Here’s the full trailer for Hiroyuki Nakano’s “Tajomaru”, a new film based on the 1922 short story “In a Grove” by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, which recounted a single event from 7 different perspectives after the fact. Akira Kurosawa‘s award-winning 1950 film Rashomon was also based on In a Grove, but this version changes things up by focusing on the bandit character Tajomaru and giving him a whole new back-story. Yeah, it’s a pretty bizarre idea, but at the risk of being forced to turn in my Japanese cinema fan card, I don’t really get what the big deal is with Rashomon anyway.

Plot: Naomitsu (Shun Oguri) is the second son of the Hatakeyama family and fiance of Princess Ako (Yuki Shibamoto). When he gets chased away from his home as the result of a conspiracy against him, Naomitsu flees into the mountains with Ako in tow, but they’re soon attacked by a bandit named Tajomaru (Hiroki Matsukata). After managing to kill Tajomaru, Naomitsu takes the bandit’s identity as his own.

Tajomaru will be released in Japan this September.

Thanks to logboy for catching the update on the official website.

Here’s the full trailer for Toshiyuki Morioka‘s Onnanoko Monogatari, a live-action adaptation of two semi-autobiographical manga by Rieko Saibara. IMJ Entertainment and Avex Entertainment will be collaborating on a Japanese release of the film this August.

The film stars Eri Fukatsu as a 36-year-old cartoonist named Natsumi who’s stuck in a slump, drinking beer during the day and napping on the couch instead of drawing. One day a rookie editor named Zaizen (Seiji Fukushi) asks her about her lack of friends, causing her to begin thinking back to her childhood in a small town by the sea and the close friendships she had there. Suzuka Ohgo plays high school aged Natsumi in flashbacks. Haru and Yuko Takayama play her best friends.

Source: Official website

Here’s a combined trailer for Osamu Kaneda‘s “Kamen Rider Decade: The Movie” and Shojiro Nakazawa‘s “Samurai Sentai Shinkenger: The Movie”, both of which will be released in Japanese theaters on August 8th, 2009.

In Kamen Rider Decade The Movie: All Riders vs. Great Shocker (Gekijoban Kamen Rider Decade: All Rider tai Dai Shocker), Tsukasa Kadoya (Masahiro Inoue) finds his home world—referred to as “A Certain World”—and must gather all 26 Kamen Riders to fight together against the Great Shocker organization, a group made up of all their past enemies.

In Samurai Sentai Shinkenger The Movie: The Fateful War (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger Ginmakuban Tenkawakeme no Sen), the Shinkengers must recover the weapon of the first Shinken Red, a sword called “Kyoryumaru”, in order to defeat an enemy alliance called Kusare Gedoshu which is led by Manpuku Aburame (Shinya Owada).

Official website

Here’s a new TV spot for Gokusen: The Movie, which pretty much consists of quick shots of every star and guest star in the movie and not much else. Check out Riki Takeuchi wielding a machine gun at 0:18.

Toho will be releasing Gokusen: The Movie in theaters next Saturday.

Source: Official website

Hong Kong DVD distributor CN Entertainment will be releasing Shimako Sato‘s K-20: Legend of the Mask (K-20: Kaijin Niju Menso Den, 2008) on English-subtitled DVD next week. I wouldn’t expect much in the way of features considering CN releases are usually barebones, but DVD-9 is a very good sign picture quality-wise; they usually squash everything onto a DVD-5. Fans in North America may want to hold off until Viz Pictures comes out with their release of the film in the very near future.

Plot: In an alternate version of 1949 Japan in which World War II never happened, the Japanese capital of Teito is home to both an ultra rich upper class and the dirt poor masses. The city is thrown into a state of panic when a phantom thief called “The Kaijin (Fiend) with 20 Faces” (K-20 for short) begins to use his mysterious abilities to steal from the rich and give to the poor. One day a circus acrobat named Heikichi Endo (Takeshi Kaneshiro) is framed for K-20’s crimes and becomes determined to clear his name. He teams up with K-20’s next target, a wealthy duchess named Yoko Hashiba (Takako Matsu) and her detective fiancé (Toru Nakamura), to take K-20 down once and for all.

Region 3, NTSC, DVD-9. Japanese DTS and Chinese-dubbed Dolby 5.1 audio tracks with selectable Chinese and English subtitles.

The first teaser is out for Atsushi Muroga‘s Wangan Midnight: The Movie, a theatrical adaptation of the first 3 volumes of Michiharu Kusunoki’s original manga serial. This version reportedly has nothing to do with the 10-film series of original videos which were released between 1991 and 2001. The film stars Yuichi Nakamura of D-BOYS fame as Akio Asakura, a 3rd-year high school student who falls in love with a souped-up Fairlady S30Z. Kazuki Kato, Masaki Sada, and Kosuke Yonehara also star.

Jolly Roger will be releasing the film in Japan this September.

The full Japanese trailer is now out for Young-nam Kim’s Boat, aka “No Boys, No Cry” in Japan. You can find the original Korean trailer and first Japanese teaser at this link. The movie was released in Korea back in late May and Japanese distributor Phantom Film will be releasing it in August.

In the film, Jung-woo Ha (The Chaser, My Dear Enemy) plays a low-level smuggler named Hyeong-ku who uses a small boat to transport drugs to his partner in Japan, Toru (Satoshi Tsumabuki), 3 or 4 times a month. When their boss orders them to kidnap a girl name Jisu (Eri Tokunaga) and bring her to Japan, Toru sees an opportunity to steal $2 million of their organization’s money. Hyeong-ku gets caught in the middle as things go really bad for the both of them in a hurry.

Source: Official website

Here’s the trailer for Noboru Iguchi‘s RoboGeisha. I can’t find a plot summary anywhere yet, but the trailer is pretty self-explanatory. If you’ve seen Sukeban Boy, The Machine Girl, or—God forbid—Hypertrophy Genitals Girl, you pretty much know what to expect from Iguchi by now.

No release date yet, but it will be out in Japan later this year courtesy of Kadokawa Pictures.

Source: Twitch

Apparently YouTube RSS feeds are damn near useless. Thanks to logboy for cluing me in to the fact that there is actually a full trailer out for Tomorowo Taguchi‘s Shikisoku Generation to go with the music video I posted on Saturday. It’s also available at the film’s official website (first button, then last button) if you have the patience to wait for that damn flash frog to load.

Based on Jun Miura's semi-autobiographical novel, the film is set in 1974 and revolves around a teenager (Watanabe) who's obsessed with Bob Dylan and grows bored with his overly happy and comfortable family life. One summer he and his friends decide to travel to Okinoshima, Shimane after hearing of an island of free sex.

Distributor Stylejam will be releasing the film in Japan this August.

Distributor Eleven Arts has posted some publicity materials for Yoshihiro Nishimura‘s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, including this new trailer.

Plot: When high school student Mizushima receives Valentines Day chocolates from a new student named Monami Arukado (Yukie Kawamura), he has no clue that it’s actually tainted with her vampire blood. Monami wants to live with him forever as a vampire couple, but his current girlfriend Keiko Furano (Eri Otoguro) has other ideas. She catches the two kissing on the roof of the school and attempts to throw Monami off in a jealous rage. Instead, she dies herself. Her mad scientist father Kenji then pieces her back together (souped up with some spare parts from her unfortunate classmates, of course) and resurrects her as Franken Girl, a hideous monstrosity custom built for vengeance.

The film is the centerpiece presentation of this year’s New York Asian Film Festival and will be screening on June 26th and 29th. See this link for more information.

Unfortunately this isn’t the first bit of bad news on the 19th Step front. Last week MyNews reported that Asin injured her right leg while practicing Kalarippayattu (the ancient martial art used in the film) and refused to take any allopathic medicines due to her upbringing. Then earlier this week, Yahoo! India Movies reported that concern over swine flu sidelined plans to shoot part of the movie in Japan and that Asano would instead travel to India to shoot everything there. South Indian superstar Kamal Haasan was originally rumored to be involved in the project, but that apparently is no longer the case—if it ever was to begin with.

The film, which was originally planned to be completed by the end of this year with an eye toward an early 2010 release, is a multicultural Japan/India co-production which traces the origin of all martial arts to the ancient South Indian fighting style of Kalarippayattu. Asin plays a princess named Lakshmi who teaches the style to a Japanese samurai warrior named Kenji (Asano) in an effort to purge his soul of a murderous past. The title is a reference to the typical 18 steps a student must go through to master Kalarippayattu, with a mystical 19th step that few can ever hope to attain. Kenji eventually reaches this step by harnessing the power of a deadly sword called urumi.

Thanks to logboy for cluing me in to this film when it was still in the early rumor stages.

Here’s the first teaser for Koichi Sakamoto‘s Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends - The Movie, the 38th production in the 43-year-old Ultraman franchise.

Plot: The evil Ultraman Belial was imprisoned by the Ultraman King tens of thousands of years ago. When he finally escapes, he attempts to use the Giga-Battlenizer to control 100 giant monsters and conquer the galaxy. On the Ultraman homeworld, where there is no 3-minute time restriction, a team of 50 Ultramen including Ultraman, Ultra Seven, and Ultraman Mebius among many others mobilize to put a stop to Ultraman Belial’s plans and face off against his monsters.

Warner Bros. will be releasing the film in Japan on December 12, 2009.

Official website

Background info via Sci-Fi Japan

The contest for tickets to see Fish Story at the New York Asian Film Festival is now over. Here are the winners:

Melvin Reyes
Paul Ryan
Roy Herschaft

Congrats to the winners! And thanks to everyone who entered.

Here’s the teaser for Yoshimitsu Morita‘s Watashi Dasuwa, his first film based on an original screenplay of his own since 1996’s “(Haru)”.

Plot: Maya Yamabuki (Koyuki) suddenly returns to her hometown after building a vast fortune and finds that not much has changed at all since the day she left. She begins meeting with high school friends one by one, offering them each a huge sum of money to help them fulfill their hopes and dreams. Although suspicious of the strange offer, they each take the money. But where did this money come from, and why is Maya giving it away so readily? Will it really help them realize their dreams…?

Distributor Asmik Ace will be releasing “Watashi Dasuwa” first at Ebisu Garden Cinema sometime this Fall.

Official website

Here’s the trailer for Kazuya Hatazawa‘s Time Evolution Tactics: Hyperion, a theatrically-released spin-off of the “Jikuu Keisatsu Wecker” series which aired from 2001-2007. It involves a 22nd century time detective named Koushiro Orio (Sanshiro Wada) and a team of four women who work with him as time cops. In the film a young woman (Ayumi Murata) asks them to find her brother and during the subsequent investigation they’re attacked by a biotech-modified time criminal named Carla. But before the team can catch her, she’s suddenly captured by a mysterious rival time detective.

The film will be released at Cinemart Shinjuku on July 25, 2009 with a DVD release coming on July 31st.

Official website

Ryko Distribution sub-label Eastern Star will be releasing Higuchinsky‘s Uzumaki on R1 DVD in September. The former DVD release by Elite Entertainment which first came out on July 6, 2004 is now out of print.

Plot: One day, small-town resident Kirie (Eriko Hatsune) discovers her boyfriend’s father videotaping a snail for some reason. His bizarre obsession with spiral objects seems to increase exponentially over the next few days, leading up to his eventual suicide inside a spinning washing machine. After that, other residents seem equally transfixed by spirals, some even mutating into spirals themselves.

Region 1, NTSC, anamorphic widescreen. Japanese Dolby 5.1 audio with English subtitles. Features include behind the scenes, interviews, camcorder footage, director’s narration, and trailer.

Comedian Gori is probably best known in the west for his appearances on countless Japanese variety shows over the years and his heavily YouTube’d breakdancing competitions against fellow comedian Takashi Okamura. Over the past few years he’s also had roles in several high profile movies such as Memories of Matsuko, Sing Salmon, Sing!, and Goemon. Now he’s getting behind the camera for his directorial debut, Minami no Shima no Furimun (something like “Dear Idiot of the Southern Islands” in Okinawan dialect).

The film is set in Koza, an Okinawan town located near a military base where villagers and US soldiers coexist. Gori plays Eisho, a pig farmer who spends most of his time hanging out with Hitoshi (Daisuke Moromizato) and the much older Masaru (Masao Teruya). One day he falls for an American pole dancer named “Orange”, but a rather large soldier named Max (Bobby Ologun) also likes her and the two begin to compete for her attention. This leads to a rather ill-advised 1-on-1 fight, but with the support of his childhood friend Rimi (Akima), Eisho finally makes an important realization that changes his outlook.

The film was produced by Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd. (Drop) and will be released by Kadokawa Pictures on August 29, 2009.

Official website

Based on two autobiographical novels by Jun Nishimura, Nankyoku Ryorinin (Antarctic Chef) centers around a research expedition living in Dome Fuji Station near the South Pole. The area, which is located far from Showa Station, has an average temperature of -54 degrees celcius and is situated 3800 meters above sea level. A cook named Nishimura (Masato Sakai) leaves his family behind in order to assist the expedition. Out in the middle of nowhere, Nishimura manages to cook extravagant meals consisting of high-class ingredients like foie gras, spiny lobster, and Matsuzaka beef in this true story of wintering party male bonding.

Distributor Tokyo Theatres Co., Inc. will be releasing Nankyoku Ryorinin at Theatre Shinjuku on August 8, 2009 with a subsequent national road show beginning on August 22nd.

Source: Yahoo! Japan Movies

Hong Kong DVD label CN Entertainment will be releasing Daisuke Goto‘s Shin Kankin Toubo (2008) with English subtitles in early July. The title translates to something like “New Captive Runaway” and the “New” is based on the fact that Kankin Toubo was a hit original video series from the 90s.

Plot: A girl (Sakurano) wakes up chained up in a dark boiler room, unsure of how she got there. She’s soon approached by a strange large man wearing a mask and using a creepy voice changer. The girl is the daughter of Daisuke (Kenji Ezure), the shrewd president of a general contracting company. Daisuke was too occupied with an ongoing sexual fling with his secretary (Asami) to notice that his daughter was missing at first, and his relationship with her was already strained due to a certain incident in the past, but when he receives a threatening phone call he eventually recognizes the gravity of the situation. Eventually his daughter begins to calm down as her fear slowly turns into a perverse attraction to this strange person holding her captive. What is the kidnapper’s motive? And what is his true form? In the basement of a certain building, insanity merges with obscenity as the plot unfolds.

Region 3, NTSC, DVD-5. Japanese audio with selectable English, traditional Chinese, and simplified Chinese subtitles.