Set in the Meiji era, a team of explorers traverse the last known untraveled space on Japan’s maps: the peak of Mt. Tsurugidake in the Hida Mountains. For the first teaser, see this link.

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Live-action adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s manga serial from the late 70s. When a top secret chemical compound called MW infects an island near Okinawa, the military is sent in to kill all the victims and cover up the incident. A survivor named Michio Yuki (Hiroshi Tamaki) grows up to become a highly-successful banker, but he is slowly being driven mad by the effects of MW. After committing a series of ruthless crimes to get revenge against the people responsible for the cover-up, he decides that the only way to truly get revenge is to unleash MW on the world and exterminate the entire human race. Takayuki Yamada stars as Father Garai, a priest desperately trying to save Michio’s soul but not necessarily doing much to stop his crimes.

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Live-action adaptation of comedian Hiroshi Shinagawa‘s autobiographical novel. The story revolves around his teen years as a wannabe yankee sent to public school after being inspired into delinquency by the shonen manga, “Be-Bop High School” in the early 80s. The main character is played by Hiroki Narimiya, who sports a red-dyed buzzcut for the role. Slated for release in March 2009 in Japan.

Official website

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UK distributor Third Window Films is set to have a highly Japan-centric start to 2009 with a flurry of noteworthy releases.

On January 12th, Third Window will be releasing Tetsuya Nakashima’s Memories of Matsuko and Kamikaze Girls.

On February 23rd they’ll be releasing Satoshi Miki’s “Turtles are Surprisingly Fast Swimmers”, a hilariously quirky little film I reviewed here back in August. Artwork and specs aren’t finalized yet, but should be coming out soon.

UK residents have a chance to check out Yosuke Fujita’s “Fine, Totally Fine” at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London from Friday, November 14 to Thursday, November 20. Check this link for screen times. DVD details aren’t yet finalized.

And finally, Third Window has picked up the rights to Daihachi Yoshida’s dysfunctional family dramedy “Funuke: Show Some Love You Losers!”. A theatrical release is tentatively planned for sometime around March with a subsequent DVD release in April.

Third Window Films - official website

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Japan has sort of faded into the background of the world consciousness in the past few years. Aside from the typical “crazy Japan” pop culture stories that seem to never get old for some, the western world seems to ignore the existence of this once larger-than-life nation. Gone is the fear of superior Japanese products killing the US manufacturing sector—we’ve since come to terms with that as an unfortunate inevitability—and gone are the icy relations that existed when old men that still remembered World War II were running our respective countries. All we really have left is a shared military and a mutual fascination with each other’s entertainment industries. So what would happen if Japan was suddenly thrust into the limelight once again, being the only landmass to survive an epic disaster that sunk every single other nation in the world within a short period of time? That’s the question absurdly posed—and equally absurdly answered—by Minoru Kawasaki’s “The World Sinks Except Japan”.

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