One of Japan’s stranger internet urban legends is getting its own horror movie. Kyotou O (巨頭オ), sometimes referred to as Big Head 0, started with a short post on an internet message board in February 2006. It described a sign pointing towards a place called Kyotou O, an abandoned village and a strange figure with an enormous head slowly approaching. Not much else was explained, which probably helped the story stay around for so long.
Now, 20 years after that original post, director Ryota Kondo is turning it into a feature film. The Japanese release is set for December 25, 2026, with Kentaro Maeda and Shiori Kubo in the lead roles.
The film expands on the original story with a new mystery involving a young man called Haruma Takao (Maeda). His father visited a remote mountain village 20 years earlier and later died under mysterious circumstances. Haruma never found out what happened, but after his mother dies he starts looking through his father’s belongings and trying to trace the village he visited.
With his fiancée Shiho (Kubo), Haruma heads into the mountains and eventually finds a sign reading “Kyotou Oまで50m”. Beyond it is an abandoned village, but it isn’t quite as deserted as it first appears. The pair discover that a strange local ritual known as Niesending is still being carried out, while something else is lurking in the surrounding woods.
The cast also includes Ao Watanabe, Goro Yoshida, Hinano Nakayama, Asumi Miwa and Yurei Yanagi.
Kondo previously directed Missing Child Videotape, which was released in 2025, and also worked on the TXQ FICTION television projects Searching for Ishinaga Kikue and Apologizing for the Iinuma Family. The screenplay for Kyotou O was written by Suzuyuki Kaneko.
The film runs for 88 minutes and is being distributed in Japan by Fine Films.
Kyotou O opens in Japanese cinemas on December 25, 2026.
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