Posted by kevin at 3:20pm EDT on Thursday, August 28, 2008
Filed under: Adventure, Crime, Future releases, New trailers
The official website for Shimako Sato‘s K-20: Kaijin Niju Menso Den added a trailer within the past few hours. Thankfully it’s the real deal, not just a teaser. The movie is based on a So Kitamura novel which itself was inspired by Edogawa Rampo’s original source material.
The story is set in 1949 in the fictional capital city of Teito, where aristocrats monopolize most of the wealth. K-20, a mysterious man with the ability to change his appearance frequently targets the rich for his theft. One day he manages to trick police into thinking a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is the real criminal, leaving it up to Endo to escape jail and prove his innocence.
Meanwhile K-20 targets his next victim, Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu)—an heiress whose fiancé is Kogoro Akechi (Toru Nakamura), the famous detective who arrested Endo. But Endo still has a score to settle, and picks a fight with K-20.
Posted by kevin at 10:43pm EDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Guilty pleasures don’t get much guiltier than Noboru Iguchi’s geeky 2006 fleshfest, Sukeban Boy. Iguchi, who’s sort of a 14-year-old trapped in an adult’s body, caters to a fanbase of likeminded otakus by putting out no-budget releases that incorporate elements from his porn background, goofy comedy, and copious amounts of gore. His cheaply produced, easy to market style of exploitation is probably the reason Fever Dreams/Media Blasters tapped him to direct their recent DVD hit, The Machine Girl, but if you really want to understand what the guy is about “Sukeban Boy” is probably a purer representation (i.e., free from the influence of US expectations).
Posted by kevin at 5:19pm EDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Filed under: Sci-Fi, Future releases, New trailers
Here’s the second full-length trailer for the first installment of Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s 20th Century Boys trilogy. It’s the longest one yet, coming in at over 2 minutes, but is still careful to hold back on footage of the giant plague-spreading robot that will likely be the “money shot” segment of the movie. Jason Gray got to see it in its entirety a few weeks ago and seemed pretty positive. The rest of Japan will get their chance this Saturday (8/30) when the film gets its nation-wide domestic release, courtesy of Toho.
Posted by kevin at 6:32am EDT on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Filed under: Drama, Future releases, New trailers
In Koji Hagiuda‘s adaptation of Akira Saso’s manga series Kodomo no Kodomo (literally “child of a child"), newcomer Haruna Amari plays an 11-year-old 5th grader (also named Haruna) who gets pregnant. Now, the obvious question you may be asking right now is, “Gahhh?!” From what I can gather the actual knocking up involves a seemingly innocent and completely oblivious “Let’s put these together” experiment between Haruna and her male friend Hiroyuki. It’s really not that bizarre when you think about it. Avoiding mistakes like that is basically the main reason there’s sex education in grammar schools in the first place.
The new full-length trailer (see below) seems to back up Jason Gray’s thoughts on the film. It appears to be tactfully handled without any sort of creep-out factor that people may have been worried about when this adaptation was first announced.
If the poster art for Koji Kawano’s Love My Life featuring the two main characters about to kiss didn’t clue you in, the first scene of them exchanging a piece of hard candy back and forth between their mouths should. It is in fact a lesbian romantic drama based on a manga by Ebine Yamaji. The film focuses mostly on a girl named Ichiko (Rei Yoshii) and her relationship with girlfriend Eri (Asami Imajuku) as they deal both with typical relationship issues and the added stresses of being lesbians in an intolerant society. Nothing too earth-shattering here; it’s just a saccharine sweet tale of young love and minor hardships with an upbeat theme.
