Because I just haven't written enough about Kaho this year, here's the trailer for her upcoming teen romance drama, Tokyo Girl, aka Tokyo Shojo. She plays Miho, an aspiring science fiction writer and high school student who drops her cell phone into a temporary "time slip" caused by an earthquake. When she attempts to call the number she hears a male voice she doesn't recognize. It's a boy named Tokijiro (Kazuma Sano) living in the Meiji era. The two continue talking and a romance begins to bloom even though they're separated by a century, but their relationship hits a snag when faced with the inevitable mortality of a lithium battery.

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Yesterday the full schedule for Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2008 was released. Today they put up an English-version of the schedule on their website. Jae-young Kwak's "My Girlfriend Is a Cyborg" will be the first official selection screened after opening ceremonies on March 20th. Noboru Iguchi's "The Machine Girl" will premiere on 3/22 at 10:30 PM coupled with the trailer for Yoshihiro Nishimura's "Tokyo Gore Police".

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Upon checking my RSS feeds today I was met with a flood of headlines reporting of the death of legendary filmmaker Kon Ichikawa from pneumonia at 92. I'm not sure what could be added to what's already been said, but he was responsible for a handful of the best movies of the past 60 years, inspired countless filmmakers with his work, and led a long full life. For anyone interested in his life, I'd definitely suggest Shunji Iwai's 2006 documentary "The Kon Ichikawa Story" which is readily available on R2 DVD with English subtitles. Below are some links to other sites' reporting of the news.

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Shinji Imaoka's Tasogare (Twilight) will premiere on February 16th. The story involves a 65-year-old plaster worker named Funakichi (Masaru Taga) who exchanges cell phone numbers with an old flame named Kazuko (Yasuko Namikibashi) at a class reunion while his wife is on her death bed. He continues clinging to his youth by doing things like going out to strip clubs with his buddies, getting drunk, and being busted for peeping. After his wife dies following one final moment of intimacy Funakichi and the recently-widowed Kazuko talk on the phone and the two newly-single seniors begin spending more time together.

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Sorry for the lack of updates over the past day or so. I've been busy working on a new site feature, a release schedule! How does this differ from other release schedules you ask? Well, for one it's in English, and it's not a static file I have to keep editing manually. It's a self-archiving, self-sorting list with minimal effort required on my part to keep it updated. There's only very basic info listed with each title - the best flyer/poster I can find (sometimes tiny, sometimes huge), official website, direct trailer link when available, and a wiki link.

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