Tsumabuki will play a lonely blue collar worker from rural Kyushu named Yuichi who murders a woman he meets through an online dating website and takes another woman to a love hotel by force. Eri Fukatsu (36) also stars as Mitsuyo, a woman who runs away with Yuichi as police sort out the details of his crime and the motive behind it.

Filming will begin on November 10th, and as you can see from the picture above, Tsumabuki has already dyed his hair blond in preparation for the role. Release is slated for Fall 2010.

Sources: Tokyograph | Cinema Today

Now that we’re into November, pretty much all the 2009 Japanese films have either been released or announced, so logboy has magnanimously released his master list for 2009, which you’ll find in its entirety after the break. I’ve covered many of these titles on Nippon Cinema in one way or another, but there are some I haven’t even mentioned.

If you want to follow logboy on Twitter, his username is yobgol.

Here’s the trailer for Koji Kawano‘s “Sho no Michi”, featuring more Prince of Tennis Musical alums than any one film has a right to.

Junichi (Tomo Yanagishita) quits boxing and enters university without any clearly defined goals. Through a chance encounter, he discovers a calligraphy club and meets a group of friends who, like him, are all searching for their “road”. Their club director tells them, “Calligraphy isn’t about competition, but it’s good to have a goal.” With that, they begin intensively training for the upcoming “National Post-secondary Calligraphy Tournament”.

Meanwhile, Junichi’s childhood friend Kentaro (Yasuhisa Furuhara) continues training as a boxer, and their mutual encouragement of each other’s very different goals helps strengthen their bond as they face various hardships.

“Sho no Michi” will be released at Shinjuku K’s Cinema on December 26, 2009.

US/Hong Kong distributor Well Go USA will be releasing Takanori Tsujimoto's 2008 martial arts gore flick "Hard Revenge Milly" and its 2009 sequel "Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle" on single DVD in January. Both had their North American premiere at the New York Asian Film Festival back in June.

In Hard Revenge Milly, abolition of gun control laws at some indeterminate point in the future causes Yokohama to become a lawless bastion of violent crime. The worst of the new breed of criminals, "The Jack Brothers" -- named for their leader, Jack (Mitsuki Koga) -- brutally murder the husband and baby of Milly (Miki Mizuno) in front of her eyes and leave her for dead. Milly survives the incident and vows to get revenge. After visiting a master craftsman named Jubei to have a special sword gauntlet repaired, Milly infiltrates the abandoned factory the Jack Brothers use as their base of operations and murders Jack's henchmen one by one, leading to a final bloody showdown. [Read review]

Trailer:

In Hard Revenge Milly: Bloody Battle, A beautiful girl named Haru (Nao Nagasawa) approaches the now reclusive Milly for help avenging her own boyfriend. Milly initially brushes her off, but eventually recognizes her passion for vengeance and agrees to train her. Soon, an intense admirer of Jack's named Ikki (Kazuki Tsujimoto) and his brother Hyuma (Rei Fujita), arrive to take them on. Milly makes short work of their minions and neutralizes Hyuma, but the cyborg-armed Ikki manages to injure her severely. Will she be able to survive and help Haru exact vengeance?

Trailer:

Region 1, NTSC, 125 min. Japanese audio with English subtitles.

Thanks to logboy for the tip.

Screen Daily is reporting that Japanese film company Nikkatsu is starting up a new extreme gore label called Sushi Typhoon. And with a name that ridiculous, you know their releases will be primarily geared toward the west. On a positive note, it will give the filmmakers who are exceedingly good at that stuff at least one major outlet of production and distribution that simply hasn’t existed over the past few years as they struggled to create and promote everything themselves.

Producer Yoshinori Chiba, who’s worked on several of those aforementioned Media Blasters-financed projects, will be overseeing the label. First up will be an action film called “Alien vs. Ninja” by Yuji Shimomura (Death Trance) which will be released on DVD in North America at the same time it hits Japanese theaters. Future projects are promised by heavy hitters like Nishimura, Iguchi, Takashi Miike, and Sion Sono. Here’s hoping the new label also gives opportunities to some lesser known directors who haven’t had the backing to accomplish what they’re capable of yet, much in the way Nikkatsu Roman Porno did in the 70s. If that does end up being case, this could turn out to be a very good thing. If not, well, at least the gorehounds will be happy for a while.

Here’s the first teaser for Hiroaki Matsuyama‘s Liar Game: The Final Stage, which is based on a manga by Shinobu Kaitani. It picks up after season 2 of the popular Fuji TV drama which begins airing on November 10, 2009.

In season 1, college student Nao Kanzaki (Erika Toda) got lured into a mysterious game in which participants attempt to trick each other out of 100 million yen. She’s promptly tricked by her former teacher, leaving her in debt. Desperate, she enlists the help of expert swindler Shinichi Akiyama (Shota Matsuda) to get her money back.

In season 2, Kanzaki will team up with Shinichi and a former rival named Fukunaga to face off against a trio of opponents in a series of new deception games.

The theme of the final round of the Liar Game Tournament is “believe in each other’s hearts”. Players are told that if they trust each other fully and cooperate they can all win. However, the mysterious “Player X” lurks among them and threatens to undermine their chance to win. With 5 billion yen on the line, who will be the winner of the LGT? And what exactly is the purpose behind it?

“Liar Game: The Final Stage” will be released by Toho on February 6, 2010.

The 47 Ronin story is very well-known in Japan, and has been referred to as the country’s national legend for its portrayal of samurai honor, self-sacrifice, and strict adherence to the bushido code. In the early 1700s, a group of samurai became ronin (masterless samurai) after their lord was forced to commit seppuku for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka even though he was goaded into it. The ronin planned their revenge for over a year and eventually murdered Kira knowing they’d all be forced to commit seppuku themselves.

In 1748, Takeda Izumo II, Miyoshi Shoraku and Namiki Senryu adapted the events to a puppet play called “Kanandehon Chushingura”, but had to change the time period to a few hundred years earlier and alter the names of the characters to avoid shogunate censorship. This version is the basis of most modern adaptations.

Based on a 1994 novel by Shoichiro Ikemiya which was previously adapted to an NHK drama in 2004, the new film stars Yakusho and Sato as two survivors of the raid. Yakusho’s character, Senoo Magozaemon, is an “unworthy samurai” who flees the night before and goes into hiding, establishing himself as a pariah. Meanwhile Sato’s character, Terasaka Kichiemon, is a loyal retainer who’s secretly ordered to escape the raid by the leader of the Forty-seven Ronin, Oishi Kuranosuke, in order to relay the facts of the incident for the sake of posterity.

Other cast members include Narumi Yasuda as a woman living in Magozaemon’s neighborhood, Koji Yamamoto, and Masato Ibu.

Filming of “Saigo no Chushingura” will begin in Kyoto on November 8, with a release planned for January 2011.

Source: Cinema Today

Based on three best-selling essays by Nobuya Kobayashi consisting of real life observations, Renpei Tsukamoto‘s Kazura (Wig) will be the first film to star the popular comedy duo “Summers” (Masakazu Mimura and Kazuki Otake).

White collar worker Moriyama (Mimura) started balding at a young age, but sees an impending transfer as the solution to his troubles. In a strange area of town, he meets a mysterious shopkeeper named Owada (Otake) who gives him a new lease on life with a new hair piece. However, Moriyama seems to keep running into unexpected problems with his new ‘do which keep him running back to Owada for help, fostering a bizarre, unavoidable connection between the two men.

One day Moriyama meets a beautiful woman (Sei Ashina) and falls in love at first sight. After working up the courage to confess his love, can he possibly make a second confession?

The Klock Worx will be releasing “Kazura” at shibuya Cine-Quinto on January 30, 2010 with a national late road road show to follow.

Official website

As Tokyograph reported back in April, the film will star Riko Narumi (16) as an intense kendo fighter named Kaori who has been training since she was young. Kie Kitano (18) plays Sanae, a girl who has only participated in kendo casually, but somehow manages to beat Kaori in the final tournament of junior high school. Although Sanae doesn’t particularly care about it, Kaori holds a grudge, setting up a rivalry that bleeds over into high school.

Here are the additional cast members in the order listed on the site:

Hideo Ishiguro as Kazuharu Isoyama (Kaori’s older brother)
Moe Arai as Satsuki Tamura (Sanae’s friend)
Rio Yamashita as Kozue Hisano (Sanae’s friend)
Koto Takagi as Yukari Murahama (Kendo club captain)
Kento Kaku as Takumi Oka (High school kendo champion)
Haru as Midoriko Nishogi (Sanae’s older sister)
Hiro Komura as Keiko Nishogi (Sanae’s mother)
Keisuke Horibe as Ryuzo Koshiba (Kendo club advisor)
Shigemitsu Ogi as Kensuke Isoyama (Kaori’s father)
Itsuji Itao as Hajime Komoto (Sanae’s father)

It was recently announced that the events from that fateful day, including TMGE's final performance and backstage footage, have been turned into a film using the latest imaging technology -- which I suppose is a fancy way of saying it's all been remastered. The film will be called Michelle Gun Elephant Thee Movie - Last Heaven 031011 and will be released first at Cine Saison Shibuya on December 19, 2009 with a nation-wide road show to follow. Around the same time as the main film's release, a companion film made up of re-edited footage from TMGE's last show called "Thee Scene - Last Heaven 031011" will be shown at live venues throughout Japan over a 10-day span in the spirit of a live tour. A website has been set up with all the details.

This announcement coincides with a few other TMGE releases as well. Various labels have cooperated with Columbia Music Entertainment to release the definitive TMGE greatest hits collection, appropriately titled "Thee Greatest Hits", on December 26th. The collection will feature 32 songs on 2 Super High Material CDs. The limited edition will come with a 15-song DVD of TV performances and a 100-page booklet.

On January 20, 2010, a 10-disc DVD box entitled "Thee Live" will be released by Universal Music including a ton of video footage from TV performances, various live shows, and entire festival recordings.

Sources: Oricon | JaME World

Here's some footage from TMGE's final show (sans fancy imaging technology):

Los Angeles-based Sotokoto Pictures Inc. recently shot some footage for the film at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania which hosts the Little League World Series every summer and has also been home to several minor league teams. The film will reportedly tell the story of a young Japanese baseball team’s quest to be part of the series, as well as one father’s dream of playing professional baseball in the US. The scene recently shot in PA featured the father, Tsuneo (Eisaku Yoshida) playing on a US minor league team after being demoted from his own Japanese team due to injury.

Actress Michiko Hada, who plays Tsuneo’s wife Kanako, was sitting in the stands with the aforementioned Kohara, who plays their son Kyuji. They were surrounded by a crowd of around 75 extras recruited from the area.

Aside from the stadium shoot, which lasted about 6 hours, the crew has been seen shooting in other areas around Williamsport including Brandon Park and Vallamont Drive, with further filming planned for the Hiawatha River Boat, Little League International, and downtown.

“Bokutachi no Play Ball” is slated for release in Summer 2010, courtesy of Go! Cinema.

Sources: Sankei Sports | Sun Gazette

This latest drama is produced by Iwai and directed by Koji Hagiuda (Shindo, Kodomo no Kodomo). The script was handled by Eriko Kitagawa, who wrote the 1996 TV drama "Long Vacation" and worked with Iwai on her own directorial debut, Halfway, earlier this year. The main cast consists of Riisa Naka, Hideo Ishiguro, and Sakura Ando -- all of whom have racked up some pretty big accomplishments in their young careers.

Iwai gushed about the high quality of the drama, calling it a literal love story with depth. He went on to add, "This will become a movie sooner or later. And this work is positioned to be the premiere."

It's not exactly clear if he meant that the segments of the existing drama could work as a film as-is or if he had ideas of a complete re-shoot, but it sounds like a decent plan either way.

Until that day comes, people lucky enough to get LISMO Channel on their cell phones can watch new episodes of the existing drama every Monday beginning today (11/2).

Source: Cinema Today

Thanks to Jason Gray for a phrasing correction!

Here's a trailer/making-of video:

The film is being directed by Tetsuya Nakashima whose become known for his unique visual style in films such as Kamikaze Girls and Memories of Matsuko.

As for the rest of the cast, a total of 37 teens were chosen to play junior high school students from an audition of over 1,000. Masaki Okada will play an enthusiastic young teacher who arrives as Moriguchi’s successor and doesn’t fully understand the gravity of the situation he’s walked into. Yoshino Kimura will play the mother of one of the boys.

Filming of “Kokuhaku” began on October 24th and a nation-wide release is planned for June 2010.

Sources: Cinema Today | ryuganji

“Gekijoban Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen” will be released by Warner Bros. sometime during Golden Week 2010.

Source: Comic Natalie

A second trailer has been added to the official website of the tenth One Piece animated film. This time around Eiichiro Oda, the guy behind the manga and anime series since creating it in 1997, has personally taken over the film’s production with an eye toward making this one different from the 9 previous installments. Oda came up with the film’s story and about 120 rough drawings for director Munehisa Sakai to work from. Sakai has previously worked as one of the directors of the animated TV series.

Synopsis: As a young boy, Luffy ate a “devil’s fruit” which gave him the life-saving ability to stretch his body. He took the the seas in a straw hat, aiming to become the new Pirate King. He met several companions along the way and formed a team of “Straw Hat Pirates” to help him on his journey. In the new film, Luffy’s path to becoming Pirate King is blocked by the world’s strongest man—another person with powers gained from demon’s fruit called “Gold Lion Shiki”.

Toei will be releasing “One Piece Film: Strong World” in Japan on December 12, 2009.

In keeping with Sakaguchi’s past work, the film promises to be a “super genre movie” involving cgi, effects makeup, swordplay, monsters, zombies, and kung fu. Sion Sono is also on board as a co-screenwriter. I find that aspect of it to be particularly exciting, because Sakaguchi let Ryuhei Kitamura (good director, awful screenwriter) handle the script for last year’s Samurai Zombie and the general consensus on that one seems to be “meh” (or worse). Before that, Sakaguchi had written the screenplay for Samurai School all by himself and it was actually pretty enjoyable. The addition of a prolific screenwriter like Sono can only help.

The film’s plot involves a samurai named Seijuro who travels with a wolf called Jubei. His nemesis is a muscle-bound villain named Genbu who has betrayed his own family and is responsible for turning Seijuro’s father into an animal. Soon, Seijuro is approached by a female ninja of the Geiga clan named Kurenai. She’s come to let him in on a cunning plan which will lead to an epic confrontation to decide the fates of all involved.

Sakaguchi claims that contemporary samurai action films have gotten too “safe” and “weak” compared to the days of Shintaro Katsu and Toshiro Mifune, and plans to make the action in this film to be as realistic as possible.

Confusingly enough, there are currently two listings for the project—one with a completion year of 2010 and another listed for 2011. I suppose it’s still up in the air until financing is hashed out.

Sources: 24Framespersecond.net | The Film Catalogue 1 | The Film Catalogue 2

After the crash, Matsuda initially returned home to Tokyo, but became concerned when the pain from a bruised area wouldn’t go away and was rushed to a nearby hospital. The subsequent examination revealed a broken rib. Doctors ran a full battery of tests, but didn’t find any additional abnormalities.

Matsuda, one of Japan’s top young film actors, got into Motocross a few years ago with his younger brother, actor Shota Matsuda (24). There were also reports that Shota was with him on the day of the crash.

The Matsuda brothers’ mom, actress Miyuki Matsuda (48) was recently out promoting an upcoming television special which will air this November on SKY PerfecTV to celebrate the career of her late husband, actor Yusaku Matsuda, 20 years after his death. In true PR form, she said of the special, “Please meet the actor Yusaku Matsuda once again”, but declined to comment on her son’s accident.

Source: Sponichi Annex

Edit (10/30): Fixed the Shota part (present during the fall, but didn’t fall—oops!)

The first preview trailer for Tetsu Maeda‘s Saru Lock: The Movie has been posted on the film’s official website.This was originally broadcast at the end of the final episode of the NTV drama on October 15.

Saru Lock is based on a Naoki Serizawa manga and stars Japan’s go-to hyperactive dumbass Hayato Ichihara as a gravure magazine-obsessed teenager named Sarumaru who works at his father’s locksmithing business and routinely uses his lock-picking skills on a series of adventures.

As Tokyograph reported yesterday, the movie will bring back the cast from the drama while adding Manami Higa as a deceitful woman named Mayumi, Manami Konishi as a police officer, Ken Mitsuishi as a gang leader, and both Masahiko Nishimura and Jun Kunimura as members of the National Police Agency.

“Saru Lock: The Movie” will be released in Japan on February 27, 2010.

According to Tokyograph, Naka will indeed be the star of the new film, but her character will be totally different. She’ll be playing Akari, the 18-year-old daughter of the protagonist of the original novel, Kazuko Yoshiyama (played by Narumi Yasuda). When Kazuko is injured in a car accident and falls into a coma, Akari leaps back in time to the 70s to seek out her mother’s first love, Kazuo Fukamachi. Instead, she meets a college student named Ryota (Nakao) who helps her with her search.

The film will be the feature length debut of director Masaaki Taniguchi, who has served as assistant director under Yojiro Takita, Kichitaro Negishi, Kazuyuki Izutsu, and Tetsuo Shinohara.

Photo/additional details via Eiga.com

A trailer has finally been added to the official website for Yoriko Jun‘s live-action adaptation of Yukiya Sakuragi’s manga Inubaka.

The film stars Suzanne as a dog lover named Suguri Miyauchi who moves from Kumamoto to Tokyo with her beloved male mixed breed dog, Lupin. When they arrive, Lupin suddenly bolts in a specific direction. By the time Suguri catches up, Lupin has already mounted a purebred Labrador Retriever named Noa as her owner Teppei (Hidenori Tokuyama) looks on in shock. Teppei is the manager of a pet store called “Woofles” and coerces Suguri into taking a job there to make up for Noa’s defilement.

Teppei watches in amazement as Suguri’s connection with dogs becomes evident. She’s willing to pick up dog poop by hand, all the puppies in Woofles pee with joy when they see her, and she seems to be able to understand what the dogs are thinking at any given time. Surrounded by a bunch of cute dogs, an often thoughtless shop employee named Kentaro (Ryosuke Okada), and various customers, Suguri manages to spark quite a few unexpected happenings at her new workplace.

“Inubaka” will open at Shibuya Theater Tsutaya on November 21, 2009 with subsequent dates to follow.