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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Juri Ueno’s next film project, tentatively titled Gorilla Butterfly, is now in the process of casting extras for various scenes. I don’t think the initial press conference has been held yet so details are sparse, but we do know it’s being distributed by Toho and co-produced by Altamira Pictures and Ueno’s talent agency, Amuse.

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Hirokazu Kore-eda’s upcoming documentary on singer songwriter Cocco. The film covers her “Kira Kira Live Tour” as well as her life in Okinawa and her concern for the environment. Slated for Japanese release in December.

More info available at ryuganji.

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Atsushi (Junpei Mizobata) and Mei (Nao Minamisawa) first met as young children and were each other’s first love. After that puppy love ends they each go through their own trials and tribulations in their own lives and deal with issues like drugs, suicide, and domestic violence—but through it all they seem to be connected by a thread of fate. Based on a popular mobile phone novel and slated for release in Japan on December 20, 2008. For the first teaser, see this link.

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After a bullying victim at Higashigaoka middle school named Noguchi attempts suicide, a new teacher named Murauchi (Hiroshi Abe) takes over class 1 for the second term. At first the class is taken by surprise by his severe stutter, and even giggle. However, on the very first day he orders that Noguchi’s desk be returned to its original position in the classroom. Every morning from that point on he takes a moment to walk up to the vacated desk and say “Good morning, Noguchi-kun” in front of all the students that tormented him. Slated for release on November 29, 2008.

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