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Six Acclaimed Japanese Filmmakers Each Bring a Supernatural Tale From Ichi Sawamura to the Screen
Disney+ has gathered a lineup of Japan’s most respected genre directors for Night Tales Club, a six-episode supernatural mystery anthology headlined by Takayuki Yamada, as first reported by The Hollywood Reporter. The streamer revealed the series on Wednesday with first-look images and a teaser trailer, and it is slated to debut in January 2027.
Every installment adapts a different story from a collection by Japanese horror author Ichi Sawamura, who also handled the screenplays himself, and each one is helmed by a different filmmaker. The roster features Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Wife of a Spy), Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on), Shinzo Katayama (Gannibal), Yukiko Sode (All the Lovers in the Night), Yuichiro Sakashita and Yosuke Nakamura. Yusuke Wakabayashi and Teruhisa Yamamoto serve as producers.
Yamada, recognizable to global audiences from Netflix’s The Naked Director, steps into the role of Hojo, a rich businessman fixated on the unexplained. Hojo believes ghosts, monsters, curses and similar anomalies are clues to a hidden conspiracy, so he forms the Night Tales Club and offers 20 million yen in gold, about $130,000, to anyone willing to bring him a firsthand brush with the supernatural along with proof. Each chapter centers on a different account as Hojo chases the truth behind it, while Kenji Nakajima, a visual director on The Naked Director and Tokyo Swindlers, directs the wraparound scenes featuring Yamada.
Sawamura said he felt “an enormous sense of surprise and joy” at seeing his stories adapted for audiences worldwide, per The Hollywood Reporter. The anthology arrives as Disney+ ramps up its international slate, with Disney planning to roughly triple its yearly output of international original series over the next three years, up from about 60 to 70 shows this year, and Japan expected to play a major part. In April, the company signed a multi-year development pact with TBS-owned production house The Seven to make more Japanese live-action originals, building on earlier Disney+ Japanese titles such as the folk-horror thriller Gannibal, which returned for its second season in 2025, and the supernatural mystery Land of Tanabata.
Episode Directors: Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Takashi Shimizu, Shinzo Katayama, Yukiko Sode, Yuichiro Sakashita, Yosuke Nakamura
Framing Sequences Director: Kenji Nakajima
Writer: Ichi Sawamura (based on his original story collection)
Cast: Takayuki Yamada
Producers: Yusuke Wakabayashi, Teruhisa Yamamoto
Episodes: Six
Network/Streamer: Disney+
Premiere: January 2027
Source: Reporting and confirmation via The Hollywood Reporter.