Category: Horror

The official website for Takeshi Furusawa’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Yukito Ayatsuji’s horror novel Another has been updated with a new full trailer.

Kento Yamazaki plays a 15-year-old boy named Koichi Sakakibara who moves to the suburban mountain town of Yomiyama to live with his grandparents in the spring of 1998. One day, he suffers a seizure caused by a chronic lung condition and collapses. While in the hospital recovering, he sees a beautiful girl wearing an eye patch (Ai Hashimoto) who makes a strange comment about about the morgue on the second floor and suddenly vanishes.

He meets up with her again when he attends middle school. Her name is Mei Misaki and Koichi can’t help but notice how oddly the other students and teachers seem to act around her. He makes several attempts to get to know her better, but fails repeatedly. However, when their classmates start dying one by one in bizarre accidents, she’s the only person who can help him unravel the mysterious cause.

“Another” is co-distributed by Toho and Kadokawa Pictures and will be released in Japan on August 4, 2012.

Suzuka Morita of Idoling!!! and Mariya Suzuki of AKB48 are set to star in two new horror movies due out on the same day this summer.

Both movies, 2-channel no Noroi Shin Gekijoban: Honki (starring Suzuki) and Anata no Shiranai Kowai Hanashi Gekijoban (starring Morita), are theatrical versions of DVD releases which recently gained popularity.

Just a few days ago, it was announced that Morita will be graduating from Idoling!!! at the end of this month to concentrate on her acting, so she’s apparently wasting no time getting on with the next phase of her career.

In “Anata no Shiranai Kowai wa Gekijoban”, she’ll be playing a graduate student whose mother was killed by a prowler when she was a small child, leaving her emotionally scarred. Because of this, she seeks revenge by invoking a curse on the man in the form of a video.

Suzuki, who played the lead role in Jiro Nagae’s Kokkuri-san last year, will be appearing in the sequel to last year’s 2-channel no Noroi Gekijoban, which revolves around a cursed website inspired by a forum thread on the 2-chan message board. In contrast to her previous high school girl roles, Suzuki will get the chance to play an an adult for once, portraying a real estate agent struggling against a powerful evil presence.

Both will be released in Japan on June 2, 2012. Although technically separate movies, the actresses will be together for a joint stage greeting.

Source: Cinema Today

Say what you will about how tightly controlled Japanese movie publicity is, but they sure know how to keep a secret. Just one day from the theatrical release of Tsutomu Hanabusa’s Sadako 3D in Japan, the young actress playing the latest incarnation of Sadako has finally been revealed: Ai Hashimoto.

There was actually a preview screening held back in April, but the 12 minutes of end footage that would have revealed her identity was left out.

The casting puts her in good company. Although the first Sadako was played by kabuki actress Rie Inoo for her ability to move creepily, subsequent Sadakos were played by famous actresses such as Yukie Nakama and Tae Kimura.

Anyone who follows mainstream Japanese films should be pretty familiar with Hashimoto at this point. She’s appeared in a slew of movies since her debut in 2009. Most notably, her performance in Tetsuya Nakashima’s critically-adored 2010 film Confessions made her the ultimate “it” girl of teen film actresses over the past two years.

In the newest installment of the Ring series, Sadako’s curse is spreading faster than ever thanks to internet video sharing, and her essence floats around in the cloud waiting for an appropriate person to posses by climbing out of their computer monitor.

Unlike the first version of Sadako, who was portrayed as hideous and waterlogged after climbing out of a well, Hashimoto’s version remains a pretty girl, supposedly to entice people who see her into even more fear.

“Sadako 3D” opens in Japan this Saturday.

Source: Eiga.com

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).