The official website for the upcoming live-action film adaptation of an episode from Hirohiko Araki’s Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe manga series, “At a Confessional,” released a main trailer and visual today.
For the first time in the history of Japanese cinema, the entire film was shot in Venice, Italy, and the clip includes a scene where the protagonist Rohan Kishibe, played by Issei Takahashi, uses his Stand ability “Heaven’s Door” in Italian.
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional Main Trailer
The main visual features Rohan standing in front of the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, Italy. The tagline reads: “The greatest happiness brings the biggest despair.”
Main Visual
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional is set to release in Japan on May 23, 2025.
As the first episode of the spin-off series to Araki’s representative work, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, “At a Confessional” was published in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1997, then was included in the manga’s first tankobon volume released in 2013. The series centers on Rohan Kishibe, one of the main characters from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable. Rohan, a manga artist, encounters a series of strange happenings at his research sites.
The live-action drama series featuring Issei Takahashi as Rohan was broadcast on NHK in 2020, 2021, 202, and 2024. A feature film Rohan at the Louvre (Rohan au Louvre) released in Japan in May 2023.
Issei Takahashi reprises his role as Rohan Kishibe once again. Marie Iitoyo also joins as Kyoka Izumi, a female editor at Weekly Shonen Jump who is in charge of Rohan. Kazutaka Watanabe, who worked on the live-action series including the feature film Rohan at the Louvre, serves as director on a screenplay by Yasuko Kobayashi (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure anime series).
The synopsis of the film reads: (translated)
At a church in Venice, manga artist Rohan Kishibe hears a masked man’s horrifying confession. It is a confession of the curse of “experiencing despair at the peak of happiness,” which was placed on him for accidentally killing a vagrant. The man, who has been desperately trying to escape from happiness, one day sees his daughter playing innocently and feels “happiness from the bottom of his heart.”
At that moment, the vagrant who is supposed to be dead appears and challenges him to an ordeal using popcorn. “If you can throw the popcorn and catch it in your mouth three times in a row, my curse will disappear. But if you fail, you must accept the greatest despair…”.
Rohan, absorbed in the strange confession, uses his special ability to read people’s memories and experiences by turning them into books…. Eventually, he realizes that the “curse of happiness” has struck him as well.
Source: “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional” live-action film official website, X (formerly Twitter)
© 2025 “Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional” Production Committee © LUCKY LAND COMMUNICATIONS/SHUEISHA
