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Starting from a small-scale opening, HK: Hentai Kamen has done remarkably better than expected, surpassing 100 million yen in box office revenue just 24 days after its release. The movie even had favorable attendance during Golden Week. Meanwhile, a new project regarding this work has been enacted. On May 7, HK: Hentai Kamen became available on Kinezo Cinema, an online theater where users can enjoy movies through the internet. A hit movie being available online while it is still screening in theaters is indeed unusual.
Kinezo Cinema is a service that aims to provide users with an easy way to see new movies. The service boasts itself as an “online theater.” Works are delivered through the service in high quality HD for a cost of 1,200 yen per movie. So far, other movies still in theaters that are concurrently offered on the service include After School Midnighters and Fumou Kaigi. Such films were one step in the advancement of this service. Being the case that same day distribution has also begun overseas, the expansion of this new movie service can be seen.
The reason for HK: Hentai Kamen being chosen for this new experiment seems to stem from its subject matter and success. The number of theaters screening the movie has rapidly expanded, and at the flagship theater, Shinjuku Wald 9, many showings of the movie have been completely sold out. Furthermore, there has been an outpouring of support for the movie, with many fans in areas where the movie isn’t screening making their voices heard. HK: Hentai Kamen was brought to the online theater to cover these needs. There were also reactions from couples and female moviegoers who were too embarrassed to see the movie because of its title, which literally means “pervert mask.” The decision to bring HK: Hentai Kamen to Kinezo Cinema’s online service was to make the movie accessible for anyone to see and enjoy. This decision can be seen as a “unique opportunity for those who are too embarrassed to see the movie in theaters.”
It seems that HK: Hentai Kamen is going to bring a tempest of excitement to many fans even online.
HK: Hentai Kamen Official Site:
http://hk-movie.jp/ (Japanese)
Source:
http://animeanime.jp/article/2013/05/04/13926.html (Japanese)