Clips of Demon Slayer movie have been leaked online by a culprit in Singapore, film distributor says

Clips of Demon Slayer movie have been leaked online by a culprit in Singapore, film distributor says
PHOTO: Toho Co

For many anime lovers in Singapore, the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train (that’s a lot of colons) screening in cinemas here has been a bright spot in a distressing year.

The flick — which continues the story of last year’s highly popular anime series — had its big premiere in Singapore back in November, thanks to movie distributors Odex Pte Ltd. It’s a beloved enough franchise for ODEX to hold early screenings for fans, with tickets that went for as high as $54. And people bought them too because, for that price, they also got to bring home Demon Slayer swag like t-shirts and posters.

As much as the movie turned out to be a success on our shores, some bad seeds appeared to have tarnished the reputation of Demon Slayer fans here. According to Odex, clips from the anticipated movie have emerged on social media, seemingly recorded and leaked online from attendees in Singapore.

“We have found and deleted two cinema leaks that originate from Singapore,” noted Odex in a Facebook post on Dec 4. “Copyright infringement strikes has been sent to the accounts which put up the leaks.”

Though it wasn’t confirmed if someone managed to record the entire movie, one of the leaked footages was said to have been 13 minutes long.

The leaks might have been an embarrassing incident for Odex too, who expressed pride in showing off the box office numbers to the film’s producers in Japan and “impress them that Singapore is an important market”.

Currently, the company is working to root out the source of the leaks and will take the culprit to court, urging fans to stay vigilant and stop people from making video recordings in cinemas.

Funnily enough, the post prompted more than a few screenshots and links to social media pages that are posting up the pirated versions of the movie in the comments section. Some commenters are also pointing out that Odex itself might be posting a movie spoiler with the screenshot that was used in its Facebook post.

To illustrate just how much of a big deal Demon Slayer is, the franchise has generated at least ¥270 billion (S$3.4 billion) in sales in Japan. In fact, the Demon Slayer movie recently overtook Titanic to become the second-highest grossing movie of all time in the country.

ilyas@asiaone.com

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