Takeo Kimura has been involved in the Japanese film industry for over 60 years; often working as art director, screenwriter, and production designer for Seijun Suzuki and other prominent filmmakers. In recent years he’s directed a few movies like “Mugen Sasurai” in 2004 and “Matouqin Nocturne” in 2007, but both of those are generally considered artsy short films, coming in at under an hour each with an emphasis on avant-garde symbolism. His new project, Yume no Manimani is a full-length movie and is bolstered by an amazing list of stars in supporting roles such as Tadanobu Asano, Kaori Momoi, and Rie Miyazawa to name a few. The film crosses generations as the head of a college; Mr. Kimuro (Hiroyuki Nagato) becomes concerned with an irrational young student named Daisuke (Yoshio Inoue). His exchanges with Daisuke bring him back to his own youth in WWII-era Japan. You can find the trailer here at the film’s official website. It will be released in Japan on October 18th.

continue »

Permalink      0 Comments

On Wednesday I posted a clip of an NTV morning show that showed the first glimpse of the new teaser for Takashi Miike‘s Yatterman. Welp, that very same teaser is now on the film’s official site. It’s just as short; but at least it’s bigger, very high quality, and not chopped up for TV consumption.

Permalink      0 Comments

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.

continue »

Permalink      0 Comments

9 months after director Ryuichi Honda‘s next movie, GS Wonderland was first announced, we finally get the first teaser. It’s low-quality and tiny, but at least it’s something. You can check out all 36 glorious seconds of Chiaki Kuriyama standing around looking cool at the film’s brand-spanking-new official website. Set in a 3-year “Group Sounds” boom starting in 1968 and inspired by the Britpop explosion, Kuriyama stars as an organ-player named Miku who’s forced to cross-dress as a man to be part of fictitious Group Sounds band, “The Tightsmen”. The film is now slated for November release, so a lot of new stuff is bound to crop up in the next few months. All the more reason to subscribe to our RSS feed.

Permalink      3 Comments

The official website for Tokyo! added a full trailer to replace the useless teaser they uploaded back in May. To find it just go there and click the trailer box in the bottom left of the city navigation. Aside from the fact that they used godawful Sorenson H.263 video encoding it’s looking really good. In Joon-ho Bong’s segment, Shaking Tokyo, Teruyuki Kagawa plays a recluse who hasn’t left his apartment in 10 years but an infatuation with his pizza delivery girl (Yu Aoi) and a well-timed earthquake force him outside. In Michel Gondry’s Interior Design, Ayako Fujitani (Steven Seagal’s daughter, but I promise she didn’t inherit the douche gene) plays a directionless girl named Hiroko who’s dating a filmmaker named Akira (Ryo Kase). As Hiroko frets about her uselessness she begins to (literally) transform into a piece of furniture—but somehow she actually feels relieved by the process. In Leos Carax’s Merde a strange raving foreigner rises from the sewers and terrorizes citizens of Tokyo before getting picked up by the police. However, as his trial moves forward people begin to have mixed feelings about his treatment and he becomes a bit of a pop culture phenomenon.

Permalink      1 Comment