Today more cast members were announced for Takashi Miike’s upcoming psychological thriller, Aku no Kyoten (Lesson of the Evil).

Most notably, Fumi Nikaido and Shota Sometani will once again appear together as students after co-starring in Shion Sono’s Himizu last year. The pair took home Marcello Mastroianni Awards for Best New Actor and Actress at the 68th Venice International Film Festival back in September for their respective performances.

Other cast additions include fellow Venice veterans Kento Hayashi and Takayuki Yamada.

“Aku no Kyoten” will star Hideaki Ito, who typically plays heroic characters, as an evil teacher named Seiji Hasumi who murders his students to make his life easier.

The roles of the four new cast additions have also all been revealed. Nikaido will play Reika Katagiri, a student who quickly becomes suspicious of Hasumi. Sometani will play Keisuke Hayami, who Reika suspects of being the ringleader of the cheaters in school. Hayashi will play Masahiko Maejima, a homosexual co-worker of Hasumi. And finally, Yamada will play Tetsuro Shibahara, a physical education teacher who sexually harasses a student.

Miike plans to get post-production done quickly after filming is completed so he can get the movie screened at some international film festivals this year. A domestic release is now set for November 10, 2012.

Source: Cinema Today

The upcoming film adaptation of Ryo Wada’s debut 2007 novel, “Nobō no Shiro” (English title: The Floating Castle), was originally supposed to be released in Japan on September 17, 2011, but was delayed after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Today a new date was announced: November 2, 2012.

Additionally, it’s been revealed that the rock band Elephant Kashimashi will be providing the film’s theme, a brand new song made in time for the 30th anniversary of their forming.

“The Floating Castle” will mark the first starring film role for Mansai Nomura since 2003’s Onmyoji 2. He’ll be portraying historical figure Narita Nagachika, the beloved keeper of Oshi Castle who led 500 guards to defend against 20,000 invading troops sent by the powerful daimyo Toyotomi Hideyoshi in an attempt to unify Japan under one rule.

The plot is actually the main reason the it was pushed back. It was felt that releasing a film that depicts Ishida Mitsunari’s water attack didn’t seem appropriate so close to the disaster.

The project is epic in scope and reportedly took 7 years of planning to pull off under the direction of Isshin Inudo and Shinji Higuchi (it was originally presented as a film treatment in 2003).

Its official website has been completely relaunched as a splash screen minus the TV spot and teaser that were released last year, so we can expect a fresh round of publicity over the next few months leading up to its release. Stay tuned.

Source: Cinema Today

Edit: Fixed the bit about the water attack

Today it was announced that Megumi Ohori, who recently graduated from the all-girl idol group SDN48, will be starring in a new horror movie based on the Kuchisake-onna (slit-mouthed woman) urban legend called Kuchisake-onna Returns.

The legend, which has been the subject of numerous dramas and movies over the years, involves a woman wearing a large mask over her mouth who is said to walk up to people and ask “Am I beautiful?”. If the person confirms that she is, she removes the mask to reveal a large gaping slit across her mouth and says “Even now?” The details of the legend vary, but suffice it to say things never end well.

The new movie will put a bit of a spin on the legend, pitting kuchisake-onna against kuchisake-onna.

Ohori will play an unsuspecting graduate student named Airi (or Eri?) who gets drawn into the fight when she visits a village where kuchisake-onna are worshiped as gods.

Ohori’s co-stars will include Yuka Rikuna, Yuna Mikuni, Mami Yamashita, Ryoji Sugimoto, Nobuyuki Kase, and Natsu Kashu.

“Kuchisake-onna” will be released in Japan this summer.

Source: Cinema Today

Edit: Fixed Ohori’s membership status in SDN48 (she graduated in March).

Popular child actor Seishiro Kato will appear in Takashi Miike’s upcoming film For Love’s Sake, which will premiere as a Midnight Screening at Cannes later this month.

Kato will reportedly play Satoshi Tsumabuki’s character as a child. The role required a lot of action, such as punching and kicking, which was a first for the young star.

The film is the fourth theatrical adaptation of Ikki Kajiwara’s “Ai to Makoto” manga, but the other 3 were all released in the 1970s.

Tsumabuki plays a juvenile delinquent named Makoto Taiga who, while seeking vengeance, gets caught up in a fate-fueled love story with a rich honors student named Ai (Emi Takei), whom he first met as a child.

Kato took on an uncharacteristically gritty look for his role. During filming, Miike coached him to be forceful and abandon his typically kind, amiable personality.

After the Cannes screening, “For Love’s Sake” will open publicly in Japan on June 16, 2012.

Source: Eiga.com