Katsuhito Ishii is working on a new, completely indie comedy with the Nice Rainbow crew. Set at a hostel, Sorasoi is a light-hearted mockumentary about a group of college students who participate in a dance training camp in preparation for an upcoming competition. Filming took place in Izu last month and is now in post production. It will be completely done by the end of the month, hopefully soon enough to be included in the Hawaii International Film Festival this year. Here are some high-res production photos taken by Yuuuka Ooosumi.

Source: Myspace / Blog

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Here’s further proof that if you need to get a truly bizarre project done in Japan, Sakichi Sato is your man. George Asakura, who is actually a woman in spite of her mysterious pen name, has deemed Sato the only person capable of bringing her Ikki comics manga, Heibon Punch to life. The film version will star Sato and gravure idol Rina Akiyama in her first major movie role.

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The trailer for Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom is now online. In the movie Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play scam artist brothers that come up with all sorts of elaborate schemes to separate rich people from their money. When they meet a young eccentric heiress named Penelope (Rachel Weisz) they initially plan to scam her, but instead end up enlisting her help on their next con. However, when one of the brothers falls for Penelope things get complicated. Rinko Kikuchi plays a quirky explosives expert appropriately named “Bang Bang” who’s also part of the team. Trailer embedded after the break.

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Originally slated for September, Kensaku Watanabe‘s Cheer Cheer Cheer! (Fure Fure Shojo) is now officially scheduled for release in Japan on October 18, 2008.

In the years since Waterboys and Swing Girls set the bar impossibly high and created an insatiable market for similar movies, the zeroes-to-heroes formula has grown into sort of the Mad Libs of Japanese cinema. The plots pretty much always go something like this:

A group of [girls/boys/teens] decide to take up [quirky activity] simply to [shallow, selfish motive], but end up developing a genuine love for [aforementioned quirky activity] and decide to participate in the [local event with a big crowd to win over].

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Masayuki Miyano’s first feature film as a director, Lala Pipo is shaping up to be the most bizarre project announced for 2009 yet. The title is based on a misunderstanding of the English phrase “a lot of people” and the film stars Hiroki Narimiya as an enthusiastic adult video scout who recruits an office lady (Yuri Nakamura) to star in a porno. It’s based on a novel by Hideo Okuda, and the screenplay was adapted by filmmaker Tetsuya Nakashima (Kamikaze Girls, Memories of Matsuko). Comedienne and television personality Tomoko Murakami also appears as a tubby AV star. Teaser after the break.

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