This has been assumed for a while now but it’s finally official. Ryotaro Muramatsu’s Hey Japanese! Do You Believe Peace, Love and Understanding? 2008, nicknamed “Heyjapa!” will be released on March 1st. From what I can gather it’s a black comedy interweaving 6 concurrent stories occuring in a suburban area on the outskirts of Tokyo. The group of combustible personalities includes a rock musician on his way to Tokyo (played by cross-dressing television personality Yakkun Sakuraduka), a group of goofy businessmen, some teenage shoplifters, and a couple of guys broadcasting a web show among many, many others (58 to be exact). Apparently the film is a comment on the Internet generation, and the way the stories intertwine is supposed to mimic the way the web works. But whatever, it looks funny.

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Well people, if there ever was a video game series begging to be adapted to mindless exploitive movie form it was “Onechanbara”, and now that seems to be reality. The movie will be directed by Yohei Fukuda (cinematographer for Chikan Otoko) and will star Eri Otoguro as the main protagonist/zombie slasher Aya, Chise Nakamura as her little sister Saki, and Manami Hashimoto as Reiko the mystery woman. I’m not sure about the plot yet but if it’s true to the video games it probably goes something like this: Sparsely-dressed girls kill waves and waves of zombies to protect their city.

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Earlier today an announcement was posted on the website for Makoto Tanaka’s upcoming comedy Sing, Salmon, Sing! (Utatama) that the film will be released on April 5th. For those who haven’t been following the project, Utatama has been marketed as sort of a torchbearer for the recent string of megahit feel-good zero-to-hero comedies like Waterboys, Swing Girls, and Hula Girls. This time around the subject is a school choir lead by the mildly uptight perfectionist Kasumi (Kaho).

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Satoshi Tsumabuki (Waterboys, Dororo) has been cast alongside actress Rei Dan in the 2009 Takahisa Zeze film Pandemic (Kansen Rettou). The story, inspired by recent fear of avian flu, involves a large-scale virus which infects 25 million people. Tsumabaki will play a doctor working to save lives at a field hospital and Dan will play a medical officer from the World Health Organization.

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Director Minoru Kawasaki (The World Sinks Except Japan, Executive Koala, The Calamari Wrestler) held a press conference yesterday for his upcoming kaiju parody Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit (Girara no Gyakushuu / Toyako Summit Kiki Ippatsu). Attendees got an up-close look at the remarkably well-spoken Guilala, a monster who first appeared in the 1967 sci-fi movie Uchu Daikaiju Girara. Also in attendance was Akira Matsushita reprising his famous over-the-top impersonation of former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

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