A sequel to the 2008 hit, “The Glorious Team Batista” is now in the midst of filming and is slated for release on March 7, 2009. The sequel is based on the third novel in the series entitled General Rouge no Gaisen (translation: The Triumphant Return of General Rouge).

According to Tokyograph, the film brings back Taguchi (Yuko Takeuchi) and Shiratori (Hiroshi Abe) to investigate a situation involving emergency medical care. Shiro Sano and Tetsuji Tamayama will also return to reprise their roles from the first film, and Masato Sakai will play the director of an emergency medical center.

And guess what? There’s already a teaser. How’s that for timely PR? Check it out after the break.

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Aside from “Be-bop High School”, Hiroshi Takahashi’s “Crows” is probably the most well-known juvenile delinquent shonen (boys’) manga in Japan. Therefore, making a live-action film adaptation that could possibly live up to readers’ expectations while also appealing to a mass audience was no easy task. Thankfully Takashi Miike was up to the challenge. Also, casting a schoolgirl-scream-inducing pretty boy like Shun Oguri in the lead role surely didn’t hurt.

Crows Zero features an original story which takes place before the events of the 1990s manga. Major characters from the comic like Hiromi and Bando are present, but at this point they’re still first and second year students that generally stay along the periphery of the main plot.

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In this post-J-horror landscape, where fresh new ideas for supernatural stories are scarce and financing is even scarcer, author Otsuichi has been sort of a one-stop shop for intriguing setups that haven’t necessarily been done to death already. The Japanese film industry absolutely loves him because he has the unique ability to write stories that speak directly to teens and preteens that feel misunderstood, neglected, or downright ignored. They do, however, have the yen to buy up books, manga, and movie tickets. Case in point is his short story “Kizu / Kids” (a play on how the word for wound sounds a lot like “kids” in Japanese) which revolves around a young boy with the ability to take the injuries of others onto himself and his close friendship with a fellow outcast, Takeo. It’s a nice, somewhat dark story about a boy who finally finds someone willing to share his burden after being betrayed by everyone else in his life. Unfortunately, the makers of the film adaptation chose to go the saccharine, melodramatic route and the end result plays more like a run-of-the-mill TV drama than an actual movie.

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Here's yet-another movie based on the Kuchisake Onna (slit-mouthed woman) urban legend, Kazuto Kodama's Kuchisake Onna 0: Beginning. Of course from that title you'd assume it's a direct prequel to 2007's "Kuchisake Onna" (aka "Carved" in the US) starring Eriko Sato, et al. But considering that's what Kuchisake Onna 2 was, this one is likely unrelated.

The Kuchisake Onna legend has probably been around for hundreds of years, but it went urban in 1970s. It has countless variations, but the general idea is that a woman in a surgical mask will approach you and ask if she's beautiful. The mask is then removed, revealing that her mouth is slashed open on both sides. And, depending on which variation of the story you go with, you're probably dog meat soon thereafter.

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The Blue Hearts were a punk band that stayed together from the late-80s to the mid-90s. In that time they released a myriad of catchy, melodic rock anthems that still appeal to all age groups today. Everyone knows the lyrics to at least two or three of their biggest hits for karaoke purposes and it’s a safe bet that a whole lot of young guitar players mastered their first few chords by playing those songs over and over again.

In Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda, equal parts fate and teen angst bring 4 high school girls together with a plan to cover a few Blue Hearts songs at the upcoming Shibazaki High Rock Festival. With only three days to practice, a keyboardist named Kei (Yu Kashii) on guitar, and a Korean exchange student named Son (Doona Bae) on vocals, the girls have to work day and night to learn the songs well enough to avoid making total fools of themselves.

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