The official website for Shimako Sato‘s K-20: Kaijin Niju Menso Den added a trailer within the past few hours. Thankfully it’s the real deal, not just a teaser. The movie is based on a So Kitamura novel which itself was inspired by Edogawa Rampo’s original source material.

The story is set in 1949 in the fictional capital city of Teito, where aristocrats monopolize most of the wealth. K-20, a mysterious man with the ability to change his appearance frequently targets the rich for his theft. One day he manages to trick police into thinking a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is the real criminal, leaving it up to Endo to escape jail and prove his innocence.

Meanwhile K-20 targets his next victim, Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu)—an heiress whose fiancé is Kogoro Akechi (Toru Nakamura), the famous detective who arrested Endo. But Endo still has a score to settle, and picks a fight with K-20.

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Here’s the new 16-second TV spot for Nobuo Mizuta‘s upcoming disaster flick 252: Seizonsha Ari. In a double whammy of disaster-ness, the story involves a series of earthquakes that combine to trigger the biggest typhoon in history. A former rescue worker (Hideaki Ito) gets trapped in a mall with his daughter. He sends out the distress code “252” (survivors in need of assistance) which is picked up by the rescue team led by his older brother (Masaaki Uchino). “252: Seizonsha Ari” is slated for release in Japan on December 6, 2008. Thanks to Don at Quiet Earth for the heads up.

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Hiroshi Takahashi, the man behind most of the Ring movie scripts and director of 2004’s ultra low-budget “Sodom the Killer” is back with a new project entitled Sea of Madness (Kyouki no Umi). The film was part of Yubari Fanta‘s Forum Theater competition back in March and not much else was heard about it until the official website was updated a few days ago. The movie was made on a nonexistent budget and clocks in at only 34 minutes, but its creators revel in how much they were able to cram into it under those constraints. Japanese moviegoers can revel along with them during midnight showings at Euro Space’s Shibuya theater from June 28-July 11.

The story revolves around the Prime Minister (Tomorowo Taguchi) as he tries to reform the Japanese constitution. Amidst rising tensions between the US and Japan due to the effects of the reforms on Article 9 (the “no war” clause), the US president is killed by a strange curse. Condoleezza Rice sends a member of the “FBI Spiritual Defense Team” (Yoko Chosokabe) to Japan to investigate. She takes the Prime Minister and his wife (Shoko Nakahara) to a secret base at Mt. Fuji and a doorway to Hell is opened. Then there’s some spiritual posession, some nukes, some low-budget odes to “The Sinking of Japan”, and yadda yadda yadda—this synopsis is taking longer than the movie itself.

Anyways, check out the trailer below—courtesy of a little underground site I sometimes use called YouTube.

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Earlier today it was announced that Sadao Abe (Maiko Haaaan!!!) will be added to the cast of Takashi Miike‘s live-action adaptation of the 1970’s cartoon series Yatterman. He will play an original character—a mysterious archaeologist with a hat and whip meant to be an homage to Indiana Jones. His character will play an integral role in the fight over the Dokuro Stone; a gem that can reveal the location of the largest gold vein in the world, and the main focus of the Yatterman story. Abe (38) was a fan of the original series as a child and the Yatter-King theme was his favorite song. He says working with Miike is a unique experience because there are many ad-libs and lines are often added at the film site, but he loves the challenge. Miike stated that he doesn’t think there’s another actor on Earth who could pull off this role.

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Apparently Miki Mizuno is well on her way to becoming a bona fide action star in her mid-30s. With two high body count revenge thrillers scheduled to come out later in the year, Hard Revenge, Milly and Sasori, she’ll apparently also be whooping up on some fools in this summer’s Katana Karumono: Nihonmatsu no Bouken. In the movie she plays the ex-lover of an electrician (Usoh Ozaki) who works part time as a “benriya”, which is basically someone willing to solve general problems in exchange for money - no questions asked. A past incident drove the two of them apart but when he gets hired by a hot widow (Natsuki Okamoto) to retrieve a collection of mysterious swords they’re brought back together for the mission.

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