The Blue Hearts were a punk band that stayed together from the late-80s to the mid-90s. In that time they released a myriad of catchy, melodic rock anthems that still appeal to all age groups today. Everyone knows the lyrics to at least two or three of their biggest hits for karaoke purposes and it’s a safe bet that a whole lot of young guitar players mastered their first few chords by playing those songs over and over again.

In Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda, equal parts fate and teen angst bring 4 high school girls together with a plan to cover a few Blue Hearts songs at the upcoming Shibazaki High Rock Festival. With only three days to practice, a keyboardist named Kei (Yu Kashii) on guitar, and a Korean exchange student named Son (Doona Bae) on vocals, the girls have to work day and night to learn the songs well enough to avoid making total fools of themselves.

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Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s upcoming documentary on singer songwriter Cocco. The film covers her “Kira Kira Live Tour” as well as her life in Okinawa and her concern for the environment. Slated for Japanese release in December.

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Here’s a plot that sort of defies normal explanation. In Yoshihiro Nakamura’s Fish Story, an unsuccessful punk band on the verge of breaking up records a song in 1975, one year before the debut of the Sex Pistols. The song isn’t initially a hit, but somehow it manages to transcend normal spacetime, affecting people across several time periods. In the original timeline Earth should have been destroyed in 2012, but because of the effects of the song that fate can be delayed or even completely avoided.

The song used in the film was produced by musician Kazuyoshi Saito in a collaboration with Kotaro Isaka, the author of the original novel on which the film is based. Check it out in the first teaser after the break.

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In 1975 an unsuccessful punk band records the song, “Fish Story”. Initially it doesn’t sell many copies, but somehow it exceeds the boundaries of space-time and ties generations together, eventually saving the world in 2012. Features music produced by Kazuyoshi Saito.

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The music of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale is probably as memorable as the film itself, setting the mood for just about every scene. Amazingly, Masamichi Amano only had one week to compose all the music for the film. Not an easy task, considering music is constantly prevalent in the film and he needed to fill 90 minutes. Working without sleep, Amano conducted a symphony orchestra of 120 musicians for two days while continuing to compose during breaks. Unfortunately the film’s soundtrack, originally distributed by Culture Publishers Inc. in Japan, went out of print a long time ago and has been difficult to track down ever since. Amazon currently has 2 copies of the import CD in stock and they’re priced at a staggering $63.99 USD. Well from now on there will be no need to scour Ebay or pay jacked up import prices because Milan Records is releasing the OST exclusively through iTunes on July 22nd. Full track details below.

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