In the late 80s, first-time director George Iida was given the go-ahead to film his ultra bizarre debut, Battle Heater, by production company Amuse on the condition that he cast lots of people from their in-house talent pool—especially up-and-coming rock band Bakufu-Slump. As luck would have it, Bakufu-Slump broke through just before the movie came out, netting it an avalanche of free PR. This was a bit of a double-edged sword at the time, because people saw the entire thing as a promotional project made for the band (it wasn’t). Nevertheless, what started out as a silly idea about a demonic space heater actually became a moderate success and launched the careers of quite a few of the cast and crew involved.

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When the older brother of Saori (Mirai Shida) is arrested for murder, police protect her family by changing their name and take them out of contact with the rest of society for a while. Saori is then sent to live with Detective Katsuura (Koichi Sato) for futher protection from the media onslaught. Katsuura is in a tricky situation trying to deal with Saori’s fragile mental state while carefully trying to get her testimony about what happened. Meanwhile, his own family is coming apart at the seams. Slated for release in Japan on January 24, 2009. For the first teaser, see this link. For the second teaser, see this link.

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Sion Sono‘s latest, due out in January 2009. Having grown up in a devout Christian family and forced to confess his sins to his priest father, Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) decides to rebel against his upbringing and become a master of taking sneak upskirt photos of unsuspecting girls. One day he meets a girl named Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima) and immediately falls in love. However, Yoko is involved in a strange religious cult which directly clashes with Yu’s Christian upbringing.

Sources: Twitch / Official website

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In a confusing, and somewhat unnecessary twist, the sequel to Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard of Darkness is actually a prequel. Why didn’t they just put them out in the right order, you ask? Well, the original was a “for hire” project and the script was already written when Shimako Sato was tapped to direct. In “Birth of the Wizard”, Sato wrote the screenplay herself and wanted to show Misa as a regular teenager, before she became a badass dark wizard with all the answers. The result is a relatively exciting action/horror movie with its fair share of corny moments.

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In 1956, director Akira Kurosawa started work on his own Japanese adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. In keeping with the original stage feel of the play, Kurosawa presented it with elements of traditional Noh musical stage dramas—complete with characters whose faces closely resemble Noh masks—while still basically sticking to his film roots and accomplishing special effects that could never be pulled off in a stage production. Those familiar with Macbeth will easily recognize the parallels between stories, with the major tweaks coming simply to convert a story about the Scottish monarchy to one set in Japan’s Warring States Period. In the end you basically have an adaptation of one of the best plays in history directed by one of the greatest filmmakers in history. Sounds pretty good, right? Correct.

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