The second installment of Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s “20th Century Boys” trilogy. It is the year 2015, and Friend is still around and keeping close tabs on Kenji’s (Toshiaki Karasawa) mission. Kanna (Airi Taira) is now 17-years-old and living in Tokyo. With Friend becoming even more popular with his millions of devout worshippers, she decides it’s up to her to bring him down. She manages to get some help from her dad’s old pals along the way, but Friend always seems to always be one step ahead. Slated for release in Japan on January 31, 2009.

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Keralino Sandorovich has completed production on his next latest nonsense comedy, Tsumi Toka Batsu Toka, which roughly translates to something along the lines of “Sorta Crime and Sorta Punishment” although that’s obviously not quite as catchy in English. On Thursday, he and his 16-year-old lead actress Riko Narumi offered greetings from the stage at a preview event for the film held at Space FS Shiodome in Tokyo.

According to Tokyograph, the story involves an unsuccessful idol (Narumi) who participates in a common “police chief for a day” PR opportunity, only to end up trying to resolve a real robbery situation at a local convenience store.

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Couldn’t it just have been about a lacrosse team?

With the amount of hype Shaolin Girl got in Japan prior to its release, it either had to be a really good movie worth backing or a really bad movie that was too expensive to fail. Now that I’ve seen it, I’m inclined to go with the latter. Having been billed as a Japanese sequel to Stephen Chow’s massively successful “Shaolin Soccer”, it probably wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect this movie to be an action-packed sports comedy with soccer switched out for girls’ lacrosse. Unfortunately, however, the comedy is pretty sparse and the lacrosse elements are completely glossed over save a few clichéd lessons on teamwork and a sequence that runs through the closing credits. What’s the rest of the movie about? Well, that’s where things get a bit dicey.

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The official website for the live-action adaptation of Takao Yaguchi’s classic fishing manga is now live, and with it comes a brand new teaser trailer. In this version Kenta Suga stars as Sanpei Mihira, the young boy with a knack for angling. Filling out the other main roles are Tsunehiko Watase as Ippei Mihira, Takashi Tsukamoto as pro fisherman Gyoshin Ayukawa, and Yu Kashii as Aiko Mihira. Slated for release in Japan on March 20, 2009.

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Masaaki Tezuka‘s live-action adaptation of “Rescue Wings” deviates from the original by centering around a female rookie pilot played by 16-year-old actress (only 15 at the time of filming) Yuko Takayama. After her mother is saved, Haruka Kawashima joins an elite air rescue team and decides she wants to become the first female pilot of a UH－60J (Japanese version of the Black Hawk) rescue helicopter.

She goes through harsh, rigorous training and must overcome her emotions for the serious job of saving lives. After several mistakes she’s bluntly told she’s not good enough to be a rescue pilot, but the conflict only makes her more determined. One day, an F-15J fighter plane goes missing from radar and Kawashima receives the distress call. On reserve fuel and the struggling against all odds, she must accomplish her mission at any cost. Slated for release in Japan on December 13, 2008.

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