The followup to Shinpei Hayashiya‘s 2005 daikaiju movie “Deep Sea Monster Reigo” (which actually wasn’t released until this past August) will be coming out in mid-2009. The original film was set during World War II and involved the battleship Yamato being attacked by a giant monster called Reigo in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Deep Sea Monster Raiga is set 60 years later in modern-day Tokyo. Global warming causes the southern polar ice cap to gradually melt, disrupting the ecosystem and luring ancient sea monsters to Japan. Eventually an enormous sea beast called Raiga enters Asakusa via the Sumida River and begins wreaking havoc on the buildings there. And, for legal purposes, that ain’t Godzilla!

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Yusuke Yamada’s best-selling novel, “Real Onigokko”, was set in the year 3000 and centered around an arrogant king who dealt with overpopulation by coming up with a sadistic game in which everyone with the surname “Sato” would be chased down and murdered for sport. Director Issei Shibata only had about 100 million yen (~$1 million USD) to film his live-action adaptation, pretty much ruling out any shot of setting it in the year 3000. Instead, he based his version in an alternate version of modern-day Japan. He probably could have stopped there, but he also felt the need to give the film’s main character the “special power” of shifting back and forth between the normal world and the alternate world where the chasing game exists. Unnecessary? Probably. Convoluted? Hell yes. But the basic elements of the original story are kept mostly intact, and those are still pretty damn cool.

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New trailer for Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s 20th Century Boys. This one was specifically made to recap important events from the first movie and get people up to speed for the 2009 sequel, “20th Century Boys 2”. The original clip led right into the trailer for the sequel but I trimmed it off. For the sequel’s trailer uploaded separately, see this link.

Spoileraphobes: watch at own risk.

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Barring any last-minute additions (which are actually kind of common), Kanji Nakajima‘s The Clone Returns to the Homeland is set to be the sole Japanese production competing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival to be held from January 15-25, 2009. This will be the film’s North American premiere after getting its World Premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival back in October.

This will bring the film full circle, considering its script won the Sundance/NHK Filmmakers Award leading up to the 2006 festival.

Here is their incredibly succinct synopsis:

A Japanese astronaut who dies during a mission is subsequently resurrected as a clone and returns to his childhood home.

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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 uncle’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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