News

South Korea’s Lyd is to handle international sales of upcoming Japanese drama On Summer Sand as it continues to expand its slate of non-Korean films.

The company, known for handling hit K-drama series including Mr. Queen and My Love From The Star, has also invested in the production and will handle non-theatrical distribution in Japan.

Prolific actor Joe Odagiri stars in the adaptation of an award-winning play of the same name by Masataka Matsuda.

Set in Nagasaki, Odagiri plays an unemployed man named Koura who is dealing with the loss of his four-year-old son and separation from his wife.

South Korea’s Lyd is to handle international sales of upcoming Japanese drama On Summer Sand as it continues to expand its slate of non-Korean films.

The company, known for handling hit K-drama series including Mr. Queen and My Love From The Star, has also invested in the production and will handle non-theatrical distribution in Japan.

Prolific actor Joe Odagiri stars in the adaptation of an award-winning play of the same name by Masataka Matsuda.

Set in Nagasaki, Odagiri plays an unemployed man named Koura who is dealing with the loss of his four-year-old son and separation from his wife.

The 67th edition of the Blue Ribbon Awards, presented by the Association of Tokyo Film Journalists, has announced its winners on January 28, 2025. The nominees and winners are selected from movies released in 2024 by members of the Association who are film reporters from seven sports newspapers in Tokyo. Indie movie “A Samurai in Time” was the surprise hit last year and has picked up a double win for Best Film and Best Actor. Likewise for Yu Irie‘s “A Girl Named Ann” bagging the Best Director and Best Actress awards.

Best Film

A Girl Named Ann

Abudeka Is Back

Let’s Go Karaoke!

52-Hertz Whales

A Samurai in Time

11 Rebels

Faceless

All the Long Nights

Last Mile

Look Back

Best Director

Yu Irie – A Girl Named Ann

Kazuya Shiraishi – 11 Rebels, Bushido

Ayuko Tsukahara – Last Mile, La Grande Maison Paris

Michihito Fujii – Faceless, 18×2 Beyond Youthful Days

Junichi Yasuda – A Samurai in Time

Best...

The concept of experiencing romance for the first time is a tried and tested trope in shows, movies, literature, and music. Hikaru Utada’s global 1990’s hit “First Love” which tackles this theme is one of the most successful Japanese pop songs worldwide. It perfectly captures the yearning and grief associated with an all consuming love which ended but still haunts the person who felt it.

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Almost two decades later, Netflix produced a series directly inspired by this song and its 2018 follow up track called “Hatsukoi.” It stars Takeru Satoh, Hikari Mitsushima (“Love Exposure”), as well as Yagi Rikako and Taisei Kido. Consisting of cliches which are woven beautifully, it depicts fated love and serves as a great introduction to Japanese melodramas for audiences worldwide.

Spanning two decades, it narrates the story of Yae (Riko/Mitsushima) and Harumichi (Kido/Satoh), as wide-eyed,...

As 2024 is drawing to a close, “Last Mile” by Ayuko Tsukahara still holds its place in the top-40 of this year’s highest-grossing domestic productions, despite its untimely release in late August. However, it is debatable whether such achievement should be something Japanese cinema enthusiasts should rejoice for, as this is telling of the state of health of an industry where films keep borrowing features from TV entertainment, rather than finding ways to innovate their own language.

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With Black Friday sales around the corner, Japan’s largest shopping website calls in manager Elena Funado (Hikari Mitsushima) from Fukuoka to be in charge of the Kanto area delivery center, whose expected volume of orders threatens to make the supply chain default. Backed by somewhat skeptical yet obedient deputy Ko Nashimoto (Masaki Okada), the first day seems to be going just well, until the news of some parcel...

As the most famous anime studio to exist, Studio Ghibli needs no introduction. Beloved even by non-anime fans, they have produced a multitude of stunning, genre and era-defining films over the years, including modern classics like My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, and, most recently, The Boy and the Heron.

For some, Studio Ghibli is their very first introduction to anime. Wanting to expand one's horizons is only natural, and fortunately there are plenty of options. From films to television series, there are a lot of anime that are linked to Studio Ghibli or touch on similar concepts. This makes them perfect for fans who want to dip their toes into the wider world of anime, while still enjoying works with similar animation styles and storylines.

Updated by Christy Mathew on 28th October 2024: Studio Ghibli is beloved by fans all over the world because of its heartwarming stories,...

Cbr Anime Week is brought to you by Hulu Animayhem

Roz of the Recapture is the third televised series of the Code Geass franchise and is said to take place six years after the events of Lelouch of the Rebellion R2. It introduces a cast of new characters into the world that Lelouch vi Britannia left behind, as well as the tensions of a new conflict between the Britannians and the Japanese.

Episode 1 of Roz of the Recapture aired on June 21 of this year, and up to episode 3 is available on Hulu and Disney+ thus far. With the main characters introduced and much of the premise set up, the series has already shown great promise as an anime that will keep viewers on the edge of their seats. Studio Sunrise's amazingly fluid animation and dynamic CGI of the famed Knightmare Frames help make Roz of the Recapture one of the...

Studio Ghibli is the most recognizable name in the anime industry, with their movies occupying a special spot in the experience of nearly every anime lover, casual or hardcore. Ghibli films are famous for their breathtaking art, beautiful animation, whimsical stories, and personal themes of love, loss, self-discovery, friendship, and growing up.

However, anime films of a similar nature do exist outside of Hayao Miyazaki's esteemed studio. From CoMix Wave Films to Studio Colorido, there are several producers outside of Ghibli who are responsible for making captivating productions that gift audiences with the same dream-like wonder and sense of fulfillment as seen in beloved Ghibli classics like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Whether it's in the art, animation, themes, or characters, plenty of non-Ghibli films offer something that creates a memorable experience in the same way Studio Ghibli has done for so many.

2:08

Related 10 Best Anime Movies...

The official YouTube channel for Bandai Namco Music Live's anime music label Lantis has started streaming a music video for "Rozé" sung by Japanese actor Hikari Mitsushima . As its title suggests, the song was composed/produced by TeddyLoid, a producer who is active not only in Japan but also in the world. The dramatic tune is now featured as the ending theme for the Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture anime series. In addition to being the vocalist, Mitsushima also participated in the writing of the Japanese lyrics of the song. She said, "I sing about the sad and beautiful aftermath of the story and the primitive feelings that overflow from the heart of the main character, Rozé, which she does not yet understand herself, along with TeddyLoid-san's gorgeous music and Konnie Aoki-san's English lyrics. Because it became a sparkling and lovely song, I hope you will like...

The highly anticipated new Code Geass project, Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture, has received an official release date for its Disney+ debut of May 10, 2024, revealed alongside a brand-new trailer.

Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture revealed release dates for all four parts, with the first arriving on Disney+ on May 10, 2024, followed by Part 2 (June 7), Part 3 (July 5) and Part 4 (Aug. 2). In addition to these dates, the main visual, a new trailer and the news that Hikari Mitsushima will perform the ending theme song "Rozé" (produced by TeddyLoid), were all officially announced. Readers can check all these out below.

Related Studio Ghibli Rolls Out Largest Ever Theatrical Re-Release Tour Dates Following Studio Ghibli Fest 2023, Gkids and Fathom roll out their largest-ever set of theatrical tour dates for iconic Ghibli titles this year.

Rozé of the Recapture also revealed an updated synopsis, which reads: "In the year Kouwa 7, in the former Hokkaido...

At a special stage event held at AnimeJapan 2024 today , the upcoming anime Code Geass: Rozé of the Recapture released a new trailer and visual, announcing release dates for all four parts and previewing the ending theme song "Rozé" by Hikari Mitsushima, produced by TeddyLoid. Part 1 will screen in Japanese theaters from May 10 later this year, followed by Part 2 on June 7, Part 3 on July 5 and the final part on August 2. The series was also announced to be released as 12 episodes on Disney Plus under the 'Star" brand. Main Visual Additional cast members joining leads Kohei Amasaki and Makoto Furukawa were also revealed, as follows (character romanizations unconfirmed): Sakuya voiced by Reina Ueda Charis voiced by Kana Ichinose Noland voiced by Hiroki Yasumoto Catherine voiced by Nao Toyama Nara voiced by Yumi Uchiyama Stanley voiced by Daisuke Hirakawa Walter voiced by Yasuyuki Kase Divock voiced by Masaaki Mizunaka Christoph voiced by...

Taiwanese family drama ‘Old Fox’ won the most awards on the night.

China-set drama Stonewalling, directed by husband-and-wife team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, won best narrative feature at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan on Saturday (November 25).

Taiwanese family drama Old Fox won the most awards on the night, including best director for Hsiao Ya-chuan, best supporting actor for veteran Akio Chen, makeup and costume design, and best film score.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Mainland Chinese director Huang and Japan’s Otsuka were in attendance at Taipei’s National Dr Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall to...

Katsuhito Ishii has been present on the Japanese film scene for 25 years, but he has not really made it. He was closest to the success some 15-20 years ago when he made a winning streak with “The Taste of Tea” (2004) and “Funky Forest” (2005) in both of which he “mixed-and-matched” bits and pieces of genre and art house approach. Since then, he made a few films which met different levels of attention form the critics and the audience, and he practically went missing for almost a decade now. While we are waiting for the announced feature expansion of his 50th anniversary Gamera short (2015), if we still are waiting in fact, why would not we take a glance at his last feature, “Hello! Jun'ichi” (2014), which is a part of a Third Window box set dedicated to him.

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on Terracotta

First things first, this is a kiddy film, so it...

First Love Hatsukoi is a Netflix romantic drama series written and directed by Yuri Kanchiku and starring Hikari Mitsushima and Takeru Satō.

In nine episodes you can follow the stories of Yae and Hurimichi as they reminisce about the time they fell in love.

Premise

Their lives did not turn out to be as wondrous as they had expected when then were young, free and madly in love. Everything was so much easier as teenagers, they had everything they could dream of, especially, love. Now, grown and disenchanted with life they will lean on their memories to make it through the day, one dull day at a time. No amount of lackluster, no harsh reality, will take that away from them, they will always have those beautiful memories.

First Love Season 1. Chapters When the Lilacs Bloom

Yae drives through the streets of Sapporo as a taxi driver. Back in her rural hometown,...

The Netflix Series “First Love” is a new story that has been crafted through inspiration from two songs by Hikaru Utada: the 1999 smash hit and musical gem “First Love,” and “Hatsukoi,” released 19 years later. The story follows a couple retracing their memories of their unforgettable first love over the course of more than 20 years and spanning three decades: the late ’90s, the 2000s, and the present.

The ultimate love story presented by the miraculous combination of Hikari Mitsushima, Takeru Satoh, director Yuri Kanchiku and the songs of Hikaru Utada

The Netflix Series “First Love” starts streaming from November 24, 2022, only on Netflix!

It’s always a joy when a new film by Japanese director Naoko Ogigami is released. After “Close-Knit”, awarded at the Berlinale, “Riverside Mukolitta” (Kawapperi Mukolitta) is her latest feature, a film adapted from a novel written by Ogigami herself.

Riverside Mukolitta is screening at Camera Japan

Takeshi Yamada (Kenichi Matsuyama) is a lonely young man who arrives, penniless and looking desolate, in the coastal town of Toyama, to work at a shiokara (salted squid) factory. We don’t know at this point why Yamada is there or anything about his past, but factory CEO Sawada (Naoto Ogata) who knows everything, gives him a warm welcome and sends him to Shiori Minami (Hikari Mitsushima) who will be able to find him a cheap accommodation. In fact, landlady Shiori, a young widow with a daughter, lets a 50-year-old flat to Yamada for a good price, part of the small compound called Mukolitta Apartments,...

Emerging stars from Netflix Japan’s biggest original shows have revealed their experiences working with the streamer today at the final Tudum event of the past 24 hours.

Netflix is involved in a fierce battle for streaming supremacy in Japan with Amazon, Disney+ and others, and today’s event was a chance to show off its firepower.

As such, it held interviews with five up-and-coming stars from the Asian country at their Netflix Tudum event: Kento Yamazaki and Tao Tsuchiya, who play Arisu and Usagi from Alice in Borderland, appeared at the event alongside Nana Mori and Natsuki Deguchi, who play Kiyo and Sumire from The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House, and voice actress Fairouz Ai, who plays Jolyne Cujoh in the upcoming JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean.

Season one of Alice in Borderland is, based on the manga of the same name, launched in 2020, following Yamazaki and Tsuchiya...

It’s always a joy when a new film by Japanese director Naoko Ogigami is released. After “Close-Knit”, awarded at the Berlinale, “Riverside Mukolitta” (Kawapperi Mukolitta) is her latest feature, a film adapted from a novel written by Ogigami herself.

“Riverside Mukolitta” is screening at Helsinki Cine Aasia

Takeshi Yamada (Kenichi Matsuyama) is a lonely young man who arrives, penniless and looking desolate, in the coastal town of Toyama, to work at a shiokara (salted squid) factory. We don’t know at this point why Yamada is there or anything about his past, but factory CEO Sawada (Naoto Ogata) who knows everything, gives him a warm welcome and sends him to Shiori Minami (Hikari Mitsushima) who will be able to find him a cheap accommodation. In fact, landlady Shiori, a young widow with a daughter, lets a 50-year-old flat to Yamada for a good price, part of the small compound called Mukolitta Apartments,...

The feeling of being trapped, like love, knows no gender. Japanese director Momoko Ando explores this complexity by interspersing unexpected displays of magical realism with a curious reading of romance and sexuality in her directorial debut “Kakera – A Piece of Our Life,” an official entry to the Raindance and Stockholm international film festivals in 2009.

on Amazon

“Kakera” is based on the manga “Love Vibes” by Erika Sakurazawa. It focuses on Haru, a college student stuck in an an affair with a man who dominates all aspects of their relationship. The monotony of their arrangement gets broken when she meets Riko, a bisexual prosthetist whose blunt approach at life and love gives Haru an opening to leave her boyfriend and their cycle of toxicity.

Haru and Riko are each other’s opposites, both in the inside and the outside. While Riko dons herself in grays and browns, Riko...

Another excellent sample of Japanese filmmaking, “A Chorus of Angels” implements all the distinct characteristics of the country’s cinema, while excelling at the technical department, with magnificent sound and cinematography, and the awards from the Japanese Academy for Best Music Score, Cinematography and Lighting being utterly justified.

Based on the short story “Ni-jyu Nian Go no Shyukudai” from the “Oufuku Shokan” collection by Kanae Minato, τhe film revolves around Haru Kawashima, a retired school teacher, who currently works as a librarian, the six students (3 boys and 3 girls) she had when she was teaching in a remote village in Hokkaido 20 years before, the chorus they have assembled, an accident that brought their relationship to demise, and a number of secrets that have been lurking since that time and poisoned their relationships. When she is informed that Nobuto Suzuki, one of her students who was slightly mentally incapacitated is accused of murder,...

“Traces of Sin” is director Kei Ishikawa’s first narrative feature film. It is based on a detective novel by Tokuro Nukui. The story follows crime journalist Tanaka’s (Satoshi Tsumabuki) reinvestigation of a murder of an upper-middle class family which happened a year ago. The police never found the murderer. However, during Tanaka’s investigation, some new clues have emerged and they may have showed who the real murderer is. At the meantime, Tanaka has to take care of his traumatized sister who is in jail, because of her negligence of her child.

While the film follows the investigation of the journalist, “Traces of Sin” doe snot focus on finding who the real murderer is. Instead, as the director has pointed out in one interview, the film wants to show that everyone can commit sins in their lives. No one is perfect, but no one is totally evil either.

“Ultraman Max” is one of the many series and audiovisual products about the character of Ultraman. In this case, we will talk about this series aired in 2005 and 2006, where Takashi Miike shot 2 episodes: 15 and 16.

In this case, will not talk about the series in general (40 episodes), but about this couple of episodes in particular, entering in the filmography of the talented Takashi Miike.

Kaito Touma is a member of the special Dash squad (Dash: Defense Action Squad Heroe) created to fight the monsters that attack the Earth. Kaito is the one who receives the Ultraman Maxx (Maxx Spark) light spark with which he becomes a powerful Light giant. That said, as soon as episode 15 begins, we meet Akko, a little girl who has lost her vision, and Mizuki, a Dash fighter who takes care of her. Akko, after losing his vision, decides to devote himself to music,...

Jidaigeki (period dramas) films that focus on the lives of women during the Edo period are definitely an exception among the vast number of entries in the field. Masato Harada’s movie is one of these exceptions, in a wonderful production based on the novel “Tokeiji Hanadayori” by Hisashi Inoue.

Kakekomi is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story takes place near the ending of the Edo period (1841), during a time when the divorce rate was two times higher than the current one. The local government, in an explosion of conservatism, has issued an austerity law, actually criminalizing a number of forms of arts and entertainment, making the lives of common people even worse. At the same time, since divorce is a concept forbidden, a number of women find solace at a women’s Buddhist temple in Kamakura named Tokei-ji, where, after two years of servitude,...

Mary and the Witch’s Flower Trailer 3 Hiromasa Yonebayashi‘s Mary and the Witch’s Flower / Meari to majo no hana (2017) movie trailer 3 stars Hana Sugisaki, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Yûki Amami, Fumiyo Kohinata, and Hikari Mitsushima. Mary and the Witch’s Flower‘s plot synopsis: based on the book by Mary Stewart, “It is [...]

Continue reading: Mary And The Witch’S Flower (2017) Movie Trailer 3: Mary Becomes a Witch For One Night...

The Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) will showcase films starring local actresses Sakura Ando, Yu Aoi, Hikari Mitsushima and Aoi Miyazaki in its Japan Now section.

Ando came to the attention of audiences in Sion Sono's Love Exposure (2008) and starred in 100 Yen Love, Japan's foreign-language Oscar entry in 2015. Mitsushima also appeared in Love Exposure, as well as Death Note (2006).

Aoi made her debut in Shunji Iwai's All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) and won best supporting actress at the Japan Academy Prize awards for Hula Girls (2007). Miyazaki has appeared in numerous films, including Chronicles of My...

Sakura Ando, Yu Aoi, Hikari Mitsushima and Aoi Miyazaki to be feted.

Tokyo International Film Festival is highlighting the work of four Japanese actresses – Sakura Ando, Yu Aoi, Hikari Mitsushima and Aoi Miyazaki – in this year’s Japan Now section.

The highlight, ‘Muses of Japanese Cinema’, is one of the special programmes that the festival is planning to celebrate its 30th anniversary. The four actresses have won acclaim in recent years for the high standard of their work, collaborations with renowned directors and increasing international status.

Ando won multiple awards for 2015 releases 0.5 mm and 100 Yen Love, while Aoi’s credits include Over the Fence (2016) and Japanese Girls Never Die (2016).

Mitsushima gained worldwide attention in Sion Sono’s Love Exposure (2009) and recently starred in Traces Of Sin (2017). Miyazaki’s recent credits include Sang-il Lee’s Rage (2016) and Yasuhiro Yoshida’s Birthday Card (2016).

In addition to screenings of films featuring the selected actresses, Tokyo will host...

Yu is a young Christian growing up with his father, Tetsu, who became a fanatical priest after the early death of his wife. Having to confess every single day, Yu has to invent supposed sins to appease his father, who believes it a sin to not have something to confess. When Tetsu finally discovers the truth, Yu decides to commit as many “serious” sins as he can, while searching for a woman to love that fits the Madonna archetype. Eventually he stumbles upon Kaori, and Aya Koike and her gang, while his father has trouble with Kaori Fujiwara, a woman who seems to wish to become a Christian.

A cult epic

In this 4-hour cult epic, Sono incorporates elements of adventure, comedy, drama, social satire, parody, romance and soft porn, while dealing with themes like religion, family, love, sex, adolescence, hedonism and guilt, in one of his most complex works.

For 10 years, Five Flavours Film Festival has been presenting the best cinema from Asia, its meanings and contexts. Initially, the Festival focused solely on Vietnamese films, but it evolved to become a yearly review of the cinema of East and Southeast Asia, the only such event in the country.

The 10th edition is held in Warsaw, on November 16-23 (Muranów and Kinoteka cinemas), and in Wrocław on November 18-24 (New Horizons Cinema).

This year’s edition of Five Flavours is the biggest in history – it presents over 40 productions. The program combines artistic and commercial cinema, allowing the audience to experience the best Asian films have to offer. On the one hand, there are the intimate stories with a social angle, on the other – fresh, innovative blockbusters, filled with the sheer joy of cinematic creation, attracting millions of viewers in their homelands.

Three

This diversity is already visible in the choice...

Wgtc Trailer Roundup #1 - Arrival, Hands Of Stone, Moana And More 1 of 28

Click to skip Welcome To Wgtc's Trailer Roundup!

Welcome to the very first edition of Wgtc's weekly Trailer Roundup, where we'll be bringing you all the hottest movie and television trailers, clips, TV spots and more!

In this edition, we cover Morgan, Mechanic: Resurrection, American Horror Story, Arrival and Macgyver, among others. Take a look through and check back next week for more.

Arrival Trailer #1

Release Date: November 11th, 2016

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker

Hidden Figures Trailer #1

Release Date: January 13th, 2017

Cast: Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

Rules Don't Apply Trailer #1

Release Date: November 23, 2016

Cast: Alec Baldwin, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Haley Bennett, Lily Collins, Steve Coogan, Alden Ehrenreich, Taissa Farmiga, Ed Harris

Same Kind Of Different As Me Trailer #1

Release Date: February 3rd, 2017

Cast: Renée Zellweger, Jon Voight, Djimon Hounsou

Moonlight Trailer #1

Release Date: October 21st,...

Upcoming Japanese movie “Traces of Sin” releases first teaser. The murder-mystery film is also known as “Record of Folly”. The movie stars Japanese actor Satoshi Tsumabuki as Tanaka. Joining the cast is Hikari Mitsushima as Mitsuko. Directed by Kei Ishikawa, the movie is based on the 2006 novel “Gukoroku” by Tokuro Nukui.

Traces of Sin Revealed

The story begins with the murder of a rich man, his wife and their children. The murder became big news but remains a mystery. The family seems perfect and had no enemies. Without enough evidence or obvious motive, the unknown murderer remains at large.

A year later, a magazine reporter named Tanaka tries to solve the case. He meets a person who knew the family. Through his interviews, he finds out that everything is not what it seems. The ideal couple was not so perfect after all. His investigation leads him to discover the family’s dark secrets.

It has been announced that director Takashi Shimizu’s Tormented will be released in the Us on Blu-ray and DVD this April:

Plano, Texas. (February 22, 2013) – From the legendary director of The Grudge, Takashi Shimizu takes an unflinching look into childhood fears, the ties that hold a family together, and bloody secrets that won’t stay dead when Tormented debuts on Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital April 2nd from Well Go USA Entertainment. Filled with his trademark atmospherics and spine-chilling, brain-bending sequences, Shimizu ventures into the terrifying corners of the mind where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred in this terrifying tale of a young boy whose family seems to be unraveling around him. The situation gets worse when he manifests a growing and dangerous friendship and reliance on a stuffed toy rabbit that comes to life…

The film stars Hikari Mitsushima (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai), Takeru Shibuya, Tamaki Ogawa...

Takashi Shimizu takes an unflinching look into childhood fears, the ties that hold a family together, and bloody secrets that won't stay dead when Tormented debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital April 2nd from Well Go USA Entertainment.

The film stars Hikari Mitsushima, Takeru Shibuya, Tamaki Ogawa, Nao Omori, Teruyuki Kagawa and Momoko Tanabe.

Takashi Shimizu took home the Silver Raven for the film’s originality and unique view of childhood through a child’s eyes at the 2012 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film.

Read more...

Given how sucky 3D movies have been lately (I'm looking at You, Silent Hill: Revelation), we need something fresh to liven up the three-dimensional scene, and this new flick from the man behind The Grudge could do the trick!

From the Press Release

The legendary director of The Grudge, Takashi Shimizu, takes an unflinching look into childhood fears, the ties that hold a family together, and bloody secrets that won't stay dead when Tormented debuts on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital April 2nd from Well Go USA Entertainment. Filled with his trademark atmospherics and spine-chilling, brain-bending sequences, Tormented ventures into the terrifying corners of the mind where the lines between fact and fiction are blurred in this terrifying tale of a young boy whose family seems to be unraveling around him. The situation gets worse when he manifests a growing and dangerous friendship and reliance on a stuffed toy rabbit that comes to life.

Well Go USA will release Tormented (pictured above), from Ju-on and The Grudge creator Takashi Shimizu, on disc and digital April 2, and Deadball, Yudai Yamaguchi’s variation on his cult fave Battlefield Baseball, in those formats April 9. Tormented, a.k.a. Rabbit Horror, focuses on a troubled young boy (Takeru Shibuya) who sleepwalks into a strange realm where he’s pursued by a human-sized rabbit—echoing his killing of a sick bunny on a playground—and his mute half-sister (Hikari Mitsushima) who must rescue him. Shot by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Tormented will be presented in 3D on the Blu-ray, with no special features announced. Deadball stars Versus and Yakuza Weapon’s Tak Sakaguchi as a juvenile delinquent with a literal killer fastball who becomes part of reform school baseball team, facing off against a sexy, murderous rival team from St. Black Dahlia High School. This one will sport over 50 minutes of bonus features,...

Well Go USA will release Tormented (pictured above), from Ju-on and The Grudge creator Takashi Shimizu, on disc and digital April 2, and Deadball, Yudai Yamaguchi’s variation on his cult fave Battlefield Baseball, in those formats April 9. Tormented, a.k.a. Rabbit Horror, focuses on a troubled young boy (Takeru Shibuya) who sleepwalks into a strange realm where he’s pursued by a human-sized rabbit—echoing his killing of a sick bunny on a playground—and his mute half-sister (Hikari Mitsushima) who must rescue him. Shot by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Tormented will be presented in 3D on the Blu-ray, with no special features announced. Deadball stars Versus and Yakuza Weapon’s Tak Sakaguchi as a juvenile delinquent with a literal killer fastball who becomes part of reform school baseball team, facing off against a sexy, murderous rival team from St. Black Dahlia High School. This one will sport over 50 minutes of bonus features,...

Apparently there’s no accounting for taste; The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is leading the pack in Blu-Ray pre-sales this week, closely followed by Taken 2 and Skyfall. After a lengthy run, The Dark Knight Rises has fallen to number 12 on the bestselling Blu-Ray sales charts and it will be sorely missed (thankfully I already own the film and you should too).

This week, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña star as two boys in blue in End of Watch, a classic samurai film gets a reboot, and a little-known Sherlock Holmes film finally arrives on Blu-Ray.

Ready for this week’s picks? Then read on.

End of Watch

Release Date: January 22nd, 2013

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Peña, Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Frank Grillo, and Natalie Martinez.

Director: David Ayer

An American thriller drama film written and directed by David Ayer ( who also wrote Training Day and The Fast and the Furious...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Jan. 22, 2013

Price: DVD $26.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Tribeca Film/Cinedigm/New Video

Swords are swinging in Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.

From prolific Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike (he’s completed seven features in the last three years, including 2010’s 13 Assassins) comes the 2011 martial arts action-drama film Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, a remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 classic samurai film, Harakiri.

Hara-Kiri tells the story of Hanshirô (Ebizô Ichikawa), a samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his feudal lord and requests an honorable death by ritual suicide in his courtyard. The lord threatens him with the brutal tale of Motome (Eita), a desperate young ronin (a samurai with no lord or master) who made a similar request with ulterior motives, only to meet a grisly end. Undaunted, Hanshirô begins to tell his own story…

Miike’s movie arrives following its release on video-on-demand and digital platforms in July,...

A Man Who Couldn’T Tell If He Was Dead Or Alive

Okay. So the first fifteen minutes of the movie “Villain” are nothing to gawk at. Frankly, not much is happening at this point. It starts off with a trio of young women having a bite to eat. One of them, Yoshino, seems more overt than the other two and isn’t shy to tell her friends about the prospect of meeting her dream hunk, Keigo, later on that very night.

They finish their meal, split up, and Yoshino ( Hikari Mitsushima ) appears to make her way to the rendez-vous point. Along the way, she stumbles upon another potential suitor, Yuichi ( Satoshi Tsumabuki ), whom she found on an online dating site. He’s waiting in his parked white Gt-r when she crosses path with hunk #1.

Yoshino decides to shun mad motorist Yuichi in favour of her beau Keigo and leaves the scene with the latter.

Give It To Me

Love Exposure ( or Ai No Mukidashi ) is a very unique teen love/comedy type flick that centres around 3 characters: Yu, the son of a recently broken-hearted priest obsessed with hearing confession; Koike, the cocaine-dealing-overpriced-religious-artifacts-selling regional leader of a church-like cult named Church Zero; and Yoko, the step-daughter of the woman who dumped the priest, who demolishes houses part-time and tolerates only one man in her life: the notorious singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain.

On a fateful day Yu, master of the mystical Japanese art of Tosatsu ( which is the ability to stealthily take an up-skirt shot of a girl’s panties ) and leader of a 4-man Tosatsu team loses a bet to one of his disciples… The result? Humiliation. Dressed in drag clothes, he must declare his love to a girl he likes! Having searched in vain all his life for his “Maria” Yu, now disguised...

Blu-ray Release Date: Sept. 18, 2012

Price: Blu-ray $34.95

Studio: Olive Films

Hikari Mitsushima (l.) and Takahiro Nishijima take it outside in Love Exposure.

The acclaimed 2008 Japanese film Love Exposure offers action, drama and comedy as it takes a look at a pair of emotionally abused young people on the fringes of society.

The movie opens on young Yu (Takahiro Nishijima), who has grown up in a devout Christian family and is desperate to please his sin-obsessed Catholic priest father. That said, Yu is a fairly normal kid who has no legitimate sins to confess. But then he decides to take on sinning big time and becomes a master of up-skirt photography while perfecting the ninja moves required to get just the right angle on his subjects. Things become complicated when our drag-clad hero meets the woman of his dreams, the man-hating Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), who likes to beat the hell out of men for kicks…...

Hara-Kiri Death of a Samurai Trailer. Takashi Miike‘s Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) movie trailer stars Kôji Yakusho, Eita, Naoto Takenaka, Hikari Mitsushima, and Ebizô Ichikawa. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai‘s plot synopsis: “From visionary auteur Takashi Miike (13 Assassins) comes the story of a mysterious samurai who arrives at the doorstep of his [...]

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The new trailer for Takashi Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai has landed.  The 13 Assassins' director has remade the 1964 Masaki Kobayashi original, which tells the tale of an elder, poverty-stricken samurai who goes to his feudal lord's home to commit an honorable suicide.  Things take an unexpected turn when the fate of the samurai's son-in-law is discovered.  Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai stars Koji Yakusho (13 Assassins), Eita (Azumi) and Hikari Mitsushima.  The Tribeca film is available on VOD staring July 18th, with a 3D theatrical release in New York and La starting July 20th.  Hit the jump to check out the trailer for Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai. The following trailer does a nice job of playing up on the tagline, "Love. Honor. Revenge." in what looks like a worthwhile remake of the Kobayashi classic.  Check it out below: Here's the official synopsis for Hara-Kiri: Death of a...

From Cinema Today comes the news that Hikari Mitsushima will be starring in a movie titled Natsu no Owari (literally “End of Summer”) by director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Non-Ko, Sketches of Kaitan City).

The movie is an adaptation of an autobiographical 1963 novel by author and Buddhist nun, Jakucho Setouchi. The novel won the Women’s Literary Prize that year and established Setouchi’s career as an author.

Mitsushima will play Tomoko, a character modeled after Setouchi, who has grown tired of her long-time love affair with an older married man. Without ending that relationship, she starts another with a passionate younger man in her single-minded pursuit of love.

Kaoru Kobayashi will play Shingo, the open-minded, yet dishonest older man. Go Ayano will play Ryota, the younger man who’s tortured by jealousy and loneliness.

The story is set in Tokyo, but various other locations were used to more accurately reproduce what...

Director: Yuya Ishii. Review: Adam Wing. “When the wind blows your way, go with it.” Mitsuko Delivers is the new film from Yuya Ishii (Sawako Decides), starring Riisa Naka (Love Strikes!), Aoi Nakamura (Quirky Guys & Gals) and Ryo Ishibashi (Audition). Yuya Ishii is certainly making a name for himself; Sawako Decides won the Best Director accolade at the Blue Ribbon Awards, and the Best New Director Award at the Yokohama Film Festival. Hikari Mitsushima led an impressive cast in an enjoyable comedy drama that encouraged you to embrace the mediocrity of life and overcome it. Flawed yet fruitful, Sawako Decides was overlong and inconsequential, but it was also blessed with enough quirky charm to see it through. His latest release, Mitsuko Delivers, takes similar themes and waltzes amongst the clouds with them. Mitsuko (Riisa Naka) is in the closing stages of her pregnancy to an African American guy she met in California.

To mark the release of Villain on DVD 5th December, Third Window Films have given us three copies of the Lee Sang-il (Hula Girls) movie to give away. You can pre-order your copy here or scroll down for your chance to win one. Villain stars Eri Fukatsu (The Magic Hour, Bayside Shakedown), Satoshi Tsumabuki (Tokyo!, Villon’s Wife, Pandemic), Hikari Mitsushima (Love Exposure, Death Note, Sawako Decides) and Masaki Okada (Confessions).

Villain is based on Shuichi Yoshida’s novel of the same name, which sold over half a million copies in Japan. It has just been translated to English and was released by Random House publishing on August 18th, 2011 – a day before the theatrical release of the film.

With over twenty companies bidding for the film adaptation rights, and many of Japan’s top directors vying for the project, Lee Sang-il’s adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida’s award-winning novel Villain...

★★☆☆☆ Takashi Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (Ichimei, 2011) - starring Kôji Yakusho, Naoto Takenaka and Hikari Mitsushima - can best be described as troublesome; a remake (based on Masaki Kobayashi Harakiri [1962]) that is full of potential, yet ultimately fails to deliver. The plot is your usual fair of revenge and honour that focuses on a struggling samurai who discovers that his son-in-law has committed ritual suicide, leading to him acting out his revenge upon the feudal lord who allowed his death.

The act of seppuku (harakiri) is one that has fascinated Western minds due to its extreme dedication to the concept of retaining honour to the point of death. The problem with Miike's Hara-Kiri is that rather than tackling the concept in a interesting way, Miike puts his audience through an initial, overly-grotesque scene of suicide involving a bamboo sword, that lasts approximately ten minutes. The violence goes beyond...

This is the Pure Movies review of Hara Kiri: Death of a Samurai, directed by Takashi Miike and starring Kôji Yakusho, Naoto Takenaka and Hikari Mitsushima screening at the 55th London Film Festival. Reviewed by Richard Parkin for @puremovies. The title of this film is misleading. Yes, there is death. Yes, there are samurai. Well ok, I guess it isn’t that misleading. But surely the title implies a certain amount of fighting – of bloody gory, kick-ass samurai fighting? You may have guessed from the tone that, no, it doesn’t. Instead Takashi Miike’s latest outing is a long, drawn out expedition into the proud world of ritual suicides and the life of destitute, unnecessary samurai in a time of peace. From the director of 13 Assassins and Ichi the Killer this is a considerable shift towards a tenser, more dramatic affair.

Director: Yuya Ishii. Review: Adam Wing. They say three is the magic number, but it’s the number five that has caused Sawako (Hikari Mitsushima) to take stock of her life. Sawako has lived in Tokyo for five years, is working in her fifth office job, and is dating her fifth boyfriend. The first four boyfriends dumped her unceremoniously and boyfriend number five is proving to be another unmitigated disaster. Her life with Kenichi (Masashi Endo), and his daughter from a previous marriage, Kayoko (Kira Aihara), feels like a compromise, but she endures the hardship because she’s convinced herself they deserve no better. As she so eloquently puts it to her insipid boyfriend, “I’m nothing special either, I have no choice, that’s why I’ll marry you”. One day, she receives word that her father, Tadao (Kotaro Shiga), who runs a clam processing business in her hometown,...

Release Date: Dec. 20, 2011

Price: DVD $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Hikari Mitsushima (l.) and Takahiro Nishijima take it outside in Love Exposure.

The acclaimed 2008 Japanese film Love Exposure offers action, drama and comedy as it takes a look at a pair of emotionally abused young people on the fringes of society.

The movie opens on young Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) who has grown up in a devout Christian family and is desperate to please his sin-obsessed Catholic priest father. That said, Yu is a fairly normal kid who has no legitimate sins to confess. But then he decides to take on sinning big time and becomes a master of up-skirt photography while perfecting the ninja moves required to get just the right angle on his subjects. Things become complicated when our drag-clad hero meets the woman of his dreams, the man-hating Yoko (Hikari Mitsushima), who likes to beat the hell out of men for kicks…...

Rabitto horâ 3D aka Rabbit Horror 3D and Tormented is directed by Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge, Ju-On) and stars Hikari Mitsushima (Death Note), Teruyuki Kagawa (Devils on the Doorstep) and Nao Ohmori (Ichi the Killer). It’s official Rabbit Horror 3D aka Rabitto horâ 3D will now be called Tormented in the United States. Well Go USA has purchased the title for Us distribution and apparently changed the name, we don’t know when it will be released but the good news is it will be released in the Us. Personally I like the Rabbit Horror 3D better, oh well. Rabbit Horror 3D is inspired by Alice in Wonderland >...