Netflix Adds to Japan Originals Slate With Romantic Drama Series ‘Beyond Goodbye’

Netflix added another title to its rapidly expanding Japan live-action originals slate Wednesday with the announcement of the romantic drama series Beyond Goodbye.

The series is an original story by prolific Japanese screenwriter Yoshikazu Okada (BL Metamorphosis, The Last 10 Years). It co-stars Kasumi Arimura, known for the Japanese blockbuster We Made a Beautiful Bouquet and the Netflix feature Call Me Chihiro, and Kentaro Sakaguchi, a TV drama regular and recent star of the feature drama success The Last 10 Years (2022).

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The film tells the story of Saeko (Arimura), who suddenly loses her fiance Yusuke in a tragic traffic accident. As she tries to overcome her grief, she meets Naruse (Sakaguchi), a man who strangely reminds her of Yusuke. Little does she know that Naruse had received Yusuke’s heart a few months prior to their encounter — a heart still in love and holding all the memories of Yusuke and Saeko’s relationship.

Beyond Goodbye is directed by veteran series helmer Hiroshi Kurosaki (Gift of Fire, Hiyokko). It was lensed in spectacular locations around Japan by cinematographer Kosuke Yamada (Shin Godzilla).

The show adds to Netflix’s burgeoning Japan live-action slate — a key category for the streamer as it seeks to build its business in the world’s third-largest economy. Other recent Japan series launches include series like Last One Standing (2023) Light House (2023), Burn the House Down (2023), Sanctuary 2023), Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Makanai: Cooking in the Maiko House (2023) and the second season of Alice in Borderland (2022), which quickly became the most-watched Japanese show ever on Netflix. Netflix’s forthcoming releases in the country for this year are live-action version of classic mangas Yu Yu Hakusho and City Hunter, and the Yuji Sakamoto-penned feature film In Love & Deep Water.

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