Beijing, China – Fuji Television, the largest commercial Japanese TV station, announced on August 8 to commence internet-based distribution throughout China the co-developed drama, Mysterious Summer (15 episodes), produced by Fuji TV and iQiyi. This is the first time and a very unique situation where a Japanese TV station allies itself with a Chinese distributor to co-produce an original drama series.

The deal signals Fuji TV’s creativity and predominance in drama production crossing borders, also its ability to generate additional revenue internationally in new markets and demographics.

One-of-a-kind co-production between China and Japan

Mysterious Summer is a co-production drama series between Fuji TV (Japan) director/producer, and iQiyi (China), featuring up-and-coming Chinese performers. The entire series (15 x 30’) is shot in Beijing.

Mysterious Summer is an omnibus series with a different character leading each episode, all straying into a bizarre and “mysterious world” with an unpredictable ending. The final episode features Yuki Furukawa, an extremely popular Japanese actor in China. Yuki’s feature drama Mischievous Kiss was distributed in China last spring simultaneously to its broadcast in Japan, and immediately became an online hit exceeding fifty million views total. His SNS followers count over a million in China proving his overwhelming popularity as he is frequently referred to as the “Male God” by his fans.

World Premiere in Beijing

World premiere of Mysterious Summer was held on the 6th at the Solana Saga Cinema in Beijing. The episodes received raving reviews from over a hundred journalists and 40 lucky fans who won an invite.

Ma Dong, Chief Contents Officer, iQiyi said: “We were fortunate to work with a great group of staff, especially with director Satoshi Kubota who supervised the successful Japanese TV drama Tokyo Tower (2007). He being in the team guaranteed a quality production before we even began. The cast is also great and I assure you the drama series is something very unique and different. I hope that this opportunity would give a chance for the Chinese media to work even harder together.”

Mamiko Maekawa, Senior Executive Director, International Department, Fuji Television said: “China is a rapidly growing, progressive market, and together with iQiyi, a burgeoning internet distributor, we’re striving to blow a new breeze into China’s internet distribution trade. The drama series shown tonight goes beyond language and custom barriers, and I assure you its quality in the finest.”

Satoshi Kubota, Mysterious Summer Director/Producer, International Department, Fuji Television said: “This is the first time a Japanese TV station produced an Internet-based drama series for the Chinese market in conjunction with iQiyi, making this a ground breaking event. The script, direction, and the lead role – the majority, in other words–are all Japanese based, which makes this series even more unique and epochal. I am very excited and look forward to the responses from the ever so growing Chinese market and its 1.3 billion viewers.”

Yuki Furukawa, Japanese lead actor in Mysterious Summer said: “It was my goal to become a successful actor overseas so having the luck to take part in a production where two countries cross its boundaries and join hands has been an honour. Three languages, Japanese, Chinese, and English, went about on site. The Chinese lines were difficult but it was definitely a great experience so I’d like to take this opportunity and become more active in productions outside of Japan.Mysterious Summer is not only a mystery fiction; there is also love, romance, and horror, a different taste in each episode for everyone in China and around the world to enjoy.”

World distribution deal over 35 countries

Mysterious Summer was shot in 4K resolution camera, and prior to its distribution in China, the series has already attracted high attention from distributors around the world. Dramafever, U.S.-based drama distributor, signed with Fuji TV to start video distribution from August 8 in 35 countries within the North, Central and South America; this is a rare case of closing a distribution deal prior to its premiere, proving the drama to be promising and a huge success