The official website for Kiyohide Matsumura’s Isshô no? Onegai is online.

The screenplay for Isshô no? Onegai was written by (Kiyohide) Matsumura. The movie’s cast is as follows: Satoshi Matsuda, Meguru Ishii, Yûki Himura (of Bananaman - on the right), Seiji Fukushi, Takashige Mukai, Takashi Hagino, Osamu Shitara (of Bananaman - on the left), Tomomi Miyashita, Shigemitsu Ogi, Kazuyuki Senba, Hôryû Nakamura, Shûô Takiguchi, Takamasa Kubo (of Sanbyôshi - on the right), Takanori Takeyama (of Kanning (Kanningu) - on the left), Shinji Maggy (Magî Shinji), Aja, Takuya (of The Touch (Za tacchi) - on the right), Kazuya (of The Touch (Za tacchi) - on the left), Terumitsu Kaji (of Sakuranbo Booby (Sakuranbo Bûbî) - on the left), Keita Kimura (of Sakuranbo Booby (Sakuranbo Bûbî) - on the right), Miho Kiuchi (a.k.a. Miho Kinouchi), Yui Makino, Ayano Tachibana, Nozomi Mori, Passion Yara (Passhon Yara), Ryô Takakura (of Sanbyôshi - on the left), Naoya Katô (of Hareruya - on the right), Yasuhiro Ôno (of Hareruya - on the left), Hisae Ukita, Sôji Masaki, Seiji Hoshino, Aoba Kawai, Anna Suzuki, Megumi Araki, Mai Minami, and Aya Kumeta.

Isshô no? Onegai is scheduled to be screened at the Laforet Museum Harajuku (Rafôre Myûjiamu Harajuku) on October 15th and 16th.

Official website

Another I.G animation, this time scheduled to start airing in Japan during December 2005 - only 4 episodes in this series, and looking at the trailer the animation has nice production values that could go beyond usual TV stuff. Judge for yourself…

‘King of Fighters’ Trailer (Downloadable Mac or PC expanding archive with WMV file).

Just click the small relevant box bottom-right of the pictures from the trailer itself. If anyone has trouble with that file, let me know in the comments and I can ‘rapidshare’ a captured Quicktime movie version i created from the WMV for my own viewing. There’s also these : ‘King of Fighters’ Production Stills and Concept Drawings. Also worth noting that the Production I.G (English) Official Website is surrently undergoing a revamp, forums have temporarily disappeared, but there’s always new stuff going on over there.

via Anime News Network.

Ryûichi Hiroki’s It’s Only Talk (Yawarakai seikatsu) is scheduled to be screened at the Yurakucho Asahi Hall (Yûrakuchô Asahi Hôru) in Tokyo on Wednesday November 23rd at 15:30, as part of Tokyo FilmEx 2005 (Dai-6-kai Tôkyô Firumekkusu).

As was reported here on Twitch back on May 22nd, the screenplay for It’s Only Talk was written by Haruhiko Arai, based on the novel Ittsu onrî tôku by Akiko Itoyama. The movie stars Shinobu Terajima (she’s also in Jun’ya Satô’s Yamato (Otoko-tachi no Yamato) and Takashi Minamoto’s Until the Lights Come Back (Daiteiden no yoru ni)), Etsushi Toyokawa (he’s also in Takashi Minamoto’s Until the Lights Come Back (Daiteiden no yoru ni), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Loft (a.k.a. “Shi no otome"), and Takashi Miike’s The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô)), Shunsuke Matsuoka (he was in Satoshi Miki’s Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu), Tomorowo Taguchi (he’s also in Shûsuke Kaneko‘s God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand (Kami no hidarite akuma no migite), Kentarô Moriya’s School Daze (Sukûru deizu), Takashi Minamoto’s Until the Lights Come Back (Daiteiden no yoru ni), Mitsuo Yanagimachi’s Who’s Camus Anyway? (Kamyu nante shiranai), and Shion Sono‘s Strange Circus (Kimyô na sâkasu); he was in Ataru Oikawa’s Einstein Girl (Ainshutain gâru) and Taiichi’s Death Make - one of the half-dozen hour-long movies in the Kazuo Umezu’s Horror Theater (Umezu Kazuo: kyôfu gekijô) series), and Satoshi Tsumabuki.

Here’s a synopsis for It’s Only Talk from the website of the international sales agent for the movie, Gold View Y.K. (Y.K. Gôrudo Byû): “Yuko is 35 years old, single, out of work, and on medication from her psychiatrist to combat her manic depression. Living in Kamata Town (’not an ounce of chic’, according to her web page), Yuko divides her time between a variety of men friends, each with his own peculiarities. Her university classmate, Homma, suffers from impotence. ‘K’, whom she meets on the net, is a self-confessed pervert. Then, there is a young gangster, Yasuda, who is a fellow manic depressive. Her cousin, Shoichi, is also on the scene, having left his family to pursue his mistress, only to be given the cold shoulder by her, too. ¶ Yuko seems to create a different persona (and a different history) depending on whom she is talking to at the time. Human contact is just as important for her as for anyone else, but sometimes her condition makes it difficult for others to relate to her for as long as she would like.”

Tokyo FilmEx 2005: It’s Only Talk (English)
Tokyo FilmEx 2005: It’s Only Talk (Japanese)

Ooooooh ... while everybody in Russia has been going wild over the big effects films post-Night Watch apparently someone over there has been watching a lot of J-horror. And good J-horror, too ...

I just came across the website for a 2006 Russian horror flick titled Dead Daughters and it looks gooooooood ... very creepy, atmospheric stuff ... check it out:

Dead Daughters Website
Teaser One (downloadable Quicktime)

Teaser Two (downloadable Quicktime)

Teaser Three (downloadable Quicktime)
Teaser Four (downloadable Quicktime)

What do you do if you’re an indie film icon whose attempt to sell out and go Hollywood fails miserably? You abruptly quit your next major studio film and return to suckle at the teat of all things indie, of course. Yes, it’s Kevin Smith’s Passion of the Clerks. It’s real. It’s coming. It has a teaser with no actual footage from the film. It also has a lovely video journal. Voila.

The Passion of the Clerks Website
Passion of the Clerks Teaser (downloadable Quicktime)
Passion of the Clerks Clip (downloadable Quicktime)

Well, this is unusual ... a foreign Oscar submission that local folk will have a chance to see before the Oscars.  Saverio Costanzo’s Private has just been announced as Italy’s submission for the coming Oscars and Seattle’s Typecast Releasing will be opening the film domestically in New York and LA in November. It’s a bold choice for Italy, actually, as the film is remarkably non-Italian ... here’s a piece of the official synopsis:

“Inspired by real events, documentary filmmaker Saverio Costanzo’s feature debut is a minimalist psychological drama about a Palestinian family of seven suddenly confronted with a volatile situation in their home that in many ways reflects the larger ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel.

Mohammad, his wife and their five children live in a large, isolated house located halfway between a Palestinian village and an Israeli settlement. The house, in the crossfire of the two sides, is a strategic lookout point that the Israeli army decides to seize, confining the family to a few downstairs rooms in daytime and a single room at night. Mohammad refuses to leave his home and, reinforced by his principles against violence, decides to find a way to keep his family together in the house until the Israeli soldiers move on. ”

Private Website
Private Trailer (downloadable Quicktime 7)

What do you do when your Hollywood career crumbles away beneath you? If you’re Steven Seagal you go to Hong Kong and start producing martial arts films there ...

We originally posted about the Seagal produced Dragon Squad months ago when the kindly Jiangtou showed me a fantastic early trailer - which I wasn’t allowed to share - and some early one sheets - which I was. Well, the official trailer is up now and it’s completely, 100% different from the one I saw earlier. I like the first one better, but there’s still plenty of good stuff in this ...

The film is about a group of Interpol agents - led by Sammo Hung - tracking a group of international terrorists in Hong Kong. Simon Yam, Michael Biehn, Derek Chou, Vanness Wu, Shawn Yu, Maggie Q, and Huh Joon Ho also star. The script is from Bey Logan.

Personally I’m still buzzed from Yam and Hung’s performances in SPL, so seeing them together again is a major plus in my book and this looks to be a decently strong entry in the HK crime film canon. With Logan’s involvement - he just signed on as an Asian advisor for the Weinstein Company - I’m surprised the Weinstein’s haven’t announced the acquisition yet ... I’m sure it’ll be just a matter of time.

Dragon Squad Website
Dragon Squad Trailer (Downloadable Windows Media)

Via Hitman in the KFC Forums

A downloadable trailer for Takashi Motoki’s Smile (Sumairu) has been added to the official subsite for the movie.

As was previously reported here on Twitch, the story and screenplay for Smile were written by Yûji Nagamori, who also executive produced the movie. The principal cast of Smile is as follows: Emiru Momose (she was in Noboru Iguchi’s ‘family drama’ Impolite Education (18-kin - abunai kankei: the kinshinsôkan)), Shûhei Yoshinaga (he was in (Takashi) Motoki’s P-KAN★couple (Pîkan fûfu)), Akifumi Miura (he was in Ataru Oikawa’s Tomie: Beginning and Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Cream Lemon (Kurîmu remon)), Asahi, Hotaru Hazuki (Haduki Hotaru; she’s also in Takaaki Hashiguchi’s Kuchisake, and was in (Takashi) Motoki’s P-KAN★couple (Pîkan fûfu), Daisuke Yamanouchi‘s Benriya kaseifu: kagi no ana kara, and Mitsuru Meike’s Horny Home Tutor: Teacher’s Love Juice (Hatsujô kateikyôshi: sensei no aijiru) - which his The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (Hanai Sachiko no karei na shôgai) is an extended version of), Takashi Mitsuhashi, Ukyô Nagura, Akina, Miho Harita (she was in Tôru Kamei’s Double Suicide Elegy (Shinjû erejî) - a.k.a. “Shinju Elegy"), Daisuke Iijima (he’s also in Ryûichi Honda‘s Ikusa), and Hiroshi Izawa.

FullMedia K.K. (K.K. FuruMedia) is scheduled to release Smile on sale DVD (FMDS-5019; NTSC, region 2, no subtitles) in Japan on December 23rd.

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED
Smile trailer (downloadable 9.2 MB RealMedia file)
Smile official subsite

The official website for Eiji Uchida’s Shiawase nara te o tatakô is now fully functional, and there’s a trailer for the movie on that site.

As was previously reported here on Twitch, the screenplay for Shiawase nara te o tatakô was written by (Eiji) Uchida. The movie’s principal cast is as follows: Ryôko Tanami, Seri Iwahori, Yukiko Okamoto (she’s also in Hisayasu Satô’s “Imomushi” in the omnibus horror movie Ranpo jigoku; she was in Katsuya Matsumura’s Kirei? - The Terror of Beauty (Ki-re-i?) and Takahisa Zeze’s Secret Journey (Yuda) - one of the four movies in Euro Space’s Eros Bancho Series (Erosu banchô shirîzu)), Kazuma Suzuki (he was in Takashi Miike’s satellite TV movie Pâto taimu tantei 2 (a.k.a. “Onna to ai to misuterî: dai-146-kai")), Motoki Fukami, Yoshihiko Hosoda (he was in Akio Yoshida’s Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro: gekijô-ban: ‘yûrei manshon’), Inuko Inuyama, Shigemitsu Ogi (he’s also in Shûsuke Kaneko‘s God’s Left Hand, Devil’s Right Hand (Kami no hidarite akuma no migite) and Ryûichi Honda‘s Ikusa), Kôen Okumura (he was in Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s The Ravaged House: Zoroku’s Disease (Tadareta ie: ‘Zôroku no kibyô’ yori) - one of the movies in the Hideshi Hino’s Theater of Horror (Hino Hideshi no za horâ: kaiki gekijô) hexalogy), Hisako Ôkata (she was in Katsu Kanai‘s The Desert Archipelago (Mujin rettô) - a.k.a. “Deserted Island” - Good-Bye, and The Kingdom - see the first, second and third listings, respectively, on this page on Kanai’s website), Aki Maeda (she’s also in Yûji Tajiri’s Harami: shiroi kyôfu and Taikan Suga’s The Last Love Song on This Little Planet (Saishû heiki kanojo)), Shûgo Oshinari (he’s also in Kentarô Moriya’s School Daze (Sukûru deizu), and was in Kazushi Watanabe‘s Space Police (Supêsu porisu)), Kanning (Kanningu; a duo comprised of Takanori Takeyama and Tadayuki Nakashima - Takeyama was in Kazushi Watanabe‘s Space Police (Supêsu porisu)), Yasuko Kuramoto, Hideo Sakaki (he was in Hajime Hashimoto’s Gokudô no onna-tachi: jôen and Osamu Fukutani‘s The Suicide Manual (Jisatsu manyuaru)), Masahiro Kômoto (he was in Ataru Oikawa’s Menotte (Menotto)), and Yoshiki Arizono (he’s also in Ryûichi Honda‘s Ikusa, and was in Takashi Miike’s satellite TV movie Pâto taimu tantei 2 (a.k.a. “Onna to ai to misuterî: dai-146-kai")).

Shiawase nara te o tatakô is scheduled to open at the Cine Quinto (Shine Kuinto) in Tokyo on November 19th.

Official website

Not seen this full trailer pop-up anywhere else yet, and it’s one of those things that just appears on Official Sites - try keeping track of even the ‘most interesting’ of those : damn hard. Anyhow, the full final trailer for Takeshis’ is online now, just head over there via the link below - then come back and read all three of our reviews, please.

Takeshis’ Official Site (with Full Trailer and previous Teaser Trailer - both embedded).

Takeshis’ Reviews at Twitch : by Todd, Mathew, and Kurt.

Insurance, of all things, is the pointer that’s hinting at a new Otomo movie. Yes, a large Japanese Insurance Company has had a policy for a project Directed by Otomo taken out to cover it against incompletion.

Otomos’ ‘Steamboy’ was a long time coming, both in its production time and its distance from ‘Akira’, and in between we had some short films so perhaps there’s room for speculation it could be either - maybe more likely a feature film? My own view would be that Otomo spent so long in production for a film that ideas must be bursting out of his head, either that or he knows he has to get going now as they take so long to put together (feature film or not). Anyway, until more immerges it’s speculation beyond the basic fact that he has something new ‘in the pipeline’.

via Anime News Service.

The official website for Tetsuo Shinohara‘s Yokubô is now partly functional.

As was previously reported here on Twitch, Yokubô is based on the eponymous novel by Mariko Koike (who also wrote the eponymous story on which Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s “Tamamushi”, in the omnibus movie Female (Fîmeiru), was based). The theme song for it is by Tomoyasu Hotei. Its principal cast is as follows: Yuka Itaya (she was in Takashi Miike’s satellite TV - specifically, BS Japan K.K. (K.K. BS Japan) - movie Pâto taimu tantei 2 (a.k.a. “Onna to ai to misuterî: dai-146-kai")), Jun Murakami (he was in Shion Sono‘s Into a Dream (Yume no naka e) and Itsumichi Isomura’s Getting Off the Boat at Her Island (Fune o oritara kanojo no shima)), Saki Takaoka (she was in Rokurô Mochizuki’s Nureta akai ito, Suzuki Matsuo‘s “Yoru no shitasaki” in the omnibus movie Female (Fîmeiru), and Hirohisa Sasaki’s “Gloves" ("Tebukuro") in the omnibus horror movie Tales of Terror (Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro: gekijô-ban)), Gô Rijû, Nao Ômori (he’s also in Hisayasu Satô’s “Imomushi” in the omnibus horror movie Ranpo jigoku, Masato Tanno’s A Day Beyond the Horizon (Itsuka nami no kanata ni), Tatsushi Ômori’s The Whispering of the Gods (Gerumaniumu no yoru, and Eiji Yamada’s Kagi ga nai), Hôryû Nakamura (he was in Daisuke Gotô’s A Room with a Private View (Nagame no ii heya: nozokareta onna)), Shungiku Uchida (she was in (Tetsuo) Shinohara’s Karaoke Terror (Shôwa kayô daizenshû)), Kaoru Mizuki, Yasutaka Tsutsui, Kumi Nakamura, Hideko Yoshida, and Masahiko Tsugawa (he was in Takashi Kayane’s Naniwa kin’yû-dô: Haibara shôbu! Kishikaisei no otoshimae!!).

Media Suits K.K. (K.K. Media Sûtsu) is scheduled to release Yokubô theatrically in Japan in November. The movie has been rated R-18 by the Administration Commission of Motion Picture Code of Ethics (Eirin Kanri Iinkai).

Shinohara’s previous directing credits include “Momo” in the omnibus movie Female (Fîmeiru), and Karaoke Terror (Shôwa kayô daizenshû).

Official website

Returning to the big screen after the huge success of his directorial debut ‘마파도’ (’Mapado’), director Chu Chang-Min and the stars of his latest film ‘사랑을 놓치다’ (’Lost in Love’) had a press conference in Daejeon, last September 27. The melodrama marks a return to films for Song Yoon-Ah, and the first melodrama for Seol Kyung-Gu (although some of his previous films had elements of the genre). In addition, the two already worked together in Kim Sang-Jin’s 2002 comedy ‘광복절 특사’ (’Jail Breakers’). The three had a brief interview with the press:

Press: I wanted to ask the director, why choose a melodrama after being so successful with a comedy? Please introduce shortly what kind of film ‘Lost in Love’ is.
Director Chu Chang-Min: I fell in love with the script long before I debuted. I did start my career with a comedy, but I wanted to follow that with a melodrama from the beginning. There are a few common points between the synopsis and the title, our film is like that. It might not necessarily end up as the title suggests [Korean title means ‘letting go of, missing, losing love], but isn’t love something you mostly let go of? Keeping that in mind, it looked like the title fit with the ending of the film really well.

Continue Reading "‘사랑을 놓치다’ (’Lost in Love’) Press Conference Report"...

Mmm ... Logboy just dropped me a note pointing out that Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady is hitting US DVD on November 1st. So, if you’ve been holding off on checking out this much deserving Cannes prize winner it’s about to get a whole lot easier. And you really should. No specs listed anywhere yet that I’ve seen, but this is one truly fantastic film ...

Read our Weerasethakul interview here.

Read our Tropical Malady review here.

The official website for the Tokyo Filmex has gone live and this thing’s got - in my view, anyway - a much more interesting lineup than the Tokyo International Film Festival, which is also running soon.

What’s got my attention?  Oh, you know ... a little film we like a bit called SPL.  Fipresci winner Sakwa.  And, most exciting of all the feature length version of Song Il-Gon’s Magician(s)!  As far as I can tell this is the world premiere for the full version of the latest from Song, commissioned as a short for the Jeonjeu Film Festival and now expanded up to a 95 minute run time!  They’re also running a retrospective on Nakagawa Nobuo and running a program of Swiss films ...