Ghost of Tsushima movie set to achieve something the game couldn't

The Ghost of Tsushima movie appears to still be in a conceptual phase, but Chad Stahelski has been happy to talk about the PlayStation Production. One suggestion would even manage a feat that took Sucker Punch time to perfect.

Ghost of Tsushima's movie adaptation news has been revealed by director Chad Stahelski. Speaking about the PlayStation Production run by Sony, the director has suggested that the Ghost of Tsushima movie might even be in the Japanese language — something that took Sucker Punch until the Director's Cut to get right.

Ghost of Tsushima movie set for Japanese language release

Sucker Punch's masterpiece to be given full Japanese movie treatment

Director Chad Stahelski has been talking to Collider about the film. "So, I think if we did this right, it would be visually stunning," said the former John Wick (2014) director. "It's character driven. It's got an opportunity for great action, great looks. And honestly, we'd to try to do it, all in character.

"Meaning, it's a Japanese thing about the Mongols invading Tsushima island. A complete Japanese cast, in Japanese," Stahelski said. While this sounds like a perfect dream, the director's claims might be more than appeasing fantasy: "Sony is so on board with backing us on that. I've been going to Japan since I was 16. I have a love of the country, love of the people, love of the language. To try to direct not only in my language, but someone else's and culturally shift my mindset to bring apart that in a cool way that still entices a Western audience."

Ghost of Tsushima is a stunner

This potential foreign language direction is ambitious, though has been becoming more mainstream with the boom of South Korean cinema seeing the release of Bong Joon-ho's recent Best Picture winner Parasite (2019), cult zombie flick Train to Busan (2016), and the violent TV drama Squid Game (2021). Hell, one of the best films of recent years, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), was a French production.

Interestingly, this would be a significant direction change in the implementation of the Japanese language in the game. When released in 2019, Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) made it feel like native Japanese was an after-thought despite the native setting of Tsushima. It didn't have proper voice sync, leaving a really disjointed Japanese language experience that felt incongruous with the rest of the experience. The issue was fixed for the Director's Cut on PS5, as we noted in our review, over a year later.

What a lovley Sucker Punch game!

Seeing the film making the native language and cast a priority is incredibly exciting to us! The fox petting simulator adaptation has potential, though we do hope that Sony backs the plan as the director has stated. Does this hype you up? How grateful were you for the Japanese lip-sync in the Director's Cut? Playing the game in PS Plus Extra? Let us know in the comments about one of the best PS4 games!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.