I realize tearjerkers have been popular lately in Japan, but making another adaptation of Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka) may just be the tipping point. For those who haven’t seen the 1988 Studio Ghibli anime by Isao Takahata, believe me when I tell you that it’s one of the most depressingly sad movies I’ve ever seen in my life. And it’s not that it’s not an amazing film - it is. It’s just that after seeing the original I’m not sure I’d put myself through that again. The fact that a theatrical version has been made just 2+ years after NTV broadcast a live-action adaptation of its own makes me wonder if Japanese moviegoers are just gluttons for emotional punishment.

The story, based on a semi-autobiographical novel written by Akiyuki Nosaka, is about a teenage boy named Seita (Reo Yoshitake) and his 5-year-old sister Setsuko (Rina Hatakeyama). They get separated from their mother (Seiko Matsuda) during an air raid and later find out that she’s been mortally wounded. With their father off fighting in the war as a naval officer Seita and Setsuko are taken in by a distant aunt (Keiko Matsuzaka) and her family. She’s kind at first, but when rationing causes food to become scarce her attitude toward them grows cold. Unable to bear her anymore, the two kids go out on their own and fend for themselves while living in a nearby cave. Setsuko gets increasingly ill due to malnutrition and Seita is forced to steal food from a farm and rob empty houses during air raids.

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Even though The Machine Girl will be released on DVD here in the US tomorrow, it won’t be released in Japan until August 2nd. So in preparation for that date Spotted Productions has posted a new trailer on YouTube. It seems a little less stylized than the original and the new music has a 70s vibe. Here it is, followed by the old one after the break:

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When it comes to recent Japanese period dramas, there’s probably not a surer thing than adapting a Shuhei Fujisawa novel. Yoji Yamada’s samurai trilogy - The Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade, and Love and Honor were all based on Fujisawa’s work and now Tetsuo Shinohara (Heaven’s Bookstore, Riding the Metro) is trying his hand at adapting the short story Yamazakura. In the movie Rena Tanaka (Drugstore Girl, Gegege no Kitaro) plays Noe Isomura, a woman in the midst of her second marriage. After her first husband died, she had the choice of several possible candidates for an arranged marriage. She finally settled on Shouzaemon Isomura (Tetsuya Chiba), choosing him over a man named Tezuka (Noriyuki Higashiyama) because Tezuka already had a child. Unfortunately Isomura is kind of a pompous jerk who’s completely obsessed with the samurai lifestyle and amassing wealth. Noe is soon trapped in a miserable home life that her own fairly arbitrary decision caused.

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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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The website for Takashi Saito’s quirky romantic drama Biru to Dobutsuen (literally “office building and the zoo") is up with a teaser trailer. The story involves a young music student (Katsuya Kobayashi) who works part-time as a window-washer. One day he sees an office lady (Maki Sakai) through one of the windows of a local office building and the two exchange an awkward glance. He pursues her, but the age gap between them and circumstances at her job keep them apart. Eventually they get a chance to spend some time together at the zoo and fall in love. However, they’re forced to consider the viability of a future together when her father (Tetsu Watanabe) voices concerns about the relationship.

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