kviff.com
News
Festival Guide
  • Tickets and Festival Pass
  • Accommodations
  • Transportation
  • Festival cinemas
  • No Barriers project
  • Kids at the festival
  • Festival Shop
Program
  • Catalogue of films
  • Accompanying programme
  • Archive of films
  • Audience award
  • KVIFF Talks
  • Film Entry
Film Industry
  • Industry accreditation
  • Film Industry at KVIFF
  • Industry Days Programme
  • KVIFF Eastern Promises
  • KVIFF Talents
Press
  • Press accreditation
  • Press Service
  • For download
  • Press releases
  • Photogallery
  • Videogallery
About the festival
  • Festival description
  • Programme sections
  • Awards
  • History
  • We support non-profits
  • Photogallery
  • Partners
  • Why We Support the Festival
  • Contacts
CZ
Sign in
Film Archive

Children of the Dark

Horizons 2008 / Yami no kodomo-tachi / Japan 2008

An impressive and starkly indiscriminate film that confronts audiences with the world of child prostitution and the black market in human organs in Thailand. The film does not read any melancholic sentiment into its subject matter but instead captures it with rigorous complexity. It shows not only the victims but also the weight of the guilt borne by those who supply the demand for child trafficking.

Children of the Dark Children of the Dark

Synopsis

The film was based on the theme of a controversial novel by Japanese-Korean author Yan Sogil, whose autobiography was the basis for the commercially and critically successful Blood and Bones (Chi to hone, 2004). The theme in this case is the drastic fate of Thai children trapped in the machinations of child prostitution and the black market in human organs. This new work from established Japanese director Sakamoto Junji differs from other films on similar themes in its unwillingness to lapse into primitive extremes and blatant manipulation of feelings, instead taking a comprehensive and indiscriminate view of the topic. The film does not console audiences with the idea of events taking place in a far-off land, and points a finger at Japan’s association with the problem, the key grounds for which are shown as apathetic dismissal, the unwillingness to acknowledge problems beyond the borders of one’s own country and the burden of guilt upon those who create the demand for child prostitution and trade in children’s organs.

About the film

137 min / Color, 35 mm
World premiere

Director Sakamoto Junji / Screenplay Sakamoto Junji podle románu / based on the novel by Yan Sogil / Dir. of Photography Kasamatsu Norimichi / Music Iwashiro Taro / Producer Toya Nobuyuki, Nakazawa Toshiaki, Shill Yukiko / Production Sedic International, Geneon Entertainment, Amuse / Cast Eguchi Yosuke, Miyazaki Aoi, Tsumabuki Satoshi, Praptpadol Suwanbang, Prima Ratchata / Contact Shochiku Co., Ltd.
www: www.yami-kodomo.jp

About the director

Sakamoto Junji

Sakamoto Junji (b. 1954, Sakai) is one of Japan’s versatile filmmakers who alternate between his own work as writer-director outside the studio, ambitious projects for the viewing public and costly commercial commissions. For this reason he is credited with critically acclaimed pieces of modern Japanese cinema like Knockout (Dotsuitarunen, 1989), Face (Kao, 2000) and My House (Bokunchi, 2003). In addition to these, his name has also figured among box-office contenders that have included the revival of the legendary yakuza series Another Battle (Shin jingi naki tatakai, 2000), the nationalistic action spectacle Aegis (Boukoku no iijisu, 2005) and the hotly awaited action thriller Chameleon (2008). The film Out of This World (Kono yo no soto e, 2003) was shown in competition at the Karlovy Vary festival in 2004.

Contacts

Shochiku Co., Ltd.
4-1-1 Tsukiji, Togeki Bldg. 12th Floor, Chuo-Ku, 104 8422, Tokyo
Japan
Phone: +81 355 501 623
Fax: +81 355 501 654
E-mail: [email protected]

Guests

Sakamoto Junji
Film Director, Film Director

Other partners
Newsletter

First-hand brews throughout the year.
Be among the first to learn about upcoming events and other news. We only send the newsletter when we have something to say.

Follow us on the web:

The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
is part of the KVIFF Group family, which covers other projects as well:

© 2025 KVIFF GROUP

Rules for Visitors / Website visitors privacy policy / GTC / Personal Data Protection / Rules for Claim / Rules and Regulations / Contacts