As lovely and lilting as hearing Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” over a crackly record player on a snow-flecked day, Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama’s second feature “My Sunshine” is a moving coming-of-age drama about kids facing up to the troubles of adulthood.
This gently composed story of an ice-skating coach on the island of Hokkaido, and his two young pupils, has darker dynamics under its sleeve than the emotionally generous time-to-face-the-music-of-growing-up story that’s on its surface. It’s told in furtive glances and silent pacts against a frost-dappled backdrop, the end of winter coming soon, as two adolescents form a bond on the ice rink that complicates the private life of their instructor. Japan would be wise to submit “My Sunshine,” the second feature from “Jesus” director Okuyama, for the Best International Feature Oscar. Both the glass-half-full and the glass-half-empty corners of the audience will resonate with...
This gently composed story of an ice-skating coach on the island of Hokkaido, and his two young pupils, has darker dynamics under its sleeve than the emotionally generous time-to-face-the-music-of-growing-up story that’s on its surface. It’s told in furtive glances and silent pacts against a frost-dappled backdrop, the end of winter coming soon, as two adolescents form a bond on the ice rink that complicates the private life of their instructor. Japan would be wise to submit “My Sunshine,” the second feature from “Jesus” director Okuyama, for the Best International Feature Oscar. Both the glass-half-full and the glass-half-empty corners of the audience will resonate with...
- 5/20/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Some films prioritize a strident political cause, others set out to terrify or thrill. This touching and simple story from Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, is a gentler affair, with modest ambitions that it realizes effectively. Set on a small Japanese island, the film’s slight but sweet narrative follows a quartet of characters — young hockey player Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), proficient skater Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi), figure-skating tutor Arakawa (Sōsuke Ikematsu) and his boyfriend (Ryûya Wakaba) — as they navigate subtly shifting interpersonal dynamics while a cold but beautiful winter waxes and wanes around them.
Every scene is set up with a very deliberate aesthetic sense. A snowy icing-sugar landscape, a baseball field tinged with pale turquoise light, an indoor ice-rink shimmering in a golden haze: Nothing feels haphazard or anything less than picture-perfect. This is the result of a fruitful collaboration between director and Dp,...
Every scene is set up with a very deliberate aesthetic sense. A snowy icing-sugar landscape, a baseball field tinged with pale turquoise light, an indoor ice-rink shimmering in a golden haze: Nothing feels haphazard or anything less than picture-perfect. This is the result of a fruitful collaboration between director and Dp,...
- 5/19/2024
- by Catherine Bray
- Variety Film + TV
In Japan the very first few snowflakes begin to fall signaling the change of seasons. Another clue is we see young Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama) and his baseball-playing buddies taking those final swings at bat and moving on to ice hockey. That is basically how this quiet and lilting charmer of a coming-of-age story is introduced, and it sets the table perfectly for what is to follow.
Only the second narrative feature film for promising 28-year-old filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, whose first film 2018’s Jesus like this one also dealt with children, My Sunshine does not come from his own childhood experiences but is a story about figure skating, or in this case ice dancing, with which he has always been fascinated but never had a way in. Finally listening over and over to Humbert Humbert’s song “My Sunshine,” he not only got the English-language title for the film, but also...
Only the second narrative feature film for promising 28-year-old filmmaker Hiroshi Okuyama, whose first film 2018’s Jesus like this one also dealt with children, My Sunshine does not come from his own childhood experiences but is a story about figure skating, or in this case ice dancing, with which he has always been fascinated but never had a way in. Finally listening over and over to Humbert Humbert’s song “My Sunshine,” he not only got the English-language title for the film, but also...
- 5/19/2024
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
In Hiroshi Okuyama’s My Sunshine, three souls find solace and poignant moments of self-discovery in figure skating. The film chronicles a season of the sport in a small town on a Japanese island, the kind of place whose melting snow and changing leaves inspire poetic musings. Guided by the beauty of the landscape and the nostalgia of childhood, Okuyama constructs a quiet narrative buoyed by an understated charm.
The film opens with signs of a new season. During a baseball game, Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), a sheepish boy with minor speech troubles, becomes mesmerized by snowflakes fluttering to the ground. While his teammates steal bases, he cranes his neck, angling for a better view of the crystals. Scenes of snow blanketing the town in Hokkaido, the Japanese island where Okuyama (Jesus) filmed My Sunshine, follow. These images — of powdery mountain peaks and quiet streets flanked by snow — possess the haunting...
The film opens with signs of a new season. During a baseball game, Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), a sheepish boy with minor speech troubles, becomes mesmerized by snowflakes fluttering to the ground. While his teammates steal bases, he cranes his neck, angling for a better view of the crystals. Scenes of snow blanketing the town in Hokkaido, the Japanese island where Okuyama (Jesus) filmed My Sunshine, follow. These images — of powdery mountain peaks and quiet streets flanked by snow — possess the haunting...
- 5/19/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A Cannes 2024 acquisitions title already picking up buzz out of the Un Certain Regard lineup is Hiroshi Okuyama’s “My Sunshine,” which IndieWire shares an exclusive clip of below. Writer/director Okuyama won the top prize in the New Directors competition at the 2018 San Sebastian Film Festival for his debut feature, “Jesus,” at just 22 years old and now makes his Cannes debut. The moving coming-of-age drama set in rural Japan premieres later this week, centering on the bond between an ice figure-skating coach and his young pupils who take a particular interest in him — and with life-defining consequences.
Here’s the official synopsis: “On a Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real interest lies in Sakura, a figure skating rising star from Tokyo, for whom he starts to develop a genuine fascination.
Here’s the official synopsis: “On a Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real interest lies in Sakura, a figure skating rising star from Tokyo, for whom he starts to develop a genuine fascination.
- 5/13/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Charades has taken international sales rights to Hiroshi Okuyama’s feature My Sunshine and will kick off sales for the Un Certain Regard 2024-selected feature in Cannes.
Set on a small Japanese island centred on the changing seasons, My Sunshine follows two children who are complete opposites who decide to train together to form a figure-skating duo as their feelings for each other grow throughout the winter.
The film is the director’s follow-up to his debut feature Jesus about a young boy who leaves Tokyo to attend a Christian school in the countryside, which earned Okuyama the new directors...
Set on a small Japanese island centred on the changing seasons, My Sunshine follows two children who are complete opposites who decide to train together to form a figure-skating duo as their feelings for each other grow throughout the winter.
The film is the director’s follow-up to his debut feature Jesus about a young boy who leaves Tokyo to attend a Christian school in the countryside, which earned Okuyama the new directors...
- 4/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) has added 15 work-in-progress projects to the 22nd Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), rounding up a bumper line-up of the new Hkiff Project Market.
This year, Haf joins the inaugural Hkiff Industry-caa China Genre Initiative (Hcg) to create the new Hkiff Industry Project Market, which will showcase 47 projects, including 26 previously announced in-development Haf projects and six Hcg projects.
The Wip section will introduce the latest works by notable filmmakers such as Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Mark Gill, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui, and Yang Chao as well as by prominent and emerging actors,...
This year, Haf joins the inaugural Hkiff Industry-caa China Genre Initiative (Hcg) to create the new Hkiff Industry Project Market, which will showcase 47 projects, including 26 previously announced in-development Haf projects and six Hcg projects.
The Wip section will introduce the latest works by notable filmmakers such as Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Mark Gill, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui, and Yang Chao as well as by prominent and emerging actors,...
- 2/1/2024
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Sôsuke Ikematsu, Shin’ya Tsukamoto, Minami Hamabe, Mirai Moriyama, Tasuku Emoto, Nanase Nishino | Written and Directed by Hideaki Anno
The third entry in the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, Shin Kamen Rider, steps away from the kaiju-oriented plots of Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman to let writer/director Hideaki Anno, the driving force behind the Shin project, reboot a character that dates back to 1971 and who has, over the years appeared in various incarnations spanning live action, anime, and manga forms.
Takeshi Hongo was a socially inept college student who only cared about his motorcycle until he was kidnapped by S.H.O.C.K.E.R., Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling, and experimented on by Professor Midorikawa, played appropriately enough by Shin’ya Tsukamoto, the director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and its sequels.
He fused Hongo’s DNA with that of a grasshopper giving him incredible strength,...
The third entry in the Shin Japan Heroes Universe, Shin Kamen Rider, steps away from the kaiju-oriented plots of Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman to let writer/director Hideaki Anno, the driving force behind the Shin project, reboot a character that dates back to 1971 and who has, over the years appeared in various incarnations spanning live action, anime, and manga forms.
Takeshi Hongo was a socially inept college student who only cared about his motorcycle until he was kidnapped by S.H.O.C.K.E.R., Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling, and experimented on by Professor Midorikawa, played appropriately enough by Shin’ya Tsukamoto, the director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man and its sequels.
He fused Hongo’s DNA with that of a grasshopper giving him incredible strength,...
- 7/24/2023
- by Jim Morazzini
- Nerdly
In the wake of a limited Fathom Events theatrical release here in the United States back in May, Shin Kamen Rider is being unleashed at home via Prime Video this summer.
Officially announced this week, Shin Kamen Rider comes exclusively to Prime Video in 200 countries and regions beginning on July 21, 2023!
We assume the United States is part of this global release, but the movie’s official website doesn’t yet provide a list of countries. Stay tuned for more on the Prime Video premiere.
From director Hideaki Anno (Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman), Shin Kamen Rider is a live action reboot. Paul Le wrote in his review for Bloody Disgusting, “Shin Kamen Rider is a dream come true for Hideaki Anno, a lifelong fan of the heroic, bug-eyed cyborg. He honors as well as plays around with the mythology so that everyone can partake in his lifelong wish. It’s a...
Officially announced this week, Shin Kamen Rider comes exclusively to Prime Video in 200 countries and regions beginning on July 21, 2023!
We assume the United States is part of this global release, but the movie’s official website doesn’t yet provide a list of countries. Stay tuned for more on the Prime Video premiere.
From director Hideaki Anno (Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman), Shin Kamen Rider is a live action reboot. Paul Le wrote in his review for Bloody Disgusting, “Shin Kamen Rider is a dream come true for Hideaki Anno, a lifelong fan of the heroic, bug-eyed cyborg. He honors as well as plays around with the mythology so that everyone can partake in his lifelong wish. It’s a...
- 6/22/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Sixth feature film for director Daigo Matsui after his flamboyant debut Afro Tanaka in 2012, “Our Huff and Puff Journey” confirms the director's passion and dedication to stories of love and younghood set in Japan. In this case, a self-filmed road trip of four schoolgirls is another occasion to dig into youth culture.
Our Huff and Puff Journey is screening at Nippon Connection
“Our Huff and Puff Journey” is indeed an account of a journey through Japan, having as a final destination a J-pop band concert. Four high school students and friends Ichinose, Chia, Fumiko and Sattsun decide to leave their hometown in Fukuoka, the northernmost Prefecture on Japan's Kyushu Island, and travel by bike to Tokyo to see a concert of their favorite band, CreepHyp. The film starts at the cusp of their excitement, just before leaving. The girls feel like their life has just begun and this is the...
Our Huff and Puff Journey is screening at Nippon Connection
“Our Huff and Puff Journey” is indeed an account of a journey through Japan, having as a final destination a J-pop band concert. Four high school students and friends Ichinose, Chia, Fumiko and Sattsun decide to leave their hometown in Fukuoka, the northernmost Prefecture on Japan's Kyushu Island, and travel by bike to Tokyo to see a concert of their favorite band, CreepHyp. The film starts at the cusp of their excitement, just before leaving. The girls feel like their life has just begun and this is the...
- 6/12/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
After reimagining two other larger-than-life Japanese icons, Hideaki Anno naturally sought out another tokusatsu juggernaut to complete his “Shin” trilogy. And after the success of both Shin Godzilla and Shin Ultraman, fans of the filmmaker and/or Kamen Rider were curious to see how the grandfather of tokusatsu television would be updated. The final product ends up being more low-risk than Anno’s past projects, but Shin Kamen Rider is also one of his most heartfelt works to date.
Kamen Rider is certainly no stranger to reinvention. Despite the many entries in this long-running franchise, Anno goes back to the very beginning for Shin Kamen Rider’s story. Much like in the original TV series created by Shōtarō Ishinomori, the Kamen Rider seen here is a force of good with a dark origin. However, the movie reenvisions the terrorist organization Shocker as Shocker (an abbreviation for Sustainable Happiness Organization with...
Kamen Rider is certainly no stranger to reinvention. Despite the many entries in this long-running franchise, Anno goes back to the very beginning for Shin Kamen Rider’s story. Much like in the original TV series created by Shōtarō Ishinomori, the Kamen Rider seen here is a force of good with a dark origin. However, the movie reenvisions the terrorist organization Shocker as Shocker (an abbreviation for Sustainable Happiness Organization with...
- 6/1/2023
- by Paul Lê
- bloody-disgusting.com
Delivering one of the best monster movies of the past decade, Hideaki Anno’s 2016 Shin Godzilla outpaced any of Hollywood’s output with the creature as of late. After jumping back into animation with Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time, he’s returned to live-action, writing and producing Shin Ultraman, which got a brief U.S. release earlier this year. Now, he’s back in the director’s chair with Shin Kamen Rider.
First emerging as a television show 50 years ago this year, created by Shotaro Ishinomori, the series follows a superhuman, motorcycle-riding hero who battles villains. Recently released in Japan, while we await news of a U.S. release, a pair of thrilling new trailers have now arrived for the film starring Sosuke Ikematsu, Minami Hamabe, Tasuku Emoto, Nanase Nishino, Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka, Suzuki Matsuo, and Mirai Moriyama.
See the new trailers and poster below via First Showing.
The...
First emerging as a television show 50 years ago this year, created by Shotaro Ishinomori, the series follows a superhuman, motorcycle-riding hero who battles villains. Recently released in Japan, while we await news of a U.S. release, a pair of thrilling new trailers have now arrived for the film starring Sosuke Ikematsu, Minami Hamabe, Tasuku Emoto, Nanase Nishino, Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka, Suzuki Matsuo, and Mirai Moriyama.
See the new trailers and poster below via First Showing.
The...
- 3/24/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Whoa!! This looks awesome. Toei Studios in Japan recently released another live-action take on a classic tokusatsu franchise - an update on Kamen Rider. The great Hideaki Anno (also of Shin Godzilla) directed Shin Kamen Rider, which is now playing in cinemas in Japan. We still don't know when it will play in the US, hopefully later this year. A man who was given unwanted power & became a non-human. A woman who questions the theory of happiness she was given. Takeru Hongo, transformed into an Augment with killing power by the hands of the Shocker, escapes under the guidance of Ruriko Midorikawa, who was born to the organization but rebelled against it. He is drawn into an epic battle with the assassins who are closing in. What is justice? What is evil? Is there an end to the exchange of violence? Starring Sôsuke Ikematsu as Hongo, with Minami Hamabe, Masami Nagasawa,...
- 3/23/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Junji Sakamoto’s “Okiku and the World” is not just a period drama, but also feels like period filmmaking. Shot in black and white and a 4:3 aspect ratio, this in some ways feels like a homage to the films of yesteryear. But, with modern technology to hand, this looks divine, despite its subject for the most part being that of human faeces.
Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu) works among the rowhouses of the Edo era as a collector of human faeces for sale as fertiliser. A dirty job, he is seen as the lowest of the low. He takes on Chuji (Kanichiro Sato) as a helper as they just about make ends meet. Okiku (Haru Kuroki) is the daughter of a samurai who volunteers at a local temple as a calligraphy teacher. Gradually, she takes a shine to Chuji, despite his lowly status, though tragedy soon comes to her life.
Starting...
Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu) works among the rowhouses of the Edo era as a collector of human faeces for sale as fertiliser. A dirty job, he is seen as the lowest of the low. He takes on Chuji (Kanichiro Sato) as a helper as they just about make ends meet. Okiku (Haru Kuroki) is the daughter of a samurai who volunteers at a local temple as a calligraphy teacher. Gradually, she takes a shine to Chuji, despite his lowly status, though tragedy soon comes to her life.
Starting...
- 2/24/2023
- by Andrew Thayne
- AsianMoviePulse
The film received its world premiere in Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition.
Japan’s Free Stone Productions has sold director Junji Sakamoto’s period drama Okiku And The World to Hugo East for China.
Set in mid-19th-century Edo (now known as Tokyo), the film follows two men who collect waste from tenement toilets to turn into fertilizer to sell on to farmers. When they meet schoolteacher Okiku, the daughter of a fallen samurai, romance ensues but not without its challenges.
Fresh off its world premiere at Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition where the festival noted its “impish humour and...
Japan’s Free Stone Productions has sold director Junji Sakamoto’s period drama Okiku And The World to Hugo East for China.
Set in mid-19th-century Edo (now known as Tokyo), the film follows two men who collect waste from tenement toilets to turn into fertilizer to sell on to farmers. When they meet schoolteacher Okiku, the daughter of a fallen samurai, romance ensues but not without its challenges.
Fresh off its world premiere at Rotterdam’s Big Screen Competition where the festival noted its “impish humour and...
- 2/20/2023
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
When it comes to jidaigeki, most people’s minds conjure images of honour-bound samurai and quaint Edo-era villages. Evidently, director Junji Sakamoto envisions shit-covered peasants and social injustice. With his latest film, “Okiku and the World”, the filmmaker presents a different vision of Japan’s Edo-era than the one we’re used to seeing.
Okiku and the World screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Beginning in the late summer of 1858, we follow Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu) and Chuji (Kanichiro), two vagrants who deal in an oddly valuable commodity that Edo’s citizens provide in abundance – human excrement. The pair trek around the city, collecting shit and selling it to farmers as fertiliser. The two manage to find humour in this lowly existence, but that doesn’t free them from poverty. In one of the tenements where Chuji collects manure, a woman named Okiku (Haru Kuroki) is struck by a tragedy that changes her life permanently.
Okiku and the World screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Beginning in the late summer of 1858, we follow Yasuke (Sosuke Ikematsu) and Chuji (Kanichiro), two vagrants who deal in an oddly valuable commodity that Edo’s citizens provide in abundance – human excrement. The pair trek around the city, collecting shit and selling it to farmers as fertiliser. The two manage to find humour in this lowly existence, but that doesn’t free them from poverty. In one of the tenements where Chuji collects manure, a woman named Okiku (Haru Kuroki) is struck by a tragedy that changes her life permanently.
- 2/11/2023
- by Tom Wilmot
- AsianMoviePulse
"Kamen Rider" is a new Japanese live-action superhero film written and directed by Hideaki Anno, scheduled for release March 18, 2023:
"...college student, motorcycle enthusiast 'Takeshi Hongo' is abducted by the evil group 'Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling', aka 'S.H.O.C.K.E.R.' and converted into the cyborg 'Batta Augment-01' as part of their plans for world domination.
"But before they can brainwash him to do their bidding, he escapes and uses his new enhanced abilities, renaming himself 'Kamen Rider', to wage a one-man war..."
Cast includes Sosuke Ikematsu as 'Takeshi Hongo', Minami Hamabe as 'Ruriko Midorikawa', Tasuku Emoto as 'Hayato Ichimonji', Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka and Suzuki Matsuo.
Click the images to enlarge...
"...college student, motorcycle enthusiast 'Takeshi Hongo' is abducted by the evil group 'Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling', aka 'S.H.O.C.K.E.R.' and converted into the cyborg 'Batta Augment-01' as part of their plans for world domination.
"But before they can brainwash him to do their bidding, he escapes and uses his new enhanced abilities, renaming himself 'Kamen Rider', to wage a one-man war..."
Cast includes Sosuke Ikematsu as 'Takeshi Hongo', Minami Hamabe as 'Ruriko Midorikawa', Tasuku Emoto as 'Hayato Ichimonji', Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka and Suzuki Matsuo.
Click the images to enlarge...
- 2/11/2023
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
"Kamen Rider" is a new Japanese live-action superhero film written and directed by Hideaki Anno, scheduled for release March 2023:
"...college student, motorcycle enthusiast 'Takeshi Hongo' is abducted by the evil group 'Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling', aka 'S.H.O.C.K.E.R.' and converted into the cyborg 'Batta Augment-01' as part of their plans for world domination.
"But before they can brainwash him to do their bidding, he escapes and uses his new enhanced abilities, renaming himself 'Kamen Rider', to wage a one-man war..."
Cast includes Sosuke Ikematsu as 'Takeshi Hongo', Minami Hamabe as 'Ruriko Midorikawa', Tasuku Emoto as 'Hayato Ichimonji', Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka and Suzuki Matsuo.
Click the images to enlarge...
"...college student, motorcycle enthusiast 'Takeshi Hongo' is abducted by the evil group 'Sustainable Happiness Organization with Computational Knowledge Embedded Remodeling', aka 'S.H.O.C.K.E.R.' and converted into the cyborg 'Batta Augment-01' as part of their plans for world domination.
"But before they can brainwash him to do their bidding, he escapes and uses his new enhanced abilities, renaming himself 'Kamen Rider', to wage a one-man war..."
Cast includes Sosuke Ikematsu as 'Takeshi Hongo', Minami Hamabe as 'Ruriko Midorikawa', Tasuku Emoto as 'Hayato Ichimonji', Shinya Tsukamoto, Toru Tezuka and Suzuki Matsuo.
Click the images to enlarge...
- 12/5/2022
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Winner of the audience award in last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, “Just Remembering” channels a number of elements from Jim Jarmusch’s “Night on Earth” but also includes a very interesting role reversal element and unusual approach to the timeline of the story.
“Just Remembering” is screening at London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff)
Teruo is a former dancer who suffers from an injury on his leg that has forbidden him from dancing, and now works as a light technician for a theater company, although he is not exactly great at his job. Yo is a taxi driver (concluding the role reversal element), and a fan of Winona Ryder’s segment in the aforementioned movie, and also Teruo’s former girlfriend. Through a series of flashbacks mostly taking place around July 26, Teruo’s birthday, their backstory is revealed, as much as the background of a middle-aged man always...
“Just Remembering” is screening at London East Asia Film Festival (Leaff)
Teruo is a former dancer who suffers from an injury on his leg that has forbidden him from dancing, and now works as a light technician for a theater company, although he is not exactly great at his job. Yo is a taxi driver (concluding the role reversal element), and a fan of Winona Ryder’s segment in the aforementioned movie, and also Teruo’s former girlfriend. Through a series of flashbacks mostly taking place around July 26, Teruo’s birthday, their backstory is revealed, as much as the background of a middle-aged man always...
- 10/21/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Amazon Prime Video has doubled down on its investment in Japan with six local originals greenlit and an additional foray into live boxing.
At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle ProjectModern Love Tokyo," the Japanese adaptation of Prime Video’s original romantic anthology series "Modern Love." The series stars Asami Mizukawa, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yûsuke Santamaria, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Naomi Scott, with episodes directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Wife of a Spy"), Naoko Ogigami ("Close-Knit"), Ryuichi Hiroki ("Ride or Die"), Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Matsugane ransha jiken"), and Atsuko Hirayanagi ("Oh Lucy!"), who also serves as showrunner. Set for 2023 is "My Lovely Yokai Girlfriend" a half-hour, young adult romantic horror adventure-comedy series about two outcasts directed by Takahiro Miki and created by Yalun Tu...
At an event in Tokyo on Wednesday, Amazon revealed a reboot of “Takeshi’s Castle,” the iconic game show starring Kitano Takeshi that aired on terrestrial network TBS from 1986-1989. The reboot, with the working title “Takeshi’s Castle ProjectModern Love Tokyo," the Japanese adaptation of Prime Video’s original romantic anthology series "Modern Love." The series stars Asami Mizukawa, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yûsuke Santamaria, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Naomi Scott, with episodes directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa ("Wife of a Spy"), Naoko Ogigami ("Close-Knit"), Ryuichi Hiroki ("Ride or Die"), Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Matsugane ransha jiken"), and Atsuko Hirayanagi ("Oh Lucy!"), who also serves as showrunner. Set for 2023 is "My Lovely Yokai Girlfriend" a half-hour, young adult romantic horror adventure-comedy series about two outcasts directed by Takahiro Miki and created by Yalun Tu...
- 3/30/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Doubling down on investment and expanding its offer in Japan, Prime Video has unveiled a slate of new Japanese originals including a reboot of iconic game show Takeshi’s Castle and a local adaptation of anthology series Modern Love. The streamer revealed the lineup at a showcase event in Tokyo today, where it also announced it will livestream the World Bantamweight title fight between Naoya Inoue and Nonito Donaire on June 7.
Among other new offerings are YA romantic horror adventure-comedy series My Undead Yokai Girlfriend created by NCIS: Hawaii and Grace alums Yalun Tu and Zach Hines; a movie adaptation of Ryota Kosawa’s bestseller Angel Flight; and second seasons of The Masked Singer and The Bachelorette Japan which will debut this summer. Further, an April 22 premiere date for the first season of Bake Off Japan has been set with judges Toshihiko Yoroizuka and Yoshimi Ishikawa, and hosts Maki Sakai and Asuka Kudo.
Among other new offerings are YA romantic horror adventure-comedy series My Undead Yokai Girlfriend created by NCIS: Hawaii and Grace alums Yalun Tu and Zach Hines; a movie adaptation of Ryota Kosawa’s bestseller Angel Flight; and second seasons of The Masked Singer and The Bachelorette Japan which will debut this summer. Further, an April 22 premiere date for the first season of Bake Off Japan has been set with judges Toshihiko Yoroizuka and Yoshimi Ishikawa, and hosts Maki Sakai and Asuka Kudo.
- 3/30/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
"It had to come out eventually." Film Movement has debuted an official trailer for a Japanese indie drama titled A Girl Missing, the latest from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada. This film first premiered at the Locarno and Toronto Film Festivals last year, and stopped by a number of international festivals throughout the fall. Koji Fukada's followup to the critically-acclaimed Harmonium, A Girl Missing "is a satisfying slow-burn drama expertly told." A home-care nurse's relationship with the family she has spent years working for is threatened when her nephew is arrested for kidnapping their daughter. Japanese filmmakers love to tell dramatic stories about family and interpersonal relationships with devastating twists and turns. The film stars Mariko Tsutsui, Mikako Ichikawa, and Sôsuke Ikematsu. This looks like it starts out rather slow & calm and gets extremely intense as it goes on. Here's the official US trailer (+ two posters) for Kôji Fukada's A Girl Missing,...
- 7/29/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
A Girl Missing director Kôji Fukada seated in front of posters for James Crump’s Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco and Atsuko Hirayanagi’s Oh Lucy! at Film Movement Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Kôji Fukada’s A Girl Missing (Yokogao), shot by Ken'ichi Negishi (Akihiro Toda’s Neko Ni Mikan), stars Mariko Tsutsui with Mikako Ichikawa, Miyu Ogawa, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Ren Sudo. Fukada’s Harmonium won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2016 and he is also the director of The Man From The Sea and Au Revoir L’Été. At Film Movement in New York I spoke with Kôji about his love of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, how some say his heroine resembles Golden Globe winner Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in Todd Phillips’ movie, unravelling societal conventions, and what he did to create the sound design in post-production.
Motoko (Mikako Ichikawa) with Ichiko (Mariko...
Kôji Fukada’s A Girl Missing (Yokogao), shot by Ken'ichi Negishi (Akihiro Toda’s Neko Ni Mikan), stars Mariko Tsutsui with Mikako Ichikawa, Miyu Ogawa, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Sôsuke Ikematsu, and Ren Sudo. Fukada’s Harmonium won the Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2016 and he is also the director of The Man From The Sea and Au Revoir L’Été. At Film Movement in New York I spoke with Kôji about his love of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, how some say his heroine resembles Golden Globe winner Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in Todd Phillips’ movie, unravelling societal conventions, and what he did to create the sound design in post-production.
Motoko (Mikako Ichikawa) with Ichiko (Mariko...
- 1/6/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Japanese branch of Warner Bros has been investing for quite some time in the mainstream Japanese movie industry, mainly through the distribution of Takashi Miike’s and action films based on manga. In that fashion, the “Death Note” franchise was an obvious choice, as one of the most commercial of the last decades.
The film is available for pre-order from Madman Entertainment
“Light Up the New World” takes place ten years after the events of “Death Note 2” and follows “Death Note: New Generation” in terms of theme. King Shinigami seems to consider the mayhem spread by Yagami Light delightful, and has scattered six new notebooks around the world. Unavoidably, the bodies start piling up again, and the Death Note Task Force is resurrected once more. As new Shinigamis appear along the new owners of the notebooks, chaos is being spread in even worse terms than before, particularly after a...
The film is available for pre-order from Madman Entertainment
“Light Up the New World” takes place ten years after the events of “Death Note 2” and follows “Death Note: New Generation” in terms of theme. King Shinigami seems to consider the mayhem spread by Yagami Light delightful, and has scattered six new notebooks around the world. Unavoidably, the bodies start piling up again, and the Death Note Task Force is resurrected once more. As new Shinigamis appear along the new owners of the notebooks, chaos is being spread in even worse terms than before, particularly after a...
- 7/24/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The long wait for Death Note: Light Up the New World is almost over. The film will be released in less than 2 weeks and just recently fans were treated to titillating teaser clips to the movie.
Several viral videos were released on the official website. The clips show the looming chaos in Tokyo and the impending doom of six new Death Notes – supernatural notebooks that can extinguish any name written on its pages.
One of the unleashed viral videos particularly tickled avid fans. The clip shows the ‘Kira Virus’ taking over an unsuspecting victim’s mobile phone. The screen goes black and the ever-daunting Kira hijacks the screen. The audience can only tremble as the sight of the serial killer promises to bring more mischief, mayhem and murder.
Set ten years after the events of the previous films, Death Note: Light Up the New World revolves around a...
Several viral videos were released on the official website. The clips show the looming chaos in Tokyo and the impending doom of six new Death Notes – supernatural notebooks that can extinguish any name written on its pages.
One of the unleashed viral videos particularly tickled avid fans. The clip shows the ‘Kira Virus’ taking over an unsuspecting victim’s mobile phone. The screen goes black and the ever-daunting Kira hijacks the screen. The audience can only tremble as the sight of the serial killer promises to bring more mischief, mayhem and murder.
Set ten years after the events of the previous films, Death Note: Light Up the New World revolves around a...
- 10/19/2016
- by Ella Palileo
- AsianMoviePulse
The official website for the upcoming film recently updated with a poster featuring the three main characters, also revealing its official title “Death Note Light up the New world”.
The sequel film is set 10 years after the first two live-action films, focusing on a battle for the new six different death notes fall to the human world. Shinsuke Sato (Gantz, Library Wars) will direct the screenplay by Katsunari Mano (Aibou TV drama series). Warner Brothers Japan will distribute it from October 29, 2016.
The poster features Tsukuru Mishima (Masahiro Higashide, center), Yugi Shion (Masaki Suda, left), and Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu, right). It contains the text, “A decade after that incident … Six new Death Notes have been scattered.”
In the new film’s story, a highly advanced information society is beset by global cyber-terrorism in 2016. New charismatic figures, who “inherited the DNA” of Light and the detective L , emerge. The successors of the...
The sequel film is set 10 years after the first two live-action films, focusing on a battle for the new six different death notes fall to the human world. Shinsuke Sato (Gantz, Library Wars) will direct the screenplay by Katsunari Mano (Aibou TV drama series). Warner Brothers Japan will distribute it from October 29, 2016.
The poster features Tsukuru Mishima (Masahiro Higashide, center), Yugi Shion (Masaki Suda, left), and Ryuzaki (Sousuke Ikematsu, right). It contains the text, “A decade after that incident … Six new Death Notes have been scattered.”
In the new film’s story, a highly advanced information society is beset by global cyber-terrorism in 2016. New charismatic figures, who “inherited the DNA” of Light and the detective L , emerge. The successors of the...
- 4/22/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The films of Hirokazu Kore-eda aren't flashy, but what they lack in pizazz, they make up for in deep wells of emotion. Fatherhood and family are the resonating themes in his movies of late, in pictures such as the excellent "Like Father, Like Son" and "Our Little Sister," which debuted at Cannes last year, and opens in limited release in the U.S. soon. The busy filmmaker has already wrapped his next effort, and once again, fathers, sons, and family take center stage. Starring Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Yoko Maki, Taiyo Yoshizawa, Sosuke Ikematsu, Lily Franky, Satomi Kobayashi, and Isao Hashizume, the story follows a divorced man, a former writer and current private detective, who tries to reconnect with his ex-wife and son. Here's the official synopsis: Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes the money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely pay.
- 4/1/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
From Ishii Yûya, the director of last year's highly successful Japanese film The Great Passage, comes a heartbreaking drama based on the recently published novel by Hayami Kazumasa. Our Family (Bokutachi no Kazoku) centers on a shattered family that suddenly needs to come together when one of its members, the 60 year old mother, is diagnosed with a deadly disease. The poignant and distinctly tearful atmosphere of the first trailer is in perfect accordance with the even more depressing storyline, which is briefly summed up in the following few sentences:Since Reiko (Mieko Harada) turned 60-years-old, she seems to get more and more forgetful, but her husband Katsuaki (Kyozo Nagatsuka), first son Kousuke (Satoshi Tsumabuki) and second son Shunpei (Sosuke Ikematsu) do not care or notice. One day,...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/4/2014
- Screen Anarchy
AKB48 member Atsuko Maeda will get her first starring film role in an upcoming adaptation of Natsumi Iwasaki’s best-selling book Moshi Koukou Yakyuu no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no “Management” wo Yondara, or “Moshidora” for short. The lengthy full title translates to What if the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team read Drucker’s “Management”?
Maeda will play Minami Kawashima, the manager of a high school baseball team who mistakenly buys the book “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”, written by the late management consultant, Peter Drucker. Although the book isn’t specifically about baseball, Kawashima takes Drucker’s management philosophies to heart, carefully utilizing them in an attempt to transform her players from a group of unmotivated underachievers into a real team with championship aspirations.
Fellow AKB48 member Minami Minegishi, the original inspiration for the Kawashima character, will play another manager of the team. The rest of the...
Maeda will play Minami Kawashima, the manager of a high school baseball team who mistakenly buys the book “Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices”, written by the late management consultant, Peter Drucker. Although the book isn’t specifically about baseball, Kawashima takes Drucker’s management philosophies to heart, carefully utilizing them in an attempt to transform her players from a group of unmotivated underachievers into a real team with championship aspirations.
Fellow AKB48 member Minami Minegishi, the original inspiration for the Kawashima character, will play another manager of the team. The rest of the...
- 12/15/2010
- Nippon Cinema
Well it took a while, but here’s the trailer for Hideyuki Hirayama‘s “Shin-san: Tankou-machi no Serenade”, an adaptation of a novel by Tomoki Tsujiuchi.
This project has been a pretty tough one to follow. It was originally announced simply as “Shin-san” and filming took place throughout all of Kyushu back in the Fall of 2008. However, distributor Goldrush Pictures never came up with a release plan and the completed film sort of got trapped in limbo. In the meantime, the title was changed to “Boku no, Suki na Hito.”, then changed again to it’s current title.
Plot: In 1963, Michiyo Tsujiuchi (Koyuki) returns to her coal mining hometown in Fukuoka with her elementary school-aged son, Mamoru. One day, Mamoru is being harassed by a group of rowdy kids when he’s suddenly rescued by a notorious tough boy named Shinichi, aka Shin-san. Shin-san’s parents died when he was young,...
This project has been a pretty tough one to follow. It was originally announced simply as “Shin-san” and filming took place throughout all of Kyushu back in the Fall of 2008. However, distributor Goldrush Pictures never came up with a release plan and the completed film sort of got trapped in limbo. In the meantime, the title was changed to “Boku no, Suki na Hito.”, then changed again to it’s current title.
Plot: In 1963, Michiyo Tsujiuchi (Koyuki) returns to her coal mining hometown in Fukuoka with her elementary school-aged son, Mamoru. One day, Mamoru is being harassed by a group of rowdy kids when he’s suddenly rescued by a notorious tough boy named Shinichi, aka Shin-san. Shin-san’s parents died when he was young,...
- 4/2/2010
- Nippon Cinema
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