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39th Doraemon Anime Film Opens in Vietnam on May 24
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Vietnamese cinema chain Lotte Cinema announced on Wednesday that it will open Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Getsumen Tansaki (Doraemon the Movie: Chronicle of the Moon Exploration), the Doraemon franchise's 39th film, in Vietnam on May 24.
The film opened on 382 screens in Japan on March 1 and sold 645,000 tickets for 757 million yen (about US$6.77 million) to top the Japanese box office in its opening weekend. From March 2-3, the film earned 82.6% of the earnings from last year's Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Takarajima film in its opening weekend. Eiga Doraemon: Nobita no Takarajima holds the record as the highest-grossing film in the current 14-installment Doraemon film series after earning a total of 5.37 billion yen (about US$48.1 million) at the box office. Each Doraemon film in the past three years has set a new franchise box-office record.
Eiga Doraemon no Nobita no Getsumen Tansaki stayed at #1 for six consecutive weeks, and is the first film in the current film series to do so since the film series began in 2004. The film has earned a cumulative total of 4,739,882,100 yen (about US$42.36 million) as of April 21.
The film's story relates to the Japanese folkloric belief that a rabbit resides on the moon. The film is set on the moon and centers on strong friendships bound together by the "ability to believe." Luna is a mysterious girl who lives on the far side of the moon. Diabolo and his subordinate Goddard stand in the way of Nobita and his friends on their moon exploration journey.
Shinnosuke Yakuwa (Doraemon the Movie: Nobita and the Birth of Japan 2016, Eiga Doraemon: Shin Nobita no Daimakyō - Peko to 5-nin no Tankentai) directed the film, which is his first work directing from an original script. Naoki Prize-winning mystery author Midzuki Tsujimura (Tsunagu, Kagami no Kojō) wrote the script, and she also wrote a novel adaptation, which debuted on November 16. Dai Hirai performed the theme song "The Gift."
