Handsome Suits, the new comedy based on a paperback novel written by “SMAP x SMAP” variety show writer Osamu Suzuki will be released on November 1, 2008. The story involves a goofy looking chef named Takuro (Muga Tsukaji) who has never been with a woman in his 33 years. When his mother dies he returns from studying abroad in Italy to take over ownership of her diner, “Kokoro-ya”. Although his food is a hit with the ladies, his face and body are not. He falls in love with a part-time worker at the diner (Keiko Kitagawa) but she’s not attracted to him. One day Takuro enters a men’s wear store and a conspicuously good-looking store manager says he has the perfect suit in mind for him. The suit seems too tight, but as he reaches half an arm through one of the sleeves he’s transformed into a handsome new version of himself (Shosuke Tanihara). Soon his luck with women takes a turn for the better, to say the least. Only a 34-second teaser is out so far but in this case I think it pretty much sums up the entire movie.

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Even though Paco and the Magical Picture Book seems like it’s pretty squarely geared toward little kids, it’s been getting a lot of attention in the west both for its director: Tetsuya Nakashima (Memories of Matsuko, Kamikaze Girls), and its star-studded cast: Koji Yakusho, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Anna Tsuchiya, Sadao Abe, Ryo Kase, and Eiko Koike to name a few. The story involves a little girl named Paco, played by newcomer Ayaka Wilson, who is staying in a hospital following a car accident that killed both her parents and left her with a brain injury that limits her memory to a single day. One day she tries to read her picture book on a bench next to grumpy old man named Onuki (Yakusho), but he bumps her off and laughs. However, as he discovers more about her he begins to change as a person and decides to do something special for her involving her picture book.

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We’ve had death by videotape, death by dial-up Internet connection, death by cell phone, and death by pretty much every modern technological convenience you could possibly think of. That is, until now—because in one of the more unlikely product tie-ins in recent memory the upcoming teen horror flick Twilight Syndrome: Dead Cruise will feature death by Nintendo DS Lite. When I first wrote about this movie back in May I knew the story involved a vindictive bullying victim named Eri (Saki Terashima) who traps her classmates in a deadly virtual reality game while on a class trip, but I had no idea she’d actually be walking around controlling it through her DS touchscreen. Check out the trailer below to witness the unabashed commercialism for yourself.

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On Thursday Climber’s High director Masato Harada held a special screening of the film for a group of schoolchildren in Ueno Village, Gunma Prefecture—the area of the tragic 1985 plane crash on which the story is based. Also in attendance were the film’s star Shinichi Tsutsumi and singer Chitose Hajime, who performed the theme song Hotaru Boshi (firefly light) for the kids and offered flowers for the victims enshrined there. The film is based on a novel by Hideo Yokoyama and was first adapted to live-action in a television drama that aired on NTV in 2005 in which lovable helmet-haired Koichi Sato played the lead role. Public release is coming later today in Japan.

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Cinema fans and my F5 key should thank Jason Gray for pointing out that the trailer for Kiyoshi Kurosawa‘s Tokyo Sonata has finally been added to its official website. The film took home the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes back in May. Its story revolves around a salaryman whose family slowly falls apart after he loses the job that defined him. I’m sure that’s a drastic over-simplification given Kurosawa’s past work, so check out Midnight Eye for an early review with lots of words. I notice the trailer’s theme music is Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”. Hopefully this film can live up to the last critically-acclaimed masterpiece to make use of that, School Day of the Dead.

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