Here are some DVD releases slated for the fairly distant future, but worth keeping tabs on nonetheless.

UK distributor Third Window Films has picked up the distribution rights to Yosuke Fujita’s Fine, Totally Fine (Zenzen Daijobu). The film won top honors at this year’s Nippon Connection Festival in Germany and the audience award at NYAFF 2008. No word yet on a release date but it will be screened at the Raindance Film Festival in October. Third Window is also planning to release Memories of Matsuko and Kamikaze Girls in January. Specs forthcoming.

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The first teaser for Orochi was so incredibly lame and pointless that it makes the new full trailer that came out yesterday (see below) all the more noteworthy, simply for having actual footage. Based on a 1969 Kazuo Umezu manga, “Orochi” tells the story of two sisters, Kazusa (Yoshino Kimura) and her younger sister Lisa (Noriko Nakagoshi). Lisa can never seem to do anything as well as Kazusa—a fact that her cruel parents will never stop reminding her of. In fact, the only person in her family that’s nice to her at all is the sister she’s slowly growing to despise. A third girl named Orochi (Mitsuki Tanimura) observes the situation and acts as a narrator for the story. Orochi is an ageless being who must sleep every 100 years. However, when she saves Lisa from an accident her sleep is trigger prematurely. When she awakens decades later she discovers Kazusa is now ill and being taken care of by Lisa, but things don’t seem quite right between them.

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Based on a Kazuo Umezu manga series which ran from 1969 to 1970, the story of Orochi involves a girl named Kazusa (Yoshino Kimura) and her jealous younger sister Lisa (Noriko Nakagoshi). Lisa is always being reminded that her older sister does everything better than her, and over the years her love for her sister turns to hate. When another girl named Orochi (Mitsuki Tanimura) saves Lisa from a terrible accident a bizarre chain of events is set in motion spanning many years—with Orochi serving as the narrator of the story. You can find the first teaser here.

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A subtitled trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto‘s Nightmare Detective 2 popped up on YouTube yesterday. I have no idea where, why, or how this originated (maybe a promo from Cannes) but it looks to be a real corker. This time around Nightmare Detective Kyoichi Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda) reluctantly helps a school girl named Yukie who is convinced her next nightmare about a former classmate will kill her in the same way it killed her friends. Currently there’s no solid release date and the official website isn’t live yet, but I’m sure more will be coming out very soon. Check out the aspect ratio-adjusted trailer after the break.

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Shinya Tsukamoto‘s Nightmare Detective 2 starring Ryuhei Matsuda. Slated for release in 2008. For the Japanese trailer, see this link.

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