More Spring Japanese Movie Trailers

Here’s some more great new movies coming out in Japan during the Spring:

1. My Darling Is A Foreigner

Starring the incredibly cute Mao Inoue, this is an adaptation of the manga about the real life story of a Japanese woman that fell in love with an American man. It’s released on the 10th April.

2. Bushido Sixteen

Kie Kitano who’s best remembered for her role in the dorama LIFE is one of the main stars here about two female teenage kendo fighters. Riko Narumi is the other lead female – she plays Kaori who takes kendo very seriously and has done so for the majority of her life. Kie’s character Sanae is only casually interested in the sport. Sanae beats Kaori in a tournament at junior high school. This doesn’t sit well with Kaori who secretly seethes with rage. When both girls enter high school, their rivalry intensifies!! I think it comes out on the same day as My Darling Is A Foreigner.

3. Sukeban Hunters: Soukatsu Nagurikomi Sakusen/Jigoku no Kettou

I’m not sure if these two short movies can be classed as pink eiga or a straight forward action movie. I haven’t got a description of the storyline but it looks like it was inspired by 70’s Japanese cinema. They look interesting. Not sure of the release date

and finally a movie that comes out during the Summer

4. Surely Someday

Shun Oguri directs his first major movie. It concerns 5 schoolboys who form a band and look forward to playing at their school festival. Their hopes are dashed by the sudden cancellation of the festival. In the hope of making the school Principal change his mind they stage a fake bomb threat. Their plan works at first but when a real bomb goes off, the blame falls on the boys and they’re expelled from school. Three years on and more details regarding the incident are revealed as the boys try and put their lives back in order. This one comes out in July.

Winter/Spring Movie Trailers

These trailers of movies that are coming out in Japan over the next couple of months caught my eye:

1. Higanjima

Although it was made in Korea and directed by a Korean, the actors and characters in this movie based on a graphic novel are Japanese. The story is of a man and his friends travelling to an island to look for his lost brother and finding a den of vampires there. If you like vampire slaying and plenty of action then this will be right up your street. Looks great. Released on January 9th.

2. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Having seen the 80’s version and the superb anime movie that came out a couple of years ago I’m really looking forward to seeing how this one fares. The teaser looks promising enough. It’s about a schoolgirl that finds that she can travel through time but soon abuses that power to fix some problems. What she doesn’t realise is that there are consequences if you meddle with time. It comes out in March 2010.

3. Assault Girls

I’m a fan of Mamoru Oshii so I can’t wait to see his new live action movie since 2001’s Avalon. The story revolves around 3 big rifle wielding sexy female hunters who fight some monsters on a bleak desert battlefield. Very impressive looking trailer I’ve got to say. I’m sure it’s not going to be disappointing judging by what I’ve seen from it. Released on December 19th.

4. Mr Bubblegum

This is a quirky comedy of a recently unemployed business man who is writing a suicide note in a park when a cute school girl looks in on what he’s doing and decides to help him write the note out! It sounds interesting. 20 year old Mamiko Funakoshi is beautiful. I’m not sure when this movie is coming out?

and finally

5. The Shock Labyrinth

Already out in Japan since the 17th October, this movie is inspired by the attraction at the Fuji Q Highland theme park. They actually shot the movie there when the park was closed at night. A group of teenagers find their world turned upside down when a friend who disappeared 10 years ago suddenly turns up out of the blue. When she falls ill they take her to a hospital but find themselves trapped in the labyrinth corridors of a haunted house.

New Japanese Movie Trailers – Summer 2009

1. Fuyu No Kaidan (Winter Ghost Story) stars C-ute’s very own Maimi Yajima and one of the H!P eggs Kanon in this zombie flick. I don’t have any high expectations for this at all judging from the trailer but I’ll give it a chance just because Maimi’s in it.

2. Ultra Galaxy Legends:The Movie – the latest Ultraman movie has 50 ultramen trying to stop the evil Ultraman Belial from using 100 kaiju to conquer the galaxy.

3. Summer Wars – this cool looking anime about a teenage boy Kenji who receives a strange math problem on his mobile phone. By solving the problem he somehow manages to cause a parallel reality to collide with the Earth and it’s up to him to put everything back into order again.

4. Killer Virgin Road – this comedy starring the brilliant Juri Ueno looks good and it also features a glimpse of gravure idol Ayaka Komatsu. It’s released in Japan on 12th September.

5. Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl – looking at the trailer, we can safely bet that this is going to be similar to the blood soaked fest that was The Machine Girl with ridiculously over the top gore.

Details On Kago’s Role In New Ju-On Movie Plus Teaser Trailer

Some small snippets about Kago’s role in the new Ju-On movie Kuroi Shojo has been revealed. She’ll play a nurse named Yuko who has an odd experience whilst taking care of a girl called Fukie. Test results show a cyst inside Fukie’s body which is in actuality a leftover grudge from a baby which was unable to grow.The grudge spreads from Fukie to everybody around her.

This double teaser trailer shows clips from the other Ju-On movie first then Kago’s movie.

More Japanese Movie Trailers

1. HIGH SCHOOL GIRL RIKA: ZOMBIE HUNTER

This movie is supposed to have come out on DVD since Summer 2008 but so far nothing has appeared on the shelves. I really want to see this low budget zombie splatterfest.

2. OPPAI VOLLEYBALL

23 year old female teacher Mikako volunteers to coach her school’s male volleyball team but finds that they’re all geeks and there’s only 5 of them. To motivate the lads and gain new members she promises to give the team a peek of her breasts if they win a tournament. Naturally this spurs the team on to become better players but can they win a tournament and get to see some breasts? It sounds like a good comedy and it features Ayase Haruse as the female teacher who was voted in a recent survey by men as the woman they’d like to marry the most!

3. GOKUSEN: THE MOVIE

Only a small teaser trailer is out at the moment but I’m really looking forward to seeing this. It’ll be the last time for us to see Yankumi as this concludes her story which has been wildly popular in Japan over the past couple of years. Will some of the characters from all 3 series appear?

4. SLACKERS

Another comedy about a bunch of teenage bad boys who are constantly battling with a rival gang for control of some turf. They’re forced with an ultimatum – join their school’s baseball team and make them a winning one or face expulsion.

5. HIDE AND SEEK

A strange supernatural game starts to spread on the internet and Ritsuko still reeling from her parents divorce participates in it but when she doesn’t turn up for school her friend Ryoko checks up on her. What Ryoko finds is a piece of paper with instructions on how to play Hide & Seek which involves a doll, a knife, uncooked rice, red string, a sewing needle and a glass of water. Judging from the trailer it doesn’t look very original and I can see various nods to past J-horror movies. I’ll reserve judgment when I see the movie in it’s entirety.

Japanese Movie Trailers

A couple of trailers for some movies I’d like to see:

1. 20TH CENTURY BOYS: THE FINAL CHAPTER

I recently saw the first chapter and loved it so I’m waiting for the 2nd chapter to come out on DVD. The final part of the trilogy comes out in August so we’ll finally get to know the identity of the mysterious cult leader Friend.

2. GEISHA ASSASSIN (AKA GEISHA VS NINJAS)

This trailer looks interesting of a young geisha who inherits a sword and uses it to extract revenge on the man who murdered her father.

3. YATTERMAN

Yatterman was no.1 at the Japanese box office for a month recently and whilst it’s based on a 70’s anime and looks like a silly kids movie from the trailer I’d still like to see it. Kyoko Fukada looks really hot as the villainess Doronjo.

4. OKURIBITO (DEPARTURES)

Won the Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars, it tells the story of a cellist out of work and finding a job in a funeral parlour of all places.

Japanese Movies I’ve Watched Part 4

Here’s the latest Japanese movies I’ve watched over the past couple of weeks:

1. NADA SOU SOU (TEARS FOR YOU)

This is a romantic tearjerker starring the gorgeous Masami Nagasawa and Satoshi Tsumabaki as two half-siblings Yotaro and Kaoru who are reunited after several years of being apart. As Yotaro vowed to his dying mother that he’d take care of his sister he works to the bone to provide for her. Added to that there’s some sexual tension between the two. Things take a tragic turn though towards the end. It’s a great little movie with the two leads playing their parts well.

2. SOREDEMO BOKU WA YATTENAI (I JUST DIDN’T DO IT)

An absorbing court room drama of a young man on the way to an interview who’s accused by a schoolgirl of molesting her on a train. Though he pleads that he didn’t do anything wrong, he could get away with a slap on the wrist if he pleads guilty but he chooses not to and vows to go to trial to prove his innocence. This movie doesn’t give you much faith in the Japanese court system. Thankfully it seems that the country is about to take on the Western system of a jury deciding on the verdict instead of 1 judge.

3. MOON CHILD

Starring Hyde and Gackt as a pair of friends (one human, one vampire) in an alternative future, making choices that bring them together and push them apart but ultimately realising they have a bond that will last forever. I was unsure if this was some sort of comedy at first but the storyline soon takes a turn to the dark side. It was a good movie and I was surprised at what a great team Hyde and Gackt make.

4. TOKYO GORE POLICE

Probably the goriest movie since Peter Jackson’s Braindead, this crazy over the top splatter fest movie stars the extremely hot Eihi Shiina as Ruka, an Engineer Hunter who tracks down genetically modified humans who go round killing people and can conjour up weapons from open wounds. Sounds strange but just wait till you watch this movie. This is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Blood flows like a torrent, limbs are cut off and all sorts of weird things are going on. I love the very funny commercials which pop up every now and then in the movie such as the Wrist Cutter G which is promoted by some schoolgirls – making it appear that cutting one’s wrists using the product is cool!!! I loved this movie for it’s pure insanity!

and finally

5. 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND

This fantastic anime movie by Makoto Shinkai is 3 short stories which are linked together – all about distance. It ‘s visually stunning with smooth beautiful animation. The title is named for the speed of which sakura petals fall to the ground. The movie will linger with you long after you’ve finished watching it. It’s the type of storyline about love and loss which instantly sucks you in. I thought it was magnificent and I highly recommend it for all.

Japanese Movies I’d Like To See

These are trailers for 5 Japanese movies I’d like to see soon:

AFTER SCHOOL – a comedy about a man having an extra-marital affair and how things spiral out of control for him.

K-20 (LEGEND OF THE MASK) – a circus acrobat tries to clear his name by pursuing the master masked criminal K-20 who has set him up to be arrested and in the process save a young female heiress from becoming his next victim.

252: SIGNAL OF LIFE – a disaster movie about a gigantic earthquake and then a huge tidal wave created from a typhoon which strikes Tokyo and the rescue unit charged with finding the survivors in the aftermath. It also features one of my favorite Japanese actresses in Yu Kashii.

20TH CENTURY BOYS – live action adaptation of the popular manga series about a terrifying cult and it’s leader “Friend” who plans to destroy the world from a story created by a group of 4 friends during their childhood. This is only the first part of a trilogy. The 2nd part is supposed to come out in Japanese cinemas on the 31st January.

and finally we have

SHINJUKU INCIDENT – though not technically a Japanese production, this HK movie starring Jackie Chan is set in Tokyo. It’s not an action film but rather a serious drama with Chan as a Chinese immigrant arriving in Japan and getting involved with the yakuza.

The Latest Japanese Movies I’ve Seen

I’ll be posting Part 2 of my favourite Japanese movies soon but before that let me share with you the latest movies from the land of the rising sun I’ve seen lately with a trailer for each. Hope this whets your appetite to go and seek them out for yourself:

10 Promises To My Dog

Heavenly Forest

April Story

Crows Zero

Hinokio

and finally A Long Walk