Australian production company Titantale Film is mid-shoot on “Tanabata: The Evening of the Seventh,” a supernatural romance drama starring Japanese actor Yamada Takayuki.
The project, fully funded out of Australia with production service partners in Japan, spans three historical periods – Edo-period Japan, 1865 New South Wales and 2027 Australia – following three incarnations of the same souls across a karmic cycle of love and possession. Writer-director Gillian Roberts serves as executive producer alongside producer Sabin Gnawali.
The cast features Yamada, known internationally for the Netflix series “The Naked Director,” in the lead role of Takayuki. Australian actors Amelia Zadro and Caspar Hardakar play supporting roles as Kotori and Charmerae respectively.
Production began with a first block that wrapped in December 2025. A second block in Japan got underway from May 20 this year with a third block scheduled for October in Australia.
“‘Tanabata: The Evening of the Seventh’ comes from a belief that our inner world also exists in an outer world that moves across time, space and dimension,” Roberts said. “Tanabata, celebrated in Japan on July 7, became the perfect emotional and spiritual centre for a story about love, memory and connection beyond one lifetime. The film follows three souls across Edo-period Japan, 1865 New South Wales and 2027 Australia, where each lifetime carries the emotional imprint of the last. I wanted to create a visually poetic romantic drama with a supernatural and sci-fi edge, where landscape, ancestry and unseen forces shape the characters’ journey.”
The logline centres on Yamada’s character – a powerful Japanese tech magnate in the film’s contemporary thread – who locates the modern incarnation of a woman he has loved and sought to possess across lifetimes. On the night of Tanabata, his obsession tears open a portal that pulls both back into the cycle they were fated to escape.
“‘Tanabata’ is a rare opportunity to build an Australia–Japan feature with genuine scale, cultural specificity and international ambition,” Gnawali said. “Yamada Takayuki brings extraordinary presence and recognition to the project, and his involvement gives the film a meaningful bridge between Japanese audiences and the wider global market. I hope this project can also help open more doors for creative and commercial collaboration between Australia and Japan.”
