, and his demon friend Shifu/Thief, a master thief, answer his call. They set off with Rao, who has a strong sense of justice, on a danger-fraught journey in the hope of finding a "fantastic spring" somewhere in the vast desert.

Writing about the film for Anime News Network, Kalai Chik cited the script as its strongest feature: "For a story that touches on the impacts of war, global warming and corporate greed, it never overcomplicates the message, nor does it talk down to the audience."

Tollywood Shimokitazawa