I’m a couple days late on this but this is great news. JJ Sonny Chiba is going to revive the role that got him his start in acting. At the age of 19 Sonny Chiba took over the title role in the 1959 Japanese television series Nana-Iro Kamen or 7-Color Mask. It was Toei Company’s first super-hero series and lasted for 57 episodes; Chiba starring in the last 18. The hero of this series is a young detective named Kotarô Ran, who, unknown to anyone (even his friends), is a master of disguise, utilizing 7 different personalities. Most of his disguises are odd characters, like a magician and a cigar-smoking Indian, but Kotarô’s 7th disguise is the 2-gun-toting caped, golden-masked superhero - 7-Color Mask!
The creator of this series, Kohan Kawauchi, passed away last month and he met with Chiba before his passing. Kawauchi shared with Chiba that he would have liked to have seen Chiba reprise his heroic role. Spurned on by his dying friend’s request Chiba made the decision to go ahead with a film version remake of the television series. Whether Chiba will aim for a modern envisioning of the series or try to capture some of the colorful [ahem] characters and costumes of the original series we will have to wait and see. Maybe. You see, the film is expected to be completed in a year but reports say that it will privately screened almost a year to the day in the “Super Museum - Time Machine” in Otsu, Shiga, a museum of Chiba’s prized possessions that opens on May 17.
I can’t imagine something like this never being given a formal release. I’ve embedded a couple short videos from YouTube after the break.
Continue Reading "JJ Sonny Chiba will reprise superhero role ‘7-Color Mask/Nana-Iro Kamen’ [七色仮面]"...
Following on the success of their first foray into production with Pakistani splatter flick Hell’s Ground cult DVD label Mondo Macabro are jumping full bore into the production pool. We brought news last week about Karim Hussain’s upcoming exploiter Filthy and today we got the first word on upcoming Filipino scifi splatter exploiter Killdroid. From director Rico Maria Ilarde the film tells the story of a high school girl who becomes the lover of an abandoned killer android, part of an abandoned military project.
Given that it’s coming from Mondo I expect this one to be every bit as splattery as the recent Fever Dreams productions - Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police - with no opportunity to shock ignored. We’ve got a detailed project announcement below the break and you can check the first images at the link below.
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No, it’s not a done deal yet but word is out from Nacho Vigalondo, director of the original Spanish version of Time Crimes, that iconic director David Cronenberg is in the running to direct the upcoming English language remake. This is not a done deal just yet - I honestly don’t even know how far into negotiations they are - but if this is the direction that the US producers are trying to take the project then I say hot damn, bring it on. A Cronenberg take on this material would, no doubt, be significantly different than Vigalondo’s source material but it should make for absolutely spectacular stuff ...
Yes, this news isn’t the freshest we’ve ever posted - I believe the trailer is a couple days old now - but over the weekend the lady friend and I took the boy to see Speed Racer - which she hated, I was middling on and the boy really enjoyed - and the big highlight before the show was catching the trailer for the new, animated Star Wars movie before the screening. Hey, kids! It’s a new Star Wars movie that looks to be remarkably free of suck! And very high on action! Huzzah!
This is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Screen International has announced that sales company Velvet Octopus will be launching international pre-sales on S. Darko at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. And, yes, this is what you think - a sequel to Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko with Daviegh Chase reprising her role as the younger Darko sister. Richard Kelly has no official involvement whatsoever. Darko needs a sequel about as badly as the original Highlander did, which is to say not at all, and I fully expect the results of this to be about the same, which is to say horribly bad. I’m bothered that they’re doing a sequel at all, that they’re doing it without Kelly boggles the mind as Darko was Kelly’s baby ... my guess is Kelly has too much love for his creation to bastardize it this way himself and not enough financial control over the property to stop other people from doing it for him ... Icky.
In the near future...The Tokyo Police force has been privatized and incorporated. The new force has their hands full with a new type of genetically engineered mutant stalking the streets and brutally taking human lives. Luca, the top level officer at Tokyo Police has special law enforcement skills but her dark past makes her vulnerable. She is determined to hunt the mutant known as “Engineer” until the day she can find and destroy the mysterious “Key-Man”.
We debuted the first footage from upcoming cult flick Tokyo Gore Police here at Twitch a while back, a four minute reel of footage cut together for use at Japan’s Yubari Fantastic Film Festival. True to it’s name it was nasty, gorey stuff, with Audition star Eihi Shiina hacking and slashing her way through a series of bizarre mutants. Only down side to that promo was that it was cut together early enough in the film’s life that it wasn’t entirely through post production yet and was still a little rough around the edges. Well, no more! The official trailer has just been released and the blood has been buffed and polished to a high sheen. There’s not really anything in the way of new footage in this one but things have been tightened up considerably with some of the more bizarre moments - hello, crocodile girl! - moved up front and center ... You’ll find both trailers in the Twitch Player below the break.
Continue Reading "Second TOKYO GORE POLICE Trailer"...
A trailer for God’s Puzzle, the latest from Japanese maverick Takashi Miike, first appeared online back in April but at the time it was available only in a horrible, postage stamp sized format and I’ve been anxiously awaiting a decent version of the trailer ever since. Well, it has arrived, with a full trailer and a teaser now available in a size you don’t need a magnifying glass to appreciate. The film - the story of a college age slacker thrust into a relationship with an attractive but withdrawn genius - looks to be by far the most mainstream friendly thing Miike has done in years, possibly his most mainstream film ever, but hey ... it’s Miike and that makes it worth at least taking a peek at. You’ll find both trailers in the Twitch Player below the break, but be aware that you’ll need to wait through a brief interview with the man himself before the main trailer begins. And, for the record, every trailer for every Miike film made from here on out needs to start with that opening graphic ... brilliant ...
Continue Reading "A Teaser And Trailer For Miike’s GOD’S PUZZLE!"...
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Recently we got a nice mainstream genre (yes, they exist!) surprise in the cinemas with the horror movie “The Ruins”.
Doesn’t automatically sound like the best of movies, does it: obnoxious American students on holiday in Mexico visit an uncharted archaeological dig and encounter something which starts to pick them off one by one.
A rather lame set of trailers didn’t exactly help…
But what made it actually a nice surprise was the amount of detail lavished upon characterization, acting and the general portrayal of how a small group of people (might) react in an extremely stressful situation.
All these things were fleshed out to the extent that, in general, people were shocked to discover that this wasn’t just a funny B-movie but a pretty serious drama.
It might even have been one of my all-time favorites if not for some big issues I had with the “monster”, but I digress.
Anyway, I don’t think it’s a big spoiler when I tell you the big threat in the movie is (beside human nature) a big flesh-eating member of the “flora”, instead of the traditionally popular “fauna”.
Which brings me to my top 5 movies featuring extremely aggressive plants.
Read on!
Continue Reading "When Plants Attack!"...
Coming at your faster than a bolt of lightning, the Wachowski Brothers Speed Racer kicks cinema into the 5th dimension and is 10,000 volts of gooey fun at breakneck racing speeds of visual excitement that the entire family can enjoy. This is an explosion of eye-popping Busby Berkeley meets Stanley Kubrick meets anime styled techno delirium that will leave your eyes and brain feeling like it has just been hit by a tornadic sugar high (view image gallery). In some respects it should have been easy to see the Wachowski Brothers were heading in this direction with very anime influenced scenes from their previous movies and importantly of note here is they pick up their original Matrix magic wand, leaving their Reloaded and Revolutions hats behind.
From retro futuristic designs and its symphonic techno color overdrive, the anime universe of Speed Racer gets translated perfectly to the big screen. Make no mistake the Wachowski Brothers have turned anime into live action visual opera that promises to be the benchmark and standard all other type of adaptations will be judged against for the foreseeable future. Live action anime cinema has been born with this visual feast that rivals anything that has ever come before it in history. I didn’t like the upcoming trailers (absolutely hated them) or anything I had seen for it walking into it, so believe me I was very surprised at how well this movie turned out. Cue your inner disco monkey, it’s time to have some summer movie time fun!
Continue Reading "Speed Racer Review - Live Action Anime Bliss"...
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I proudly present to you one of the official Best Things Ever: outer space Nazis.
We have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of some footage from upcoming Finnish sci-fi comedy Iron Sky from the day we first caught wind of it seemingly ages ago. We’ve hosted the very first concept art from the film, had a few chats with the director and production team and just generally been sold on the concept from the word go. And here it is: in 1945, realizing that the war was taking a turn for the worst, the Nazis sent a collection of their best and brightest to establish a secret base on the moon where they would nurse themselves back to strength and develop their powerful military technology until the were ready to return. That day will arrive in 2018.
After months of work and fine tuning to get everything just right the teaser arrived on YouTube yesterday, which seems a shameful way to treat something as visually impressive as this. Apparently the director agrees as he’s just passed us a MUCH higher quality version of that same promo spot to load in to the Twitch Player. And, hot damn, the wait has been worth every second. This thing is spectacular, from the detailed CG work, to the spectacular production design, to that weirdly mournful title song - one that wouldn’t be out of place in a Bond film. Everything about this thing is absolutely perfect. You’ll find the teaser in the Twitch Player below the break.
Continue Reading "In 1945 The Nazis Went To The Moon … The IRON SKY Promo Arrives!"...
It’s kind of a good thing / bad thing scenario being Joseph Hahn. On the good thing side, Hahn is best known as the DJ for hugely successful band Linkin Park and there are worse things in life than traveling the world and making buckets of cash for playing music. Also a good thing is that the buckets of cash and influence as a member of the band has allowed Hahn to pursue his other major interest, that being film making. He got his start shooting videos for his own band and has moved on to shooting for other acts and now is taking his first step into the fiction word with an impressive short film titled The Seed. The bad thing about Joseph Hahn? Being a famous and well financed musician means he could well have a hard time convincing people that he’s serious about this whole film thing, which would be a shame because he’s quite good.
While it has many of the hallmarks you’d expect from a video director turned fiction director - the slick shooting style, the rapid fire editing, the musical appearances by his bandmates - Hahn shows that he’s got the conceptual goods to back up the style. The Seed is the story of a seemingly homeless man who is actually caught in the center of a shadowy military action. It may appear to outsiders that he is fighting phantoms - throwing punches at empty space and talking to people who aren’t there - but the hero of the piece is actually a traumatized military officer who has been made the subject of an experiment in cloaking technology. He can both hide himself through the use of this technology and also see others using it. And, oh yes, there are others. He may have been the first but there are more out there, all of them battling it out to control the technology. Think about it: soldiers that can’t be seen. Exclusive properties that are simply invisible to all but the privileged few. How much would the technology be worth on the open market?
Fans of the Ghost in the Shell franchise will immediately recognize the central device - this sort of cloaking technology is heavily featured in the series - but Hahn takes it in some different directions. The script of The Seed is a little under written as it stands but the seeds - if you’ll pardon the pun - of some stellar ideas are embedded in there. What he’s done is found a simple device that allows him to dive into issues of class warfare, the politics of military technology and a host of other issues while wrapping it all up in a slickly produced, martial arts heavy package. There are rumblings that this may be further developed into a feature length film and I hope they pursue that possibility, there’s lots of good stuff here worth exploring more.
The Seed is currently available on iTunes.
Alex Rivera’s debut feature Sleep Dealer was developed at the 2000 and 2001 Sundance Institute Feature Film Program labs, and won the 2002 Sundance/NHK award and a 2004 Annenberg Feature Film Fellowship.
It then moved on to win two major awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. Rivera and David Riker won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for outstanding achievement for their screenplay and Sleep Dealer was also the recipient of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Prize. The Prize, which carries a $20,000 cash award to the filmmaker provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is presented to an outstanding feature film focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
Sleep Dealer was selected “for its visionary and humane tale of a young man grappling with a technological future in which neural implants, telerobotics and ubiquitous computing serve a global economy rife with fundamental challenges and opportunities, and for its powerful and original storytelling and direction.”
The critical response has been qualified but almost without exception Rivera has been praised for his ambition and ingenious maximization of a meager budget to achieve his vision. What strikes me as the true challenge with this film is whether audiences spoonfed multi-million dollar special effects will be willing to shift suspension of disbelief or be able to overcome their addiction to blockbuster visuals to accommodate Sleep Dealer‘s unique angle on the near-future? Certainly the ideas are noteworthy enough and the film features a solid doe-eyed performance from one of Mexico’s rising stars. Luis Fernando Peña—the lead actor of Sleep Dealer—is likewise starring in Desierto Adentro, Rodrigo Plá’s critically-acclaimed follow-up to La Zona (featured in this year’s festival lineup). I encourage debate on whether audiences can be expected to shift their expectations of what a sci fi film should be to recognize the promise in Rivera’s flawed yet impressive debut feature.
PlumTV’s video interviews with Rivera, actress Leonor Varela and co-actor Jacob Vargas, include some clips from the film. Hollywood.com’s Sundance interview with Rivera is up on YouTube. And as of today, via The Hollywood Reporter, Maya Entertainment has picked up the U.S. Rights for Sleep Dealer.
Cross-published on The Evening Class.
Good news for fans of incredible animation. Mamoru Hosoda’s excellent animated feature film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time will have limited theatrical runs in New York, Los Angeles and Seattle. We here at Twitch flat out love this film and would implore anyone who lives in the cities to jump at the opportunity to see this wonderful film on the big screen, even if you have the import DVD at home and you have watched it over and over again as any of us have. Such a good movie!
The movie will screen at The ImaginAsian theaters in Los Angeles and New York from June 13 to 19, then at Landmark Theatres’ Varsity Theatre in Seattle from August 29 to September 4. The film will be subbed for Los Angeles and Seattle, while New York will have the dubbed version.
What’s going on in New York? Dubbed version? This implies two things. One, that New Yorkers are illiterate or two, they’re lazy. What a shame they cannot see it in its original language.
The report suggests that Bandai Entertainment, one of the company’s responsible for these screenings, also has plans to release the movie on DVD.
Okay, kaiju fans, a moment many of you have been waiting for has arrived. Japanese shlock-meister Minoru Kawasaki - he of Calamari Wrestler fame - has gotten a lot of people, ourselves included, with his upcoming revival of Guilala, a giant monster that made it’s only on screen appearance in the cult hit The X From Outer Space. Titled Guilala’s Counter Attack: The Touyaku Summit One-Shot Crisis, the new film is being shot entirely in old school fashion - no CGI effects here, just rubber suits, little models and latex o’plenty, plus Japanese cult icon Takeshi Kitano in a key role. And now the first teaser has arrived. The verdict? It’s very tease-y. Mostly titles and smoke but there is one clear shot of the big rubber guy tucked in towards the end. You can check it out below the break.
Continue Reading "GUILALA Returns! And There’s A Teaser To Prove It!"...
The short subjects in the 2008 IIFF progam “Future Imperfect” touched on a little bit of everything, from the end of life on earth to the re-socialization of an alienated populace to a world teeming with folks literally infected by the omnipresent din of digital noise. Science fiction has always lent itself to short-form treatment, and the subject matter addressed in this year’s selections showcased the genre’s ability to offer pointed commentary amid the fantastic.
Continue Reading "IIFF 2008 - Future Imperfect - Science Fiction shorts review"...
