I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Yukio Ninagawa‘s upcoming film, Hebi ni Pierce (Snakes and Earrings) is more than just sensationalized, melodramatic tripe even though the original teaser would suggest otherwise. On a positive note, Ninagawa called in a few markers for this project and managed to cast Shun Oguri and Tatsuya Fujiwara in bit roles as members of a gang. Some other notable actors in small roles are Toshiaki Karasawa, Yuu Abiru, and Sonim.

The film is about a 19-year-old girl named Rui (Yuriko Yoshitaka) who meets a guy named Ama (Kengo Koura) at a nightclub. Ama is heavily into body modification and sports multiple piercings, a huge dragon tattoo, and a split tongue. Ama brings Rui into his world and introduces her to Shiba (Arata), a tattoo artist and sadist who works out of an S&M shop. Rui gets a large tattoo on her back that’s half dragon, half Kirin—a combination of the tattoos Ama and Shiba have. She also gets her tongue pierced with the eventual goal of increasing gauges until she can split it like Ama’s. Soon Rui gets caught up in a life of sadomasochistic sex, alcohol abuse, and the constant search for something in her life which will never be satisfied.

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A new trailer was added to the official website of Shakariki!. I uploaded the teaser a few weeks ago. The new trailer makes the movie look a lot better, but for some reason they switched to an outdated flash codec this time and the actual video looks like crapola.

The movie is about a young cycling enthusiast named Teru (Yuya Endo) who tries to revive his school’s bicycle club along with the club’s new manager, Sakura Nagata (Nao Minamisawa). It’s based on a popular Masahito Soda manga and marks the directorial debut of former A.D. Shinsuke Ono (Kids Return, Ping Pong). The movie is slated for release on September 6, 2008.

Background info via Tokyograph

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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.

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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.

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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.

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