What to Know Before Watching Netflix’s ‘One Year to Live, Buy a Man’
‘One Year to Live, Buy a Man’ is an adaptation of a best selling Japanese novel about an unconventional love story, and it stars Ko Shibasaki and Eiji Akaso. The film premieres on November 5, only on Netflix.
For viewers searching for the new Netflix movie about a man who is bought by a woman with one year left to live, this is the title. Here is what you need to know about ‘One Year to Live, Buy a Man’ before it arrives, from the story and the cast to where the trailer can be found.
Netflix Movie Release Date and Background
Netflix has officially confirmed that the film will be released globally on November 5, 2026. It appears among the Netflix originals scheduled for release that Thursday.
Netflix lists the title under film, romance and dramas. That places it closer to a character driven love story than to a conventional medical drama, even though its premise begins with a diagnosis.
The film is based on the novel With One Year Left to Live, I Buy a Man by Toriko. The novel’s author is credited as Toriko Yoshikawa and it was published by Kodansha Bunko.
The Japanese title is Yomei Ichinen, Otoko wo Kau, and the film is directed by Hiroki Kazama. Kazama’s earlier work includes ‘The Beginning of the Sea’, and the screenplay is by Yoshikazu Okada, whose credits include ‘Beyond Goodbye’. Kasumi Yao and Tsutomu Hirabayashi produce with the studio AOI Pro.
The Plot and Story of a Woman Who Buys a Man
Yui Katakura, played by Ko Shibasaki, is a 40 year old single woman whose hobby is saving money. She is carefully building a nest egg for retirement when a free cancer screening tells her she has only one year left to live.
Yui had deliberately avoided anything she considered uneconomical, including romance, marriage and childbirth. Although her doctor urges surgery, she secretly feels relief, reasoning that there is no need to save money if she is going to die.
Instead of fear, what she feels is a strange sense of freedom. That reaction is the emotional hinge of the premise, since it turns a frugal woman’s lifelong habit into the reason she is willing to spend.
Her life shifts when Sena, a nightclub host with pink hair who is down on his luck, approaches her and asks to borrow money. Yui accepts his bold request and “buys” Sena for 720,000 yen. What begins as an odd arrangement gradually becomes a warm, unconventional bond, and an unpredictable love begins to take shape between them.
Cast and Characters in the Netflix Film
Ko Shibasaki plays Yui Katakura and is making her Netflix debut with this film. She has led Japanese films such as ‘Serpent’s Path’, ‘Phases of the Moon’, ‘Silent Parade’ and ‘Nobunaga Concerto, The Movie’, and she also starred in the 2000 film ‘Battle Royale’.
Eiji Akaso plays Sena and has already led two Netflix projects, the series ‘Inheritance Detective’ and ‘Zom 100, Bucket List of the Dead’. Viewers who know him from those titles will see a very different role here, as a struggling host rather than a detective or a zombie survivor.
Michitaka Tsutsui plays Masami Ikuyama, Yui’s ex boss and former affair partner, who keeps tabs on her even after their relationship ended. Naomi Nishida plays her coworker Mizuho Maruyama, a wife and mother who lives by the motto that spending is love.
Mari Hamada plays Sena’s mother, who works to pay off debt while looking after her grandchild, and Yui Narumi plays Sena’s younger sister Nachi, who has returned to the family home after escaping an abusive husband. Yoko Moriguchi plays Yui’s stepmother, and Ryubi Miyase plays Kiriya, a junior host at Sena’s club. Sena’s family circumstances suggest his need for money is about more than a single bad stretch.
Official Trailer and Where to Watch
Netflix has released an official trailer for the film on YouTube. The trailer and the announcement are also collected on the Netflix news page that carries the film’s key art.
Netflix describes the film as an unexpected Cinderella story for adults with a briskly paced story that speaks straight to the heart. That framing suggests the trailer is meant to sell warmth and humor around a heavy premise.
Because this is a Netflix original, it is available on the platform and nowhere else on its release date. If you are looking for a new Japanese romance this November, ‘One Year to Live, Buy a Man’ offers a distinctive hook, and the real question is whether you would spend your savings the way Yui does, or whether her decision to buy Sena strikes you as a bold act of freedom or a gamble the film still has to earn in the comments.
