Better late than never I suppose. Masahiro Kobayashi‘s 2006 film, The Happiness (Shiawase) will be getting some screen time at Cinemart Roppongi from November 17 to the 26th starting on September 20, 2008. It first premiered at Tokyo FILMeX 2006 and kind of slipped under the radar until now.

The story takes place during Midnight Sun season in a small town in Hokkaido. A disheveled man (Ryo Ishibashi) wanders the streets in worn-out sneakers and tattered clothing carrying a duffel bag. He suddenly collapses in a park on the outskirts of town and passes out. A middle-aged convenience store worker (Akemi Sakurai) finds him and brings her back to the store where her boss (Jun Murakami) reluctantly lends them some money for dinner. She goes home with him and stays the night. Without having to say a word they begin living together. The search for happiness between a man and woman without families of their own begins.

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Whenever new info is posted about the upcoming Yukihiko Tsutsumi-helmed 20th Century Boys trilogy here or on other sites people invariably chime in about how it’s too convoluted for a western audience to be interested in without first reading the manga. I don’t really subscribe to that theory personally because science fiction fans are a different breed than typical main stream moviegoers, but it won’t be an issue anymore now that US distributor Viz Media has picked up the rights to the original manga. Anime News Network is reporting the company made the announcement today at Comic Con and will be releasing it starting in February of 2009 on a bi-monthly schedule. So read it, live it, love it, and let’s get some interest going for whenever the movie distribution rights get picked up.

For more on “20th Century Boys”, see this page.

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Here’s further proof that if you need to get a truly bizarre project done in Japan, Sakichi Sato is your man. George Asakura, who is actually a woman in spite of her mysterious pen name, has deemed Sato the only person capable of bringing her Ikki comics manga, Heibon Punch to life. The film version will star Sato and gravure idol Rina Akiyama in her first major movie role.

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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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The trailer for Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom is now online. In the movie Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play scam artist brothers that come up with all sorts of elaborate schemes to separate rich people from their money. When they meet a young eccentric heiress named Penelope (Rachel Weisz) they initially plan to scam her, but instead end up enlisting her help on their next con. However, when one of the brothers falls for Penelope things get complicated. Rinko Kikuchi plays a quirky explosives expert appropriately named “Bang Bang” who’s also part of the team. Trailer embedded after the break.

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