Category: Drama

With Naoko Ogigami’s Rent-a-Cat out today in Japan, distributor Suurkiitos is pulling no punches in the attempt to woo cat lovers. This new 3-minute special preview video is packed wall-to-wall with cats.

The movie stars Mikako Ichikawa as a woman named Sayoko who rents out a few of her many, many cats to lonely people in town. Sayoko has spent most of her life bouncing between quirky side jobs while living in her late grandmother’s cat-filled house in the corner of town. When she’s reunited with a man from her past (Kei Tanaka), her life is soon turned upside-down.

The new trailer for Mika Ninagawa’s Helter Skelter has been uploaded to YouTube. Jiji Press has included a short behind the scenes clip of Ninagawa coaching up her star Erika Sawajiri for one of many bonkers reaction shots.

Based on a manga by Kyoko Okazaki, the film stars Sawajiri as a beautiful model named Ririko who has reigned at the top of the entertainment world while assembling an ever-growing list of jealous rivals. However, she hides the fact that her appearance has been obtained almost entirely through radical plastic surgery procedures.

Ruriko closely guards her secret while navigating the dog-eat-dog world of the entertainment business, but she’ll soon be involved in a scandal that affects not only her industry, but society in general.

“Helter Skelter” will be released by Asmik Ace Entertainment in Japan on July 14, 2012.

A 1080p version of the trailer itself is also available on the Asmik Ace YouTube channel.

A 30-second teaser for Shion Sono’s upcoming film The Land of Hope has been uploaded to the official YouTube channel of its distributor, Bitters End.

It’s set in the Japanese countryside and revolves around a couple, Yoichi (Jun Murakami) and Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka), who are living in a village as humble dairy farmers with Yoichi’s parents Yasuhiko (Isao Natsuyagi) and Chieko (Naoko Otani).

One day, a huge earthquake strikes and an evacuation begins, but Yoichi is hesitant to leave their lifetime home behind. When he discovers his wife is pregnant, he must do whatever it takes to protect her and their unborn child. Meanwhile, their neighbors (Yutaka Shimizu, Hikari Kajiwara, Denden, and Mariko Tsutsui). have to make their own choice about evacuation.

“The Land of Hope” is scheduled for an autumn release in Japan. A quick UK release is also likely due to Third Window Films being one of the co-producers.

Edit: Replaced with subtitled version

On Thursday it was announced that Teruyoshi Uchimura of the comedy duo Ucchan Nanchan is working on a new movie called Bokutachi no Koukan Nikki (literally “our exchange diary”), his first since his 2006 feature-length debut Peanuts.

The film is based on the novel “Geinin Koukan Nikki ~ Yellow Heart no Monogatari” by screenwriter and television personality Osamu Suzuki. The story revolves around a fictional manzai comedy duo that are forced to deal with various problems due to their sustained lack of success.

Last year, Masayasu Wakabayashi of the comedy duo Audrey and actor Kei Tanaka co-starred in a stage adaptation of the novel.

This version will star Atsushi Ito and Keisuke Koide as a comedy duo called “Bousou Swimmers” who have been living in utter obscurity since forming 12 years earlier. At the end of their tether, they decide to start an exchange diary as a way to communicate with each other.

Filming of “Bokutachi no Koukan Nikki” began on May 6 and a release is planned for sometime in 2013.

Source: Eiga.com