News

Kadokawa has revealed the first look teaser for a movie called Kubi, a historical epic from iconic Japanese actor Beat Takeshi. This will be premiering at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival later this month in the Cannes Premiere section. This film was conceived by director Takeshi Kitano around the same time as Sonatine, one of his early masterpieces, and has been in the works for 30 years. It depicts the "Honnoji Incident" along with the ambitions, betrayals, and fates of various characters, including warlords, ninja, comedians, and peasants. The ambitious new film has assembled a splendid and unique cast! Takeshi plays Hideyoshi Hashiba, who plots the "Honnoji Incident," and Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Mitsuhide Akechi. Ryo Kase gives a dubious performance as the mad genius Nobunaga Oda, while Tadanobu Asano and Nao Omori play the military strategist Kanpei Kuroda, who supports Hideyoshi, and his brother Hidenaga Hashiba with a great sense of humor.

Informa is a Japanese series directed by Michihito Fujii starring Kenta Kiritani, Reo Sano and Go Morita.

Fancy a series about committed journalists? Yes, the kind that seeks the news and fervently fights to get the scoop… like in the movies before the Internet era.

Informa has just arrived from Japan.

Storyline

Kanji Mishima (Leo Sano) is a reporter for the Weekly Times, a newspaper that mainly reports gossip. He feels a sense of emptiness and discomfort as he spends his days chasing celebrity scandals without a shred of the journalistic spirit he had aspired to. One day, Mishima goes to Amagasaki to pick up a certain person under the direction of Asuka Nagasawa (Megumi), the editor-in-chief. Nagasawa sends him off by chance to fulfill Mishima’s former wish to “see a world you would never see if you lived a normal life,” but what awaits him is Keijiro Kihara...

The 35th edition of the festival is set to take place in-person from October 2 to November 2.

Takahisa Zeze’s Japanese prisoner of war drama Fragments Of The Last Will is set to world premiere as the opening film of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which runs October 24 to November 2.

The festival will close with Oliver Hermanus’s UK drama Living, starring Bill Nighy, an adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 Japanese drama Ikiru with a revised screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, whose credits include Remains Of The Day and Never Let Me Go.

Fragments Of The Last Will is based on the true story of Hatao Yamamoto,...

Love, family, and relationships; our lives revolve around it, even for the most misanthropic of us. At the risk of sounding cheesy, no matter how much we fight with our family, no matter how estranged we become, we feel an urge for reconciliation. Movies about this subject are a hit and miss. They can become overly emotional while not showing the nuances of relationships. “Close-Knit” released in 2017, and directed by the talented director, Naoko Ogigami, pulls this off masterfully.

“Close-Knit” screened at the New York Asian Film Festival

The movie opens with a girl, Tomo (played by Rinka Kakihara) getting ready for school. The house is a mess. Clothes are strewn everywhere and the garbage bin is full. Tomo lives with her mother Hiromi (played by Mimura), who in the beginning of the movie, leaves her to pursue a life with a man. Tomo goes to live with her uncle,...

“Close-knit” (2017) is an emotional drama that deals with the issues of gender, identity and sexuality. Director Naoko Ogigami wished to draw attention to Lgbtq communities in a Japan society that is still largely conservative in outlook.

“Close-Knit” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival, that will be on November 9-18

Tomo (Rinka Kakihara) is a young girl living with her single mother. When her mother walks out on her one day, she calls on her uncle Makio (Kenta Kiritani), who agrees to take her in. On the way to his house, he tells his niece that he is living with someone, a woman who is special to him. When they arrive at his house, Tomo is introduced to Makio’s girlfriend Rinko (Toma Ikuta), who was born as a boy, but is part-way through transformative surgery to become a woman. Tomo is welcomed into their lives and finds the...

Berlin’s Panorama lineup also includes new films from Us, China and Brazil.

Berlin’s Panorama strand is now complete following the addition of 24 additional titles.

A total of 51 works from 43 countries have been chosen for screening in the section, including 21 in Panorama Dokumente and 29 feature films in the main programme and Panorama Special. 36 of these films will be getting their world premieres at the Berlinale.

The German production Tiger Girl by Jakob Lass will open this year’s edition of Panorama Special at Berlin’s Zoo Palast cinema, along with the previously announced Brazilian production Vazante.

Among newly confirmed films are UK Sundance title God’s Own Country, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome, feminist fairy tale The Misandrists by Berlinale regular Bruce Labruce, Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice and Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production Insyriated which stars Hiam Abbass as a woman trapped in an apartment during war.[p...

Japanese live action movies tend to be a hit or miss. Depending on the directorial take, emotional balance of the script, and the actors cast, it can be worthy of endless praises and awards such as the recently concluded “Rurouni Kenshin” trilogy. Otherwise, it can end up as a movie better forgotten such as the infamous Hollywood adaptation of a widely popular series, “Dragonball Evolution.”

While news of live action films may make some of us cringe in their anticipated cheesiness and possible inferior quality, the chances of seeing our beloved manga and anime characters come to life are often slim. That’s why today, we present you with three upcoming live action films that we believe are potential hits!

Bakuman

“Bakuman” comes from the creators of “Death Note.” It revolves around a student artist, Mashiro Moritaka, and his author friend, Takagi Akito as they traverse the path to becoming...

When it comes to Venice Film Festival, Japanese director Takeshi Kitano is definitely not a stranger. I’m sure you all remember his Hana Bi from 1997 (for which he recevied the Golden Lion), or 2003 Zatoichi project (Silver Lion statue).

Well, guess what, Kitano is now back In Competition with his completely new project, titled Outrage Beyond. And, in case this sounds like it has something to do with Kitano’s Outrage movie from last year’s Cannes film festival – relax, you’re not tripping – it’s just a sequel to the original story…

So, this time we have the Sanno crime family all grown into a huge organization, expanding its power into politics and legitimate big business. The Sanno’s upper ranks are now dominated by young executives, and the old-guard members are penting up resentment while being pushed to the sidelines.

This vulnerable spot in the Sanno hierarchy is...

The official website for Kazuyuki Izutsu’s Ōgon wo Daite Tobe has been relaunched with a new teaser trailer. Note: I have no idea if “Fly With the Gold” is the actual English title or just a literal translation they’re slapping on things because they think it looks cool. The latter happens a lot.

The film stars Satoshi Tsumabuki as Koda, a supplier for radical extremists and criminals who’s approached by an old university friend named Kitagawa (Tadanobu Asano) with a plan to steal 1.5 billion yen in gold bars from a vault under the main branch of Sumida Bank.

Kitagawa puts together a team consisting of a banking system engineer named Noda (Kenta Kiritani), a foreign spy posing as an engineering exchange student named Momo (Changmin of Tvxq), Kitagawa’s younger brother Haruki (Junpei Mizobata), and a former elevator technician called Jiichan - literally “Grandpa” (Toshiyuki Nishida). After some further planning,...

The upcoming sequel to Takeshi Kitano's 2010 gangster film Outrage has been a tough one to figure, and fair warning -- the reason for that involves some spoilers from the original.

On Tuesday, a press event was held at Seimei no Mori Resort in Chiba Prefecture to present the cast of the second film, now titled Outrage Beyond. New additions Toshiyuki Nishida, Yutaka Matsushige, Katsunori Takahashi, Kenta Kiritani, and Hirofumi Arai were in attendance along with returning cast members Kitano, Tomokazu Miura, Ryo Kase, and Fumiyo Kohinata.

There has been some question about how a sequel might work, simply because the first film was a complete blood bath. Most of the main characters were killed and it ended with Kitano's character, Otomo, getting stabbed and then later being confirmed dead by Kohinata's character, a crooked detective named Kataoka.

Producer Masayuki Mori confirmed that Otomo is in fact alive, but was...

Shochiku has uploaded a new full trailer for Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s live-action adaptation of Beck to their YouTube channel and the film’s official website.

Based on Harold Sakuishi’s long-running manga, the film stars Takeru Sato as Koyuki, an ordinary high school student who’s encouraged to pick up guitar after a chance encounter with a talented guitarist named Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima). The two eventually form a band with bassist Taira (Osamu Mukai), lead vocalist Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), and drummer Saku (Aoi Nakamura). They name the band Beck after Minami’s dog and Koyuki discovers he has a natural gift for playing guitar. As his talent blooms, the band experiences more and more success, eventually getting invited to play at a rock festival.

Beck will be released in Japan on September 4, 2010.

Source: YouTube via @wildgrounds...

The official website for Mipo O’s Okan no Yomeiri has been updated with a new full trailer.

Based on an award-winning 2008 novel by Tsukine Sakuno, the film stars Shinobu Otake as a single mother named Yoko and Aoi Miyazaki as her adult daughter Tsukiko. The two enjoy a supportive relationship and treat each other like friends; however, one day Yoko gets drunk and brings home a younger man with strange blond hair (Kenta Kiritani), announcing that she’s going to marry him. The abruptness of the announcement throws Tsukiko into a state of confusion and fills her with feelings of betrayal as she tries to make sense of this unexpected development in both of their lives. She gets so desperate she even tries to get family and friends to intercede, but eventually discovers the real reason behind her mother’s seemingly rash actions when she uncovers a secret about her health.

The official website for Mipo O’s Okan no Yomeiri has been updated with a new 46-second teaser trailer.

In the film, Shinobu Otake plays a single mother named Yoko who lives with her adult daughter Tsukiko (Aoi Miyazaki). The two enjoy a supportive relationship and treat each other like friends; however, one day Yoko gets drunk and brings home a younger man with strange blond hair (Kenta Kiritani), announcing that she’s going to marry him. The abruptness of the announcement throws Tsukiko into a state of confusion and fills her with feelings of betrayal as she tries to make sense of this unexpected development in both of their lives.

Kadokawa will be releasing “Okan no Yomeiri” in Japan on September 4, 2010.

Shochiku has released a new, slightly longer second teaser trailer for Yukihiko Tsutsumi‘s Beck, a live-action adaptation of Harold Sakuishi’s long-running band manga.

The film stars Takeru Sato as Koyuki, an ordinary high school student who’s encouraged to pick up guitar after a chance encounter with a talented guitarist named Ryusuke Minami (Hiro Mizushima). The two eventually form a band with bassist Taira (Osamu Mukai), lead vocalist Chiba (Kenta Kiritani), and drummer Saku (Aoi Nakamura). They name the band Beck after Minami’s dog and Koyuki discovers he has a natural gift for playing guitar. As his talent blooms, the band experiences more and more success, eventually getting invited to play at a rock festival.

Beck will be released in Japan on September 4, 2010.

Source: Yahoo! Eiga...

The Japanese website for the live-action adaptation of Harold Sakuishi’s Beck coming-of-age-and-rocking-the-world manga has been updated with a first teaser trailer showing Hiro Mizushima, Takeru Satoh, Kenta Kiritani, Aoi Nakamura and Osamu Mukai as the members of the band. The adaptation is directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi (20th Century Boys) and is supposed to open in Japan in Fall 2010.

I stopped watching the anime adaptation after a few episodes because of too much angsty/driveless teens, so what do people who know the original manga and animation have say about this first footage?

[See post to watch Flash video]

[via Ann & Eiga.com]...