Special Thanksgiving Screening at HAKKO Park in Innoshima, where the movie "Hatsuko Geisha" was shot!

A special screening of the film version of "Hatsuko Geijin" will be held prior to its official release at the Shimanami Film Festival 2025, which will be held on the islands of the Seto Inland Sea. The special screening will be held on September 15, 2025 (Monday, national holiday) at the HAKKO Park of Manda Hakko, which is the venue of Shimanami Film Festival Innoshima and also cooperated as a location for this film. There will also be a stage greeting by the director, who will talk about his thoughts on the film and behind-the-scenes stories.

Hatsukoi Geijin Visual

Finally, a film adaptation of the unique romance novel "Hatsukoi Geisha" will be released! A unique love story "Hatsukoi Geijin" (First Love Geijin)

The unique romance novel "Hatsukoi Geijin" (First Love Geijin), the authorial debut of Ken Nakazawa, who also writes scripts for special effects shows and is active as a UMA researcher, was made into a TV drama in 2016. Finally, a film adaptation has been decided, and Innoshima Island in Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture was chosen as one of the locations.

The film is a "story of a nobody" dedicated to all the boys who, in their teens and youth, had no connection with girls, and was created as a coming-of-age film that will stick in the hearts of today's youth and those who have reached middle age and wanted to be something they are not.

The special screening at the "Shimanami Film Festival 2025" will be a special opportunity for the filmmakers to express their gratitude for the film's location, and to feel the emotional connection between Innoshima Island and the filmmakers, who cooperated in the filming of the film.

<Outline of the film

A pure love story of an unsuccessful comedian. One day, a miraculous first love comes true.

Kenji Sato, an unsuccessful pin-up comedian who performs monster stories at comedy gigs, is an unattractive man who has no girlfriends because of his age and has no female friends. The world of his fantasy was his place. One day, he meets a mysterious woman, Risa Ichikawa, who says that Sato's material is funny, and Sato falls in love for the first time....

Original story: "Hatsukoi Geinin" by Ken Nakazawa (published by Shogakukan "Gaga Bunko")

Starring : Yoshitaka Hara

Director/Screenplay : Daiichiro Natsume

Planning/Producer : Keitaro Obama

Producer ： Rika Minematsu

Filming on location in Innoshima, with cooperation from Manda Fermentation's HAKKO Park

(Head Office: Innoshima, Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture; President: Yoshinori Matsuura) provided HAKKO Park (HAKKO Hall in the facility) adjacent to its head office as one of the filming locations for the Innoshima location shooting of this movie in April 2024.

HAKKO Park is a fermentation-themed theme park where visitors can experience the rich nature and fermentation culture of Innoshima, and is also the Innoshima venue for "Shimanami Film Festival 2025" to be held from September 13, 2025 (Saturday).

The park's HAKKO Hall, which was used for filming, is usually used as a facility to show videos for visitors to learn about the mysteries of fermentation as part of guided tours to learn about fermentation and Manda Enzyme, but in this film, it serves as a location for the worldview of the original story. We hope you will pay attention to the hall scene.

HAKKO Hall

Filming at HAKKO Hall

Shimanami Film Festival 2025

The "Shimanami Film Festival 2025," which will be held for the second time this year, will take place on the three islands of Innoshima, Ikuchishima, and Omishima in the Seto Inland Sea. The event will be held on September 13 (Sat.) - 15 (Mon.), 20 (Sat.), 21 (Sun.), and 23 (Tue.), 2025.

Although the three islands are close to each other, their scenery, lifestyles, and values differ from island to island. The theme of this event is "Cruise to the Unknown. The goal of the event is to provide visitors with the experience of traveling to three different islands, each with its own unique face, and to encounter landscapes, cultures, and values that they have not yet encountered.

This year, with the aim of creating a film festival with a deeper connection to the islands, we are inviting artists and filmmakers to the islands to create opportunities to experience real films and music, and to create a place where visitors can encounter not only the films themselves but also the thoughts and processes behind them.

In addition to the special screening of the film "Hatsuko Geijin", we will provide opportunities to discover the charms of the Shimanami Kaido through a variety of events, including films, music and experiences that will unfold during the event period.

Shimanami Film Festival 2025 Main Visual