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Buyers are finally wise to the fact that Cannes is driving the Oscar race and even the specialized box office. Everyone wants to find the next “Anora,” “The Substance,” “Emilia Perez,” or “Anatomy of a Fall.” And more buyers like Mubi, Metrograph, Sideshow, and other upstarts have emerged to take on the likes of Neon and A24, who come to Cannes armed with several titles already set to debut.

Below, we’ve identified 13 movies looking for homes that could be the next awards breakout, including new films from Lynne Ramsay and Richard Linklater and the debuts of Kristen Stewart and Harris Dickinson.

All titles presented alphabetically.

“The Chronology of Water” (Un Certain Regard)

Director: Kristen Stewart

Stars: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge

Buzz: Even if it’s in a sidebar for a first-time director, Kristen Stewart’s debut should be a hot ticket with a lot of...

It's been an exciting year so far with all the new and returning Netflix shows, but things are about to get even better with the release of this upcoming Japanese series on the streaming platform. It's being described as a mix of these two hit shows, Squid Game and Shōgun. I don't know about you, but that sounds like something I definitely don't want to miss!

It's a period drama titled Last Samurai Standing, and it's based on the highly regarded Japanese manga series Ikusagami by Shogo Imamura. Michihito Fujii, Kento Yamaguchi, and Toru Yamamoto directed the episodes. In addition, Fujii, Yamaguchi, and Risa Yashiro wrote the scripts. While the exact episode count for the first season remains unknown, it's likely to fall between eight and 10 episodes, which is the typical range for a Netflix series.

An official release date has not been announced yet. However, Netflix has already set a November 2025 release.

Junichi Okada, who enters this dangerous game with one goal: to save his ailing wife and child.”

Who is in the cast for Last Samurai Standing?

For a long time, Junichi Okada was the only confirmed cast member. Some Netflix subscribers would be familiar with Junichi Okada if they streamed the Japanese crime-thriller Hard Days. Others may recognize him for his voice work on animated titles Tales from Earthsea and From Up on Poppy Hill. Outside of Netflix, the actor has starred in several historical dramas.

Junichi Okada shared his excitement with Netflix about the project;

“When Netflix executive producer Mr. Takahashi reached out to me, I was still acting in historical dramas. Back then, I was already thinking of ways to make this genre a hit, not just in Japan, but all over the world. I saw their potential for action, drama, social commentary, and entertainment, but I knew they could be taken further.

The official YouTube channel for the live-action adaptation project based on the Oshi no Ko manga series has started streaming a final version trailer for the upcoming movie, Oshi no Ko - The Final Act- . The trailer revealed that Kazunari Ninomiya , a 41-year-old member of the idol group Arashi, plays the role of Hikaru Kamiki. And the character's boyhood is also be played by 15-year-old Soya Kurokawa . Hikaru Kamiki is a mysterious figure who knows the truth behind Ai's death, and the trailer shows a tense scene where he finally appears before Aqua and confronts him directly. Additionally, an updated poster visual including Hikaru Kamiki is also revealed. Related: Oshi no Ko Live-Action Web Drama Releases 2nd Trailer The eight-episode web drama series has streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video worldwide since November 28, 2024. The feature film that then tells the drama's sequel story will release in Japan on December 20, 2024. Smith,...

Presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and Japan Society

February 15-24, 2024 at Japan Society

and partner venues in NYC

New York, NY – Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japan Society are proud to announce the eighth installment of the Aca Cinema Project film series – Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux – an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States. The Aca Cinema Project has presented events in both New York and LA since 2021, and its upcoming edition will showcase over nine contemporary and classic films from February 15-24, 2024 all with the central theme of the modern family. The bonds of the Japanese family are often revered in the West, and this series will both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.

As part of the Aca Cinema Project––”an ongoing initiative fostered by the Government of Japan to increase awareness and appreciation of Japanese films and filmmakers in the United States”––Japan Society will run “Family Portrait: Japanese Family in Flux” from February 15-24. A mix of American premieres and repertory showings, this series puts “bonds of the Japanese family” front and center to “both celebrate these traditions as well as call into question their reality and relevance in our quickly changing modern world.”

U.S. premieres include Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s Yoko, starring Rinko Kikuchi, and Keiko Tsuruoka’s Tsugaru Lacquer Girl. A special spotlight is given to Ryota Nakano, whose A Long Goodbye and exquisitely titled Her Love Boils Bathwater will be making New York debuts; his 2020 feature The Asadas also plays.

Repertory screenings will be held for Kohei Oguri’s Muddy River, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata, Kore-eda’s Still Walking,...

The Japan Academy Film Prize Association held the 46th edition of its awards ceremony on March 10, 2023. The nominees are selected by industry professionals from the pool of film releases between January 1 and December 31, 2022 which must have screened in Tokyo cinemas. Award categories are modelled after Hollywood's Academy Awards®.

Following its success at the recent Blue Ribbon Awards, and leading with 13 nominations in 12 categories, Kei Ishikawa's “A Man” walks away with 8 Japan Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. The full list of winners is described below.

Picture of the Year

A Man

Shin Ultraman

Phases of the Moon

Anime Supremacy!

Wandering

Team from A Man Animation of the Year

Inu-Oh

Lonely Castle in the Mirror

Suzume

One Piece Film Red

The First Slam Dunk

Director of the Year

Kei Ishikawa – A Man

Takashi Koizumi – The Pass: Last...

One of the prestigious national cinema awards in Japan presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, the 65th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards announced its winners on February 24, 2023. The nominees are selected from movies released in 2022 within the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Leading with 6 nominations, A Man by Kei Ishikawa, wins Best Film while Plan 75 by Chie Hayakawa picks up Best Director and Best Actress for Chieko Baisho. The full list of winners is described below.

Best Film

A Man

Kingdom 2: To Distant Lands

Small, Slow But Steady

Missing

Silent Parade

Dr Coto’s Clinic

Plan 75

Motherhood

Fragments of the Last Will

Wandering

A Man Best Director

Kei Ishikawa – A Man

Shinzo Katayama – Missing

Takahisa Zeze – Tombi: Father and Son; Fragments of the Last Will

Chie Hayakawa – Plan 75

Ryuichi Hiroki – 2 Women, Motherhood; Phases of the Moon

Best Actor

Sadao Abe – Lesson in Murder; I am...

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Opening this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival is Takahisa Zeze’s war drama Fragments of the Last Will, a tragic but hopeful story from a little-known chapter of Russo-Japanese history.

Based on the true story of Hatao Yamamoto (Kazunari Ninomiya), one of more than half a million Japanese soldiers taken to the Soviet Union after World War Two, the film tells of his battle to keep hope alive and keep his promise to his wife (Keiko Kitagawa) waiting for his return.

Taken to labor camps after surrendering to the Soviet Army in China, the soldiers, and some civilians, were put to work for years in Siberia and across Stalin’s empire in contravention of multiple international treaties and conventions. Some were not allowed to return home for more than a decade. Estimates of the number who died range from the tens to...

Click here to read the full article.

In a welcome return to normalcy, the Tokyo International Film Festival rolled out the full red carpet, all 541 feet of it, for the first time since 2019, once again welcoming guests from around the globe to a new venue for its opening ceremony on a brisk autumn evening in the Japanese capital.

The Covid-19 pandemic had kept international visitors away for the last few editions, but the opening of the 35th Tokyo festival felt like old times. More than one hundred overseas guests are joining the proceedings this year — some paying their own way to Tokyo as sky-high airline ticket prices drained the event’s budget — up from just eight at the 2021 edition.

The red carpet, which clocked in at almost two hours, snaked its way from Toho’s famed Godzilla statue in front of Hibiya Midtown to the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater. Once a fixture of Roppongi,...

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,...

Click here to read the full article.

Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) will open on Oct. 24 with Takahisa Zeze’s postwar drama Fragments of the Last Will, while Oliver Bill Hermanus’s Living, a reinterpretation of an Akira Kurosawa classic, will bring proceedings to a close on Nov. 2.

Takahisa’s film, based on real events, tells the story of a Japanese prisoner of war played by who battles to keep hope alive for himself and his fellow inmates in a Siberian gulag after his nation’s defeat in 1945. Fragments of the Last Will stars Kazunari Ninomiya, former member of boyband Arashi.

Living is set in Britain in 1952, the same year Kurosawa’s Ikiru, on which it is based, was released. Bill Nighy plays a staid bureaucrat who is inspired to change his life after receiving shocking news.

“Living is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive...

Japan Society is pleased to announce its fall lineup for Monthly Classics and Monthly Anime, kicking off on September 2, 2022 with a 35mm screening of Kihachi Okamoto’s satirical chambara, “Kill!”. 2006 anime classic “Tekkonkinkreet” will screen on September 16, featuring a Q&a with screenwriter Anthony Weintraub (“The Animatrix”). For October, Hideo Nakata’s 90s J-horror classic “Ringu” screens on October 7th followed by Mamoru Oshii’s rarely-screened 1985 ethereal masterpiece “Angel’s Egg” on October 14th. Monthly Anime continues on November 4th with a 35mm screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved “My Neighbor Totoro”.

Tickets: 15/12 students and seniors /5 Japan Society members.

Lineup and other details are subject to change.For complete information visit japansociety.org.

Kill!

Friday, September 2, 2022 at 7:00 Pm

Dir. Kihachi Okamoto, 1968, 114 min, 35mm, b&w. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Etsushi Takahashi, Yuriko Hoshi.

Kihachi Okamoto’s darkly satirical chambara opens in the midst of a pummeling windstorm on the outskirts...

Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival will close its 26th edition with a screening of July Jung’s “Next Sohee,” an interesting take on exploitation starring the Wachowski siblings’ regular collaborator, South Korean actress Bae Doona.

The film, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week, won’t be the only title to discover on the closing night, however, with a special screening of A24’s horror comedy “Bodies Bodies Bodies” also planned. Directed by Halina Reijn and featuring Amandla Stenberg, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” breakout Maria Bakalova and Pete Davidson, the film shows a party game that leads to murder, all the while maintaining “a taut balance of uneasy tension and wicked humor,” teased the festival organizers.

The announcement came alongside Fantasia’s third wave of titles, finally rounding up this year’s varied selection. Among the world premieres, Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez will bring “The Elderly,” Shuichi Okita “The Fish Tale,...

Picturehouse is set to release the pre-hiatus final concert film of the Japanese boyband pop sensation Arashi exclusively in AMC Theatres for one night only on March 22.

The Arashi Anniversary Tour 5×20 Film Record of Memories was released by Shochiku on Nov. 26, 2021, and grossed $39.5M, making it the highest grossing live-action film in Japan in 2021.

Arashi has consistently been a top performing act since their debut in 1999, and are composed of five members: Masaki Aiba, Jun Matsumoto, Kazunari Ninomiya, Satoshi Ohno and Sho Sakurai. In 2019, their compilation studio album 5×20 All the Best!! 1999-2019 was named the best-selling album of the year worldwide, and most of their singles and albums have ranked as top sellers on the Oricon music charts.

In addition to music, the band are actors with Ninomiya having appeared in Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning film, Letters From Iwo Jima.

Record of Memories showcases the group’s 20th anniversary tour...

With a decade having passed since the 2011 disaster in Japan, a number of directors have turned their look towards the incident and its consequences, with “Fukushima 50” being the most renowned. Using the photography books of Masashi Asada as inspiration, Ryota Nakano presents a radically different take on the concept, by combining it with a distinctly anthropocentric story.

“The Asadas” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema

Since he was a small kid, Masashi has shown an interest in photography, particularly since his father Akira took a picture of him and his brother, Yukihiro, during an excursion. Recognizing his talent, the whole family obliges to his whims of photographing them all showing off their dream jobs or other aspirations, including photos as yakuza, race drivers, firemen, and members of a band, among others. However, their constant will to help has made Masashi a self-centered, spoiled young man, whose...

Japanese distributor and sales agent Gaga Corporation has added “Arashi Anniversary Tour 5 x 20 Film – Record of Memories,” a concert film by the now disbanded Japanese mega-group Arashi, to its international sales line-up.

Directed by veteran hitmaker Tsutsumi Yuikihiko, who also made the group’s 2002 debut film “Pikanchi,” “Record of Memories” will have its world premiere as a gala screening at the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival.

Once a major act for the long-powerful Johnny & Associates agency, the five-man group Arashi debuted in 1999 and racked up a long list of hit singles, albums and DVDs, while successfully extending their activities into TV and films, before suspending activities indefinitely in December 2020.

The group was also popular across Asia, embarking on a 2006 Asian concert tour with sell-out dates in Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea. In December 2019, Arashi was named goodwill ambassador to China, a post they held through 2020, while promoting sports and cultural...

The film’s production company Bridgehead is handling sales to Europe, with Toho handling the rest of the world.

Japanese filmmaker Ryota Nakano’s The Asadas has been sold to France’s Art House Films, Nk Contents in South Korea and Cai Chang International in Taiwan.

The film, inspired by the life of celebrated photographer Masashi Asada, is handled internationally by its production company Bridgehead for European territories and by its distributor Toho for the rest of the world.

Starring Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters From Iwo Jima) and Satoshi Tsumabuki (The Assassin), the film was released theatrically in Japan on October...

With a decade having passed since the 2011 disaster in Japan, a number of directors have turned their look towards the incident and its consequences, with “Fukushima 50” being the most renowned. Using the photography books of Masashi Asada as inspiration, Ryota Nakano presents a radically different take on the concept, by combining it with a distinctly anthropocentric story.

Since he was a small kid, Masashi has shown an interest in photography, particularly since his father Akira took a picture of him and his brother, Yukihiro, during an excursion. Recognizing his talent, the whole family obliges to his whims of photographing them all showing off their dream jobs or other aspirations, including photos as yakuza, race drivers, firemen, and members of a band, among others. However, their constant will to help has made Masashi a self-centered, spoiled young man, whose sole redeeming quality seems to be his eagerness to apologize. His attitude...

Acclaimed horror director Takashi Shimizu has been announced as the director for the upcoming adaptation of Mariko Koike’s “The Graveyard Apartment“

Released in 1986, the novel follows the Kano family, Hazuki, Brooke and their son Shiro as they move into a new apartment surrounded by a graveyard, Buddhist temple and crematorium. As one of the few occupants of the building, the family soon find themselves the sole target of a malicious attack from countless supernatural entities.

Currently in pre-production, the English-language supernatural horror is scheduled to start shooting around November 2020. With screenplay written by Takashi Shimizu and Paul Harris Boardman. The adaptation will star Kazunari Ninomiya as Hazuki.

The famous The Ju-on (The Grudge) director’s next project stars Letters from Iwo Jima’s Kazunari Ninomiya. From the Mariko Koike’s famous 1986 horror, Vertigo and Ozla to co-produce The Grudge director Takashi Shimizu’s upcoming novel-to-movie “The Graveyard Apartment”. Currently in pre-production, the English-language supernatural horror is scheduled to start shooting around November 2020. With screenplay …

The post Takashi Shimizu to adapt Mariko Koike’s novel “The Graveyard Apartment” appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net.

Let me start by stating a few things. The anime “Gantz” is one of my favorite anime of all times. I have not read the manga by Hiroya Oku. When I review an anime/manga adaptation, I try to focus, as little as possible, on how close to the original it remained; instead, I make an effort of watching it as a stand-alone work. The above considering, I think Shinsuke Sato’s two-part movie is one of the best films based on anime/manga.

Buy This Title

Two classmates, Kurono and Kato, are killed while trying to save a homeless person who had fallen on the subway rails. After their death, they find themselves in an apartment, where a man cabled inside a black sphere forces them to participate in a death game, along with a number of other people experiencing the same fate, where they have to kill particular...

Contrary to popular belief, the Japanese are not totally averse to watching war movies, with Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and Peter Webber’s Emperor being fairly well-received in recent years. However, those films undoubtedly owed their success to the presence of revered Japanese actors Ken Watanabe and Toshiyuki Nishida, boy-band idol Kazunari Ninomiya and the calmly authoritative Tommy Lee Jones (who is so big over here that he fronts a major coffee brand). Given that Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk offers none of the above, one wondered how the Tokyo media conference, held at the plush Roppongi Hills complex on Thursday […]...

Yôji Yamada’s fantasy drama selected as Japan’s nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Japan has selected Yôji Yamada’s Nagasaki: Memories Of My Son as its Best Foreign Language Film submission for this year’s Academy Awards.

The film, produced by the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation and distributed worldwide by Shochiku International, is set in 1948, in post-World War II Japan.

The drama charts the story of midwife Nobuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) who is resolved to move on as she stands at the grave of her son Koji (Kazunari Ninomiya) who died when the Americans bombed Nagasaki. However, upon returning home, she is visited by an apparition of her son, who continues to return in order to reminisce with his mother about the past, family, affection and war.

Nagasaki, also known as Living With My Mother, which is a literal translation of its Japanese title, Haha To Kuraseba, was released...

Eichiro Hasumi's Assassination Classroom: Graduation screening on Fantasia International Film FestivalSTORY70%DIRECTION70%ACTING66%VISUALS76%POSITIVESGreat VisualsArtful adaptationSlapstick humor and preposterous storyNegativesThe film assumes that the audience have read the manga or watched the anime2016-07-2471%Overall ScoreReader Rating: (1 Vote)73%

The sequel of Assassination Classroom is an equally great adaptation of the manga/anime and concludes the story.

All the absurd characters of the first part return, including the yellow creature with the smiley face as his head and the body of an octopus, the killer robot that has become a “regular” student, the student with the tentacles, the talented assassin, the overly sexy teacher, and many more. This time, however, there is also conflict among the students, as Koro Sensei reveals his identity, and the time that he is about to explode destroying the earth, is near.

The main concept behind the anime is, once more, the passive-aggressive notion,...

The award ceremony for the oldest Japanese cinema competition took place on February13 at the Bunkyo Civic Center, and the list of winners is:

Best Actor: Kazunari Ninomiya (Nagasaki: Memories of My Son)

Best Actress: Eri Fukatsu (Journey to the Shore, Parasyte The Final Chapter)

Best Supporting Actor: Masahiro Motoki (The Big Bee)

Best Supporting Actress: Haru Kuroki (When the Curtain Rises; Solomon’s Perjury)

Best Director (Japanese): Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best Director (Foreign): George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Best Screenplay: Ryosuke Hashiguchi (Three Stories of Love)

Best New Actor: Atsushi Shinohara (Three Stories of Love)

Best New Actress: Suzu Hirose (Our Little Sister)

Eri Fukatsu

Best Ten Japanese Feature Films

Three Stories of Love

Fires on the Plain

Happy Hour

Our Little Sister

Journey to the Shore

Gonin Saga

This Country’s Sky

Solomon’s Perjury

Nagasaki: Memories of My Son

Being Good...

Gantz (2010) Movie ReviewStory70%Special Effects81%Cinematography 65%2016-01-2572%Overall ScoreReader Rating: (4 Votes)87%

Director: Shinsuke Sato

Written by: Hiroya Oku (manga), Yusuke Watanabe (screenplay)

Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Kenichi Matsuyama, Natsuna Watanabe, Kanata Hongo, Yuriko Yoshitaka

Your lives have ended. What you do with your new lives is entirely up to me. That’s the law.

Now go and kill this guy.

(Gantz)

Based on the manga by Hiroya Oku, Gantz proves that a good story cannot be killed by a poor adaptation. The Plot

Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato are hit by a subway train when they were trying to save a drunkard who fell from the platform. The next moment they find themselves in a strange room, empty except for a mysterious black sphere.

There are other people in the room, most of them convinced that, like Kurono and Kato, they have died today.

The people are wondering...

A new year means an opportunity to reflect on the past. This is our list of the 100 best films of the last 15 years, Part 1 #100 through 76.

The first decade and a half of the 21st century has brought a lot of changes to the landscape of film. The advancement and sophistication of computers has made realistic computer generated effects a mainstay in both big-budget and small-budget films. The internet and streaming technologies have given big Hollywood new competition in films produced independently and by non-traditional means. We went from purchasing films on yards of tape to plastic disks, and now we can simply upload them to the cloud. Advertisements for films have reached a higher, more ruthless level where generating hype through trailers and teasers is crucial for a film’s commercial success. Movie attendance has fluctuated along with the economy, but that hasn’t stopped films from breaking box office records,...

Exclusive: Japanese studio Shochiku is launching sales on two new projects from leading director Yoji Yamada – a drama based on a Hisashi Inoue story and the director’s first comedy since the end of the Tora-san series in 1995.

The drama, Haha To Kuraseba (literal translation: Living With My Mother) is currently in production with Sayuri Yoshinaga (Kabei: Our Mother) and Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters From Iwo Jima) heading the cast.

The story follows a midwife in Nagasaki who is stunned when she is visited by her son who she thought had died three years earlier when an atomic bomb fell on the city. Japanese release is tentatively scheduled for Winter 2015.

Currently in post-production, the comedy Kazoku Wa Tsuraiyo! stars most of the cast from Yamada’s Tokyo Family, including Isao Hashizume, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Masahiko Nishimura and Yui Natsukawa.

The story follows an older couple who decide to divorce after 50 years of marriage, and the efforts...

Halloween is coming to Montreal this summer, as the star-studded (both in front of and behind the camera) anthology horror film, Tales of Halloween, is scheduled to make its world premiere at the festival. JeruZalem, Turbo Kid, Deathgasm, and many more movies are also slated to screen:

Press Release -- "Montreal, May 6, 2015 – The 19th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is gearing up to rush Montreal with three weeks of cinematic inspiration and fantastical visions from across the world from July 14 until August 4, 2015.

Our complete lineup of programming and special events will be revealed in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here’s an early First Wave Announcement of selected highlights and info to whet your appetite for the exciting things to come!

Unveiling Our 2015 Poster Art: Fantasia Continues Its Celebration Of Regional Folklore With The Wendigo

In recent editions, Fantasia has showcased poster art informed by various regional legends and myths,...

The Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, now in its 19th year, is one of our favorite festivals around and a fan favorite for Sound on Sight readers for several years now. This year’s festival runs July 14 to August 4, and the first wave of films on the lineup has just been revealed.

Marvel’s highly anticipated Ant-Man, with Paul Rudd, will be the opening night film, along with the Japanese animated film Miss Hokusai. Miss Hokusai comes from Production I.G., known for its other classics including A Letter to Momo and Giovanni’s Island.

Fantasia ’15 will also be home to several World Premieres, including Tales of Halloween, a collection of 10 short horror stories, and Jeruzalem, a horror film from Israeli directors and Tiff honorees Yoav and Doron Paz (Phobidilia).

The Canadian indie Turbo Kid, which we first caught up with at Sundance this year, will also be having its...

Another week, another Monday. So it’s time for the rundown of DVDs and Blu-rays hitting stores online and offline this week. It’s another packed week, with plenty of movies waiting to take you money, so let us breakdown the new releases and highlight what you should – and shouldn’t – be buying from today, February 6th 2012.

Pick Of The Week

Tyrannosaur (DVD/Blu-ray)

Joseph (Peter Mullan) is an unemployed widower, drinker, and a man crippled by his own volatile temperament and furious anger. Hannah (Olivia Colman) is a Christian worker at a charity shop, a respectable woman who appears wholesome and happy. When the pair are brought together, Hannah appears as Joseph’s potential saviour, someone who can temper his fury and offer him warmth, kindness and acceptance. As their story develops Hannah’s own secrets are revealed – her relationship with husband James (Eddie Marsan) is violent and abusive...

Gantz 2: Perfect Answer

Stars: Kazunari Ninomiya, Kenichi Matsuyama, Yuriko Yoshitaka | Written by Hiroya Oku | Directed by Shinsuke Sato

Based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku and starring leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City), Gantz 2: Perfect Answer begins several months after the events of the first film. Kurono (Ninomiya Kazunari) is still fighting aliens under the order of Gantz and he is close to reaching the score he needs to resurrect his friend Kato (Matsuyama Kenichi). As the missions begin to get increasingly dangerous for both the alien fighters and the general public, Kurono discovers that the endgame for Gantz is quickly approaching.

So, mysterious black ball. Check. Tight leather-clad undead heroes. Check. Strange shape-shifting(?) aliens. Check. Complete lack of understanding of what’s going on having not seen the original movie. Check. Enjoying it for what it is,...

Director: Shinsuke Sato. Review: Adam Wing. For those of you that don’t know, let’s cast our minds back to how it all began. In a nutshell - big black balls. Gantz and its sequel Gantz: Perfect Answer are based on a hit manga series created by Hiroya Oku. Directed by Shinsuke Sato, Gantz stars leading Japanese actors Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note, Detroit Metal City). After an accident on a train platform, recently deceased childhood friends Kei and Kato find themselves transported to an empty apartment populated by several confused strangers and a mysterious black ball known as Gantz. The big black ball issues them a set of strange suits, instructing them to exterminate "dangerous aliens" from Earth in a series of bloodthirsty games. They are given high-tech weaponry, and the opportunity to collect points depending on how many aliens they kill.

J. Edgar opens in theaters this Friday and it is the 33rd film directed by Clint Eastwood. Beginning with the thriller Play Misty For Me in 1971, Eastwood has directed westerns, action films, comedies, and dramas. From the very early days of his career, Eastwood had been frustrated by directors insisting that scenes be re-shot multiple times and perfected, and when he began as a director in 1971, he made a conscious attempt to avoid any aspects of directing he had been indifferent to as an actor. As a result, Eastwood is renowned for his efficient film directing and to reduce filming time and to keep budgets under control.

As seen through the eyes of Hoover himself, J. Edgar explores the personal and public life and relationships of a man who could distort the truth as easily as he upheld it during a life devoted to his own idea of justice, often...

It’s the start of another week, so you know what that means – more DVD and Blu-ray releases to swallow up all your hard-earned cash! So here’s the rundown of what’s available to buy from today, October 3rd 2011.

Pick Of The Week

Chuck: Season 4 Box Set (DVD/Blu-ray)

When Chuck Bartowski opens an e-mail subliminally encoded with government secrets, he unwittingly downloads an entire server of sensitive data into his brain. Now, the fate of the world lies in the unlikely hands of a guy who works at a Buy More Electronics store. Instead of fighting computer viruses, he must now confront assassins and international terrorists. With the government’s most precious secrets in Chuck’s head, Major John Casey of the National Security Agency assumes the responsibility of protecting him. His partner is the CIA’s top agent -and Chuck’s first date in years – Sarah Walker.

Ballz. Anytime you encounter a strange metallic sphere, and you don’t know what it does, it never turns out well. For two friends who were accidentally killed while trying to save another man’s life, this orb meant being thrust into a Death Race-like game where they and other recent-dead people are forced to kill aliens in hiding on Earth.

Gantz is a live-action movie based on the hit anime/manga series by Hiroya Oku and stars two of the biggest stars of Japanese cinema, Kazunari Ninomiya (Letters from Iwo Jima) and Kenichi Matsuyama (Death Note). New People Entertainment will release Gantz in North America on DVD and Blu-Ray on August 30, 2011. Celebrating the release, there will be a special screening of the film on Friday, August 26, 2011 at 7pm in San Francisco at the 2011 J-Pop Summit Festival. The sequel, Gantz II: Perfect Answer will also be premiered at the festival on that same weekend.

We won't waste too much time on the American box office today as it's the usual stories: an animated film tops the charts (don't make me say the name), Bridesmaid barely dipped and Midnight in Paris is zooming up the "all time Woody Allen lists". On this last bit I wish we had "adjusted for inflation" charts at the ready. Those inevitable stories about it passing Hannah and Her Sisters at the box office are going to be annoying because $40 million in 1986 is a helluva lot more ticket-buying action than $41 million in 2011, you know? I'm guessing that Annie Hall, which really captured mainstream attention, would reign supreme if you adjusted for inflation. [updated: yep, Annie Hall is #1]

And yes I normally do a new drawing for the box office but I hate drawing cars and the only picture I'd like to conjure in that realm is Cars 2's "Mater" squished flat in a compactor.

The official website for Shinsuke Sato’s Gantz: Perfect Answer has been relaunched with a new teaser and full trailer.

This is the finale of the 2-part live-action film adaptation of Hiroya Oku’s popular manga about a mysterious sphere called Gantz that grants the recently-deceased super powers and a second shot at life in exchange for a seemingly never-ending string of alien assassination missions.

The two main characters, Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama), were childhood friends who died in a train accident and were subsequently recruited by Gantz to assassination various “seijin” (aliens). Kurono chooses to fight and do whatever it takes to survive, while Kato rejects violence. Trapped in an endless cycle of war, both men are eventually faced with an important choice…

Toho will be releasing Gantz: Perfect in Japan on April 23, 2011.

Watch »...

The Gantz: Part II: Perfect Answer Movie Trailer has premiered. Shinsuke Sato‘s Gantz: Part II: Perfect Answer (2011) stars Kazunari Ninomiya, Kenichi Matsuyama, Kanata Hongô, Natsuna Watanabe, and Yuriko Yoshitaka. Gantz: Part II: Perfect Answer‘s plot synopsis: Part II continues were Part I left off where “after trying to rescue a man on the subway tracks, two teens wake up in a room dominated by a mysterious black sphere that sends them to hunt down and kill aliens hiding on Earth”. We previously posted the Gantz (2011) Movie Trailer for Part One. The movie trailer starts out slowly but then the action kicks in around the half way point. I wish there were english subtitles for this movie trailer but the viewer gets the feeling that there is internal strife in the protagonist’s group.

More about this sequel:

In the sequel (which was preceded, of course,...

In the sequel (which was preceded, of course, by both Manga and Anime versions of Gantz) Kei Kurono (played by Kazunari Ninomiya) works with other players involved with Gantz to revive those who died during the first film. Although details of the film are shrouded in mystery, we can clearly see that Kato Masaru, (Kenichi Matsuyama), will return as well as a bunch of new antagonists. Gantz is losing energy and it appears Tae Kojima, (Yuriko Yoshitaka), is a target for the next mission. Kei Kurono is now torn between saving the girl he loves or completing the final mission of Gantz. To access the gallery, just click below:...

Directed by: Shinsuke Sato

Written by: Hiroya Oku, Yûsuke Watanabe

Cast: Kenichi Matsuyama, Kazunari Ninomiya, Yuriko Yoshitaka

Music by: Kenji Kawai

What is it about live action film adaptations that are just so inferior to their original counterpart?

Without even including anything directed by Uwe Boll, I bet you can easily name five bad live action films that were adapted from either a video game, a book, an anime, or the like. It’s not difficult, is it? I can personally name five films simply from the last few years: Hitman, Dragonball: Evolution, The Last Airbender, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. Now, I bet you can’t do the same for good live action film adaptations, can you? Off the top of my head now, I can give small kudos to films like Harry Potter, the original Resident Evil, and the original Spiderman. The point...

Guest Review By Dizzydennis Being a long time fan of “Gantz,” Kenichi Matsuyama, and Japanese culture as a whole, I waited months for this film’s release. As the event was streamed into the theatre I watched with excitement as we, the audience, received a small introduction as to what the film was going to be about. The two titular stars, Kazunari Ninomiya and Kenichi Matsuyama, gave a live, short introduction and the movie began shortly thereafter. The plot of “Gantz” is rather simple yet complex due to the characters and their method of survival. When a person dies in the real world, they end up in a room with a black orb known as Gantz. This orb instructs them to hunt down a certain alien target with weapons and super suits that it provides. If they die in the game, they die forever. However, if they live and kill...

Check out a couple of trailers for “Gantz”, a live-action feature based on the popular anime and manga series created by Hiroya Oku, which will be getting its world premiere January 20 at Mann’s Chinese 6 in Hollywood — a whopping nine days before the film debuts in its native land of Japan. The dark, violent story opens as alienated high school student Kei Kurono (Kazunari Ninomiya) and his friend Masuru Kato (Kenichi Matsuyama) are killed trying to rescue a drunk who’s fallen on the subway tracks. They wake up in a room dominated by Gantz, a mysterious black sphere that sends them and other newly dead people to hunt down and kill aliens hiding on Earth. Just in time for the movie, a four-disc set of the original animated series is being released at the same time Stateside. function getVideo() { var so = new SWFObject("http://cdn.springboard.gorillanation.com/storage/xplayer/yo033.swf", "mplayer", "540", "340", "8", "#000000"); so.

On Thursday, January 20th, 2011, comic book collectors, anime aficionados, and film fans will have the opportunity to participate in the one-time-only, world premiere of Gantz in movie theaters across the country, presented by Ncm Fathom and New People, in association with Dark Horse Comics.

Synopsis:

Gantz, directed by Shinsuke Sato, tells the story of two recently-deceased friends who find themselves serving a mysterious black orb in a twisted afterlife game. Along with other abductees, the two men are armed with futuristic weapons and sent back out into the living world to do battle with aliens in the hopes of winning their freedom.

Originally popularized as a popular Japanese manga and anime series, Gantz will hit the big screen as a live-action feature at 8:00 p.m. Et/7:00 p.m. Ct/6:00 p.m. Mt/8:30 p.m. Pt (tape delayed). It will be English over-dubbed exclusively for this big screen event.

7. 7.Letters From Iwo Jima

When Clint Eastwood announced that while he would be making the film version of Flags Of Our Fathers by James Bradley and Ron Powers he then stated that he would also be working on a film which would tell the story of the battle from the Japanese side called Letters From Iwo Jima. this news caught many filmgoers by surprise. This major World War II battle would be brought to the screens twice and the great All-American director Clint Eastwood would devote one version showing the view of our Pacific enemy. Not many thought he could pull this off, but Flags and Letters opened within months of each other in 2006 and while both enjoyed terrific notices, some critics and academy members thought that Letters was the superior film.

Letters From Iwo Jima focuses on the weeks leading up to and the days after the allied forces...

Well, well, what a wonder a bit of extra post production has done for the look and feel of the upcoming live action adaptations of popular manga and anime series Gantz.

Releasing as two features - the first at the end of January, the second later in 2011 - the story revolves around two young men killed by a train only to be revived and recruited for a series of assassinations and if the freshly released theatrical trailer is to be trusted it looks as though they've kept the level of violence rather high.

More importantly, though, they've made a big, glossy science fiction action picture that actually looks like a movie rather than cheap TV, which is a rarity in the current Japanese film climate.

Kazunari Ninomiya and Kenichi Matsuyama star in Shinsuke Sato's films. Check the new theatrical trailer below.

On Saturday, the official website for Shinsuke Sato‘s upcoming 2-part live-action adaptation of Gantz was updated with a new 90-second theatrical trailer as well as a second teaser.

The films are based on Hiroya Oku’s long-running manga about two students who die in a train accident only to be brought back to life by a mysterious black sphere called Gantz. The pair, played by Kazunari Ninomiya of the pop group Arashi and actor Kenichi Matsuyama, receive enhancement suits which give them the superhuman abilities needed to complete a series of alien assassination missions. Through these missions they earn “points” toward buying their own freedom, but various incidents complicate matters along the way.

Other announced cast members include Yuriko Yoshitaka as Tae Kojima, Kanata Hongo as Joichiro Nishi, Natsuna (formerly Natsuna Watanabe) as Kei Kishimoto and Takayuki Yamada as Shigeta Masamitsu.

Toho will be releasing Part 1 (Zenpen) on January 29th.

Never heard of “Gantz”, but then again, I’ve never heard of a lot of things from Japan. “Gantz” is from Hiroya Oku, and was a manga and anime before it became a live-action movie. It looks like a teenage sci-fi action movie, or at least, lots of stuff blows up in these two teaser trailers for the film. Looks kinda fun. There are two parts, both due out in 2011. Sorta like the “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” movies, except with Japanese teenagers in black leather. Hey, it is Japanese, after all. (And is that the Mortal Kombat theme song playing over the trailers?) Via Nippon Cinema. The films star Kazunari Ninomiya as as Kei Kurono and Kenichi Matsuyama as Masaru Kato, two college students who die in a train accident only to be brought back to life by a mysterious black sphere known as Gantz. Equipped with advanced weaponry and...

The IMDb250. A list of the top 250 films as ranked by the users of the biggest internet movie site on the web. It is based upon the ratings provided by the users of the Internet Movie Database, which number into the millions. As such, it’s a perfect representation of the opinions of the movie masses, and arguably the most comprehensive ranking system on the Internet.

It’s because of this that we at HeyUGuys (and in this case we is myself and Gary) have decided to set ourselves a project. To watch and review all 250 movies on the list. We’ve frozen the list as of January 1st of this year. It’s not as simple as it sounds, we are watching them all in one year, 125 each.

This is our 23rd update, my next five films watched for the project. You can find last week’s update here.