Admittedly, I’ve been holding off on posting anything about Kazunori Kitasaki’s Triangle Connection (Tora Kone) for about two months now—mostly because I’ve had a hard time making any sense of the plot (in any language). But it’s getting close to release now and I’m not going to just let this one go completely unnoticed.

Plot: 16 years ago a popular television show was on the air called “Space Ninja: Starshadow”. It was very popular with children, but when a stuntman was injured during the filming, the star (Kenji Ohba) felt so guilty about it he abruptly left the show.

Three high school girls; Eruna (Minami Tsukui), Yuika (Yui Sawada), and Maria (Yui Iwata) hang out in the Tennoji district of Osaka. The centerpiece of their group, Maria, is a popular teen idol. One day during one of Maria’s fan gatherings, she meets a math genius named Takehiko from Keihanna university who just managed to escape from a group of terrorists with the program needed to stop several bombs planted throughout Osaka from detonating. As Maria and her friends get caught up in Takehiko’s frantic attempt to save Osaka, Starshadow suddenly appears to help fight the terrorists.

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Second teaser for Takashi Miike‘s upcoming live-action adaptation of the 1970s cartoon, Yatterman. Not much to see in this one, but we do get a glimpse of Doronjo’s room—minus Doronjo (Kyoko Fukada). :(

For the first teaser, see this link.

Official website

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In Kensaku Watanabe‘s Cheer Cheer Cheer!, Yui Aragaki plays Momoko: a shy, lonely girl who spends her spare time reading romantic fantasy stories. When she develops a huge crush on her school’s star baseball player she comes up with the perfect excuse to watch him play every day: reviving the school’s nearly-defunct traditional cheer squad. However, the only people she can get to join are a bunch of misfits and losers. Although Momoko never lacks spirit, their cheering begins as a disaster. It isn’t until they discover the true meaning of “cheering” and develop a new-found passion for it that they begin to truly inspire the people around them.

Coming to Japanese theaters Saturday, October 11th.

Official website

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A woman fails in her attempt to become a celebrity entertainer in Tokyo and returns home to her family after a very brief marriage to her manager. Now in her mid-30s, she gets a job as a at the local Shinto shrine and meets a young man named Masaru who gradually changes her pessimistic attitude. Slated for release in December, 2008.

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Spoofs seem to have been gaining steam in the Japanese movie industry over the past few years—from Minoru Kawasaki’s spoof of The Sinking of Japan, The World Sinks Except Japan; Kenji Murakami’s spoof of Always: Sunset on Third Street, Alldays: Nichome no Asahi; and Hideo Jojo’s spoof of Crows Zero, Gachi-ban. Now Jojo is returning with another cornball spoof: Homeless ga Chugakusei. Obviously it’s a direct parody of Homeless Chugakusei, the true story of a junior high school student who loses his home and has to live on his own in a local park. In Jojo’s version the story is flipped around so that a man goes back to junior high school after several decades of homelessness and introduces students to the world of dumpster-diving and living in tents. Check out the trailer after the break.

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