Shonen Merikensack distributor Toei has come up with a bizarre-yet-innovative way to promote their upcoming punk rock comedy while generating good will by saving Japanese motorists gas money. Gas prices have reached 180 yen per liter recently; the highest price in history. Toei is offering a special sticker people can put on their cars so that when they fill up at “Usami” gas stations they can get a discount of 5 yen per liter. There will be 900 stickers total distributed evenly to 9 stores nationwide. If my math is right that amounts to about 18 cents per gallon. Not too shabby. Check out this image for a cutesy illustrated representation of the process.

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It’s a well-known fact that Sabu’s first film, Dangan Runner was the inspiration for Tom Tykwer’s 1998 German hit, “Run, Lola, Run”. The tremendous international success of that film eventually got programmers for Loews Theaters’ indie distribution arm, “The Shooting Gallery” to briefly re-name Dangan Runner “Non-Stop” and screen it in New York in the fall of 2000. Nothing really ever came from that, however; I don’t think distribution went far beyond those screenings and a short-lived stint on VHS (good luck finding a non-bootleg copy now—TSG doesn’t exist anymore). Unfortunately this moderate, short-lived hype may have been a bit misdirected because Sabu’s debut, like most filmmakers’ debuts, is probably his most disjointed offering to date. He’s since gone on to make a number of far-superior films, none of which have so much as sniffed a proper US release.

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To any analytical thinker with even a cursory understanding of evolution it stands to reason that we as humans are just a small step above animals, driven by instinct and the will to survive. So it begs the question: are ideals like civility, respect, honor, and even love—often collectively referred to as our “humanity”—directly proportionate to how cushy our lives are? In other words, are we only capable of luxuries like love and caring when we’ve grown accustomed to being safe and well-fed or are they intrinsic human values we can suppress when need be? For the first 90 minutes of The Ballad of Narayama, director Shohei Imamura would seem to be trying to prove the former with various scenes of comical-yet-disturbing emotionless sex, greed, and even murder edited together not-so-subtly with scenes of animals procreating, eating each other, and killing. But toward the end of the film the tone shifts and a seemingly heartless death ritual becomes the ultimate example of love and sacrifice.

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Any sort of info on Takashi Miike‘s Crows Zero II has been slow to trickle out because it’s still so early in the production process, but a casting call was recently posted which gives away at least one tiny aspect of the plot. The production is looking for a large number of 18-35 year-old skinhead extras to play students of Housen Gakuen; one of the rival schools featured in Hiroshi Takahashi‘s Crows manga spinoff, “Worst”. Filming starts in August and will wrap in October. They’re also looking for “big-boned” tough-looking dudes to play Serizawa’s army, GPS (Genji’s Perfect Succession), and spectators during the fight scenes. Hey this movie sounds kinda violent…

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The official website for Shosuke Murakami’s mobile phone novel adaptation, Threads of Destiny (Akai Ito) now features two new video clips: For some more behind the scenes footage of Nao Minamisawa shooting the first teaser, click here. For the 2nd teaser, click here. As I posted here a few weeks ago, the story will be split between a Fuji TV drama and this movie which will act as the middle part of the story. Additional cast for the second half of TV drama were announced a few days ago. New additions include Sayuri Iwata as Haruna, Hiroshi Yazaki as Yuya, Kasumi Suzuki as Yuuri, and Ryo Tajima as Mitsu.

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