Posted by kevin at 3:51pm EDT on Friday, July 18, 2008
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Future releases, New trailers
Comedian Hiroshi Tamura’s autobiographical novel, Homeless Chugakusei, has sold over 2 million copies in Japan since it was released last year. As Tokyograph reported back in December, there was a bidding war for the film rights, with Toho winning out in the end. In recent months that popularity has also yielded a manga adaptation and a Fuji TV drama. Gee guys, overexpose much?
The movie stars WaT’s Teppei Koike as a 14-year-old who finds himself homeless for a summer when his family falls apart. He ends up living in a nearby park where he only has rain water to bathe and gets so hungry he tries to eat grass and cardboard. Akihiro Nishino and Chizuru Ikewaki also star. Check out the brand new full trailer below.
Posted by kevin at 11:19pm EDT on Thursday, July 17, 2008
Filed under: Comedy
Café Isobe (Junkissa Isobe) was released on July 5th and since it didn’t crack the top 10 at the box office it hasn’t been generating much news lately. Even so, it’s generally getting a really solid fan reaction on sites with rating systems like MovieWalker compared to other comedies that have been released in recent months.
Director Keisuke Yoshida spent the bulk of his career as a lighting technician for Shinya Tsukamoto (his movies have lighting?) before making a minor splash with his 2006 film, “Raw Summer” about a salaryman who stalks a teenage schoolgirl (Sola Aoi). Café Isobe isn’t quite so seedy, however. It’s about an irresponsible, flighty single father named Yujiro (Hiroyuki Miyasako) and his easily-annoyed daughter Sakiko (Riisa Naka). When Yujiro’s father dies suddenly he uses his inheritance to buy his own café in a feeble attempt to impress chicks. Unfortunately the cafe’s furnishings are so tacky that it only seems to attract elderly clientele and weirdos. Yujiro doesn’t seem to mind though, because part-tme waitress Motoko (Kumiko Aso) has him completely entranced, much to the chagrin of Sakiko—who isn’t particularly good at hiding her angst.
Posted by kevin at 12:46pm EDT on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Filed under: Comedy, Business, Future releases
Shonen Merikensack distributor Toei has come up with a bizarre-yet-innovative way to promote their upcoming punk rock comedy while generating good will by saving Japanese motorists gas money. Gas prices have reached 180 yen per liter recently; the highest price in history. Toei is offering a special sticker people can put on their cars so that when they fill up at “Usami” gas stations they can get a discount of 5 yen per liter. There will be 900 stickers total distributed evenly to 9 stores nationwide. If my math is right that amounts to about 18 cents per gallon. Not too shabby. Check out this image for a cutesy illustrated representation of the process.
Posted by kevin at 11:03am EDT on Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, No US distribution
It’s a well-known fact that Sabu’s first film, Dangan Runner was the inspiration for Tom Tykwer’s 1998 German hit, “Run, Lola, Run”. The tremendous international success of that film eventually got programmers for Loews Theaters’ indie distribution arm, “The Shooting Gallery” to briefly re-name Dangan Runner “Non-Stop” and screen it in New York in the fall of 2000. Nothing really ever came from that, however; I don’t think distribution went far beyond those screenings and a short-lived stint on VHS (good luck finding a non-bootleg copy now—TSG doesn’t exist anymore). Unfortunately this moderate, short-lived hype may have been a bit misdirected because Sabu’s debut, like most filmmakers’ debuts, is probably his most disjointed offering to date. He’s since gone on to make a number of far-superior films, none of which have so much as sniffed a proper US release.
Posted by kevin at 5:16pm EDT on Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Here’s one of those titles that sort of slipped through the cracks of web coverage last year that probably shouldn’t have. Thankfully the people at Japan Society have other ideas, and are going to screen Gummi, Chocolate, Pine at Japan Cuts on Thursday and Saturday. Click here for event details. The movie is based on the autobiography of Kenji Otsuki, vocalist of rock band Kinniku Shojotai. Takuya Ishida stars as a high school-aged Otsuki and Nao Omori plays him as an adult. But more importantly (to me at least) is the fact that Keralino Sandorovich—my personal favorite filmmaker that’s made 3 movies or less—wrote the screenplay and directed.
