PLEASE NOTE: All articles are the property of the authors and/or SciFi Japan. Reprint or reproduction of any material in part or in whole, including the copying or posting of articles on any internet or computer site, without the authors' consent is strictly forbidden. Links to articles appearing on SciFi Japan are allowed (and appreciated).
In November of 2005, an independently produced Japanese monster called DEEP SEA MONSTER- REIGO (Shinkaiju Reigo) had its first screenings at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, CA. Originally intended for release in Japan in 2006, the film suffered numerous delays before finally making it to cinemas in 2008 as REIGO: THE DEEP-SEA MONSTER VS THE BATTLESHIP YAMATO.
While the male leads in REIGO were played by familiar genre stars Takayasu “Taiyo” Sugiura (ULTRAMAN COSMOS), Yukijiro Hotaru (the Heisei Gamera trilogy), and Susumu Kurobe (ULTRAMAN), the film’s top-billed female performer was a relatively unknown young actress and gravure (bikini) model who went by the stage name Mai Nanami. Born Mai Kato on January 1, 1988 in Hiroshima Prefecture, Nanami had previously appeared in bit parts in the movies LOVELY FIELDS (Haru-Urara, 2005) and THE DREAM OF DELINQUENT BOYS (Furyo Shonen no Yume, 2005) and sang “Spicy Days”, the theme song for TV Osaka’s animated show THE MARSHMALLOW TIMES (Marshmallow Tsushin, 2004). Following the standard formula for up-and-coming J-Idols, she had also released a hardcover collection of cheesecake bikini photos, Mai Nanami First Photobook, and a modeling DVD entitled MAI NANAMI: SHIN YAMAGISHI DIGITAL MOVIE MUSEUM (2005). But then Nanami suddenly dropped out the public eye. Continued…
The second big screen motion picture film adaption of the popular KAMEN RIDER DOUBLE (Kamen Raidaa Daburu, 2009) TV series was released in Japanese theaters on August 7, 2010. Following the earlier triple feature crossover KAMEN RIDER DOUBLE & DECADE: MOVIE WAR 2010 (Kamen Raidaa × Kamen Raidaa: Daburu ando Dikeido Mubi Taisen Nisenjuu)— all released together back on December 12, 2009— Toei Company scored big with one of their greatest hits yet! As the first major new technology 3-D film in the vast Masked Rider series, KAMEN RIDER DOUBLE FOREVER: A TO Z – THE GAIA MEMORIES OF FATE (Kamen Raidaa Dabaru Forever: A to Z- Unmei no Gaia Memori, 2010) was the showpiece of 460 screens in Japan; 273 were in 2D and 187 focused on the full 3-D effect. The movie was a phenomenal smash throughout Japan from the very first day of its release, landing 2nd place in the top box office spots nationwide. Falling only to 3rd place in the weekends to follow, this movie also averaged a 4.58 score out of 5 based on critical reviews compiled by Yahoo Japan.
Shinichiro Shirakura, Toei’s studio executive in charge of the hit Masked Rider series told the press, “People at the rival Japanese studios told us that they were amazed at how fast we at Toei completed a 3-D film like this. Shoots began in April and took two months, followed by editing that was completed in another month.” Continued…
Source: The Associates press release
Official Site: samuraiheroes.com
Special Thanks to Farhana Shaikh
The next evolution from the producer of DEVIL MAY CRY 4, Hiroyuki Kobayashi’s BASARA series is coming to PLAYSTATION 3 and Wii with SENGOKU BASARA SAMURAI HEROES. Set during a tumultuous period of Japanese history, SENGOKU BASARA SAMURAI HEROES follows players as they fight their way to the dramatic battle of Sekigahara. Players will take up the swords and spears of more than a dozen fierce samurai warriors in huge battles against hundreds of opponents in many exciting stages that lead up to the main event. Continued…
Strippers Battle the Living Dead in New Japanese Splatter Film
Source: The Associates press release
Official Movie Site: kyonyu-dragon.com (Japan), big-tits-zombie-3d (UK)
WARNING: This article contains some “adult” language. Reader discretion is advised.
‘Zombie Strippers’ meets ‘The Evil Dead’ Japanese style in BIG TITS ZOMBIE (Kyonyuu Doragon: Onsen Zonbi tai Sutorippaa 5, aka THE BIG TITS DRAGON), an insane horror-comedy that delivers everything the title promises and much, much more… and all in eye-popping, in-your-face 3D!
Written and directed by Takao Nakano, BIG TITS ZOMBIE is based on Rei Mikamoto’s infamous manga, Kyonyu Dragon, and stars legendary Japanese porn idols Sola Aoi and Risa Kasumi, the hugely popular pin-up model Mari Sakurai, and controversial comedian Minoru Torihada.
BIG TITS ZOMBIE 3D (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (Region 2, PAL) by Terracotta Distribution on 11th October 2010. The suggested retail price is £14.99. Special Features include: cast interviews; ‘Making of’ featurette; deleted scenes; photo gallery; trailers. Continued…
Six years ago NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A probe was launched to collect samples, but crashed upon re-entry over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear there and half of Mexico was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE.
Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain “the creatures”…
Our story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
The low budget indie UK film MONSTERS will be distributed in the United States by Magnet Releasing, a division of Magnolia Pictures (THE HOST, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN). The picture will first be available on Video On Demand, iTunes, Xbox Live, Playstation Marketplace, Amazon and Vudu starting September 24th, with a limited theatrical run beginning in Los Angeles and New York on October 29th. Continued…
On September 14, Magnet Releasing, the genre arm of US film distributor Magnolia Pictures, announced that it had acquired the North American rights to CHAW (2009), a wild and funny Korean monster movie about a giant, vicious pig terrorizing an idyllic countryside. Directed by Jeong-won Shin, the film is an affectionate tribute to classic monster movies that boasts fantastically gory special effects of the porcine beast attacking innocent tourists looking to pick organic vegetables. Magnet will modify the title slightly to CHAWZ (rhymes with ‘JAWS’) for the movie’s 2011 American release.
“If JAWS was looking to branch out to dry land, without a doubt he’d want to be CHAWZ,” said Magnet SVP Tom Quinn. “Another worthy addition to the Korean monster hall of fame and the Magnet Releasing library.” Continued…
Source: The Associates press release
Official Movie Site: Higanjima (Japan)
From the TWILIGHT movies to television’s TRUE BLOOD, screen vampires have never been hotter than they are right now, so it should come as no surprise that Asian filmmakers would be keen to add a bit of spice to the genre with their own unique style and sensibilities. That’s certainly the case with HIGANJIMA – ESCAPE FROM VAMPIRE ISLAND, a brand new live-action horror movie based on the best-selling manga series by Koji Matsumoto, coming to DVD and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom in October 2010. Continued…
From all appearances, Tetsuya Shima appears to be a normal Japanese college student, growing up in Japan. He spends his time swimming, watching movies, surfing the Internet and playing musical instruments. But, it is the musical instruments that make him unique. As Tetsuya puts it, “I have absolute pitch or perfect pitch, which helps me to make sheets by ear.”
These sheets include a myriad of piano interpretations of Japanese superhero theme songs. While scanning through YouTube one day, I came across a video of a piano keyboard. The person playing was not visible, aside from arms and knees, but the playing was unique and the interpretation of the themesong from KIKAIDA kept me watching and then had me searching for more. Continued…
Home video distributor Section23 Films has provided product details for their October 2010 slate of releases, including KIMIKISS: PURE ROUGE COLLECTION 1, TYTANIA COLLECTION 2, and both DVD and Blu-ray editions for CANAAN COMPLETE COLLECTION and TEARS TO TIARA COMPLETE COLLECTION.
Read on for plot descriptions, DVD/Blu-ray specs, and cover art for all these titles. Continued…
Light Yagami is good looking, a great student, and rich. But it’s not enough. His attitude is about to change when a Shinigami death god accidentally drops his notebook down into the human world and into Light’s hands. The thing about this notebook is that whoever’s name is written down in the book dies. Now the death games begin as Light decides to use his new power to rid the world of evil. But is he doing more harm than good in his quest to kill off every criminal? And when the talented and mysterious L is brought in to solve the mystery behind all this death, will Light be able to outsmart him or end up in prison?
With over 25 million copies sold, Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s hit manga series Death Note has spawned an internationally successful anime series, and been adapted into two box office smash live-action feature films directed by Shusuke Kaneko, widely known for the popular Gamera monster film series.
Now British distributor 4Digital Media will release a 4 disc special edition box set with both feature films in Blu-ray; DEATH NOTE and DEATH NOTE: THE LAST NAME, plus two discs packed full of extras on DVD. Continued…
Internationally acclaimed Japanese media phenomenon ‘Beat’ Takeshi Kitano’s (ZATOICHI, BATTLE ROYALE) 2000 crime thriller BROTHER will be released on DVD in the United Kingdom by distributor Park Circus on October 4th. Kitano wrote, directed and starred in this straight-ahead gangster saga with a cross-cultural twist.
The film focuses on Yamamoto (Kitano), a Yakuza gangster, who is forced out of the country when a gang war all but wipes out his clan. Armed with a fake credit card, a forged passport and a bag of money, he travels to Los Angeles, where he organizes one of the most powerful criminal syndicates in the city. Yamamoto seems unstoppable, until his gang runs afoul of the Mafia. Soon all that he built quickly and bloodily starts to unravel, as every member in his gang is marked for death. Continued…
The award-winning, international blockbuster THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy will be released individually on Blu-ray for the first time on September 14th. The Blu-ray discs have a MSRP of $24.98 each.
Warner Bros. is giving SciFi Japan readers a chance to win a great THE LORD OF THE RINGS Blu-ray Prize Pack containing all three films and host of cool LOTR collectibles. THE LORD OF THE RINGS Blu-ray Prize Pack contains…
• THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Blu-ray disc
• THE TWO TOWERS Blu-ray disc
• THE RETURN OF THE KING Blu-ray disc
• Two Bookmarks
• One New Zealand Jade Necklace
• One Navy Blue Ornament
• One Deck of LOTR Playing Cards
• One Travel Candle
• One Poster
Read on for contest details and to view clips from all three films. Continued…
Roger Corman, Caroline Munro, David Hasselhoff, Marc Singer, MST3K on DVD and/or Blu-ray
Source: Shout! Factory press releases
Special Thanks to Tom Chen
B-movie fans are in for a treat as Shout! Factory prepares to unleash several Roger Corman films and another MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 DVD collection in the coming weeks and months. Look for the STARCRASH 2-DISC SPECIAL EDITION on Blu-ray and DVD, NOT OF THIS EARTH SPECIAL EDITION DVD, THE TERROR WITHIN / DEAD SPACE DOUBLE FEATURE DVD, and MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: Volume XIX (with ROBOT MONSTER, BRIDE OF THE MONSTER, DEVIL DOLL and DEVIL FISH). Continued…
An Anime Family Saves the World in this Film Festival Favorite
Source: FUNimation Entertainment
Official Site: s-wars.jp (Japan)
Special Thanks to Jackie Smith and Manny Alcala
FUNimation Entertainment has acquired the North American home entertainment, theatrical, broadcast and merchandise rights to the animated sci-fi action film SUMMER WARS (Samaa Woozu, 2009) from NTV (Nippon Television Network). SUMMER WARS has screened at film festivals worldwide, including the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia, the Berlin International Film Festival, the Sydney Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the New York International Children’s Festival and was nominated for an award at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival. It also won the prize for Best Animated Film at the 33rd Japanese Academy Awards earlier this year and made an impressive $18.3 million at the Japanese box office. Continued…
Next month, the American movie and video distributor Cinema Epoch will release two 2009 independent Japanese monster movies on Region 1 DVD. Both DEMEKING, THE SEA MONSTER and PSYCHO SHARK (aka JAWS IN JAPAN) will be available October 12th for the suggested retail price of $19.98 each. Continued…
Films Include Works of Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano plus Women in Contemporary Japanese Cinema and Japanimation
Source: Barbican Centre, Sarah Harvey Publicity press release
Special Thanks to Helene Muron
For two months, from 19 October to 19 December, Barbican Film presents ASPECTS OF JAPANESE CINEMA, an impressive programme of Japanese film. The programme includes three “Directorspectives” focusing of the work of Japanese film directors from three different eras of cinema, for whom costume and set design formed a critical element of their work – Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano. The Mizoguchi Directorspective launches on Sunday 24 October with a screening of THE WATER MAGICIAN accompanied, for the first time in the UK, by benshi narration and live traditional Japanese musical accompaniment on the koto. The screening will be introduced by Japanese film expert Tony Rayns. The season also features GirlsWorld, a series of contemporary Japanese films focusing on women, including a Cosplay special event on Saturday 6 November, and a schlockfest double bill for Halloween, as well as two Japanimation screenings.
ASPECTS OF JAPANESE CINEMA complements Barbican Art Gallery’s FUTURE BEAUTY: 30 YEARS OF JAPANESE FASHION, the first exhibition in Europe to comprehensively survey avant-garde Japanese fashion, from the early 1980s to now. FUTURE BEAUTY is showing at Barbican Art Gallery from 15 October to 6 February 2010. Continued…
Toho Heavy Metal Comedy To Screen This Month During J-Pop Summit Festival
Source: VIZ Pictures
Official Site: go-to-dmc (Japan), DMCtheMovie.com (US)
Special Thanks to Rieko Fuji
Toho’s 2008 heavy metal comedy DETROIT METAL CITY will make its San Francisco theatrical debut this month during the J-Pop Summit Festival. The film opens at the VIZ Cinema with a special Premiere Event on Saturday, September 18th, followed by a dozen screenings through the 27th.
Based on the best-selling manga series by Kiminori Wakasugi and directed by Toshio Lee, DETROIT METAL CITY is the story of Soichi Negishi (DEATH NOTE’s Kenichi Matsuyama), a sweet and shy young man who dreams of becoming a trendy singer songwriter. But for some reason, he is forced into joining the devil worshiping death metal band “Detroit Metal City” (DMC). In full stage make-up and costume, he transforms into Johannes Krauser II (Sir Krauser) the vulgar-mouthed lead vocalist of the band. Against Negishi’s will, DMC rises to stardom. Now the legendary king of death metal Jack Il Dark (Gene Simmons) himself is challenging DMC to a duel. What is the fate of the innocent Negishi as he climbs to the top of the death metal world? Continued…
Earlier this year, SciFi Japan reported that Tsuburaya Productions’ ULTRAMAN TIGA (Urutoraman Taiga, 1996) was being broadcast on the independent Japanese language TV station UTB (United Television Broadcasting Systems, Inc.) in Hollywood. Now TIGA has been joined by the follow-up series ULTRAMAN DYNA (Urutoraman Daina, 1997), making its US television debut with two episodes airing each Saturday and Sunday from 6:30am – 7:25am. Continued…
FUNimation Entertainment will release the award-winning anime series EDEN OF THE EAST (Higashi no Eden, 2009) next month on Blu-ray and Region 1 DVD. Produced by anime studio Production I.G. (GHOST IN THE SHELL, KILL BILL VOL. 1), the show was created, written and directed by Kenji Kamiyama (director of MORIBITO: GUARDIAN OF THE SPIRIT and the best-selling GHOST IN THE SHELL: STAND ALONE COMPLEX), and features character designs by manga artist Chica Umino (Honey and Clover).
Originally announced for September 28th, 2010, the FUNimation DVD and Blu-ray of EDEN OF THE EAST will now street on October 19th. The 2 disc sets will each contain the complete series of 11 episodes. Continued…
Posters Signed by Lead Actors Ban Daisuke and Shunsuke Ikeda, courtesy of Anime Jungle
Source: Anime Jungle
Special Thanks to Tetsu Shiota and Yoichi Kakuma
SciFi Japan would like to thank Anime Jungle and everyone who entered our recent “KIKAIDA BROTHERS Poster” giveaway competition. Five prizes were originally announced, but the response was so positive (and polite) that we decided to throw in a couple more prizes. So the following seven randomly drawn entrants have each one a poster signed by both Ban Daisuke (KIKAIDA) and the late Shunsuke Ikeda (KIKAIDA-01):
Stephanie Chaplin Richard Shirley Jim Flack Matt Burkett Chris Daniel Sana Souratha Treveno Colley Continued…
Our good friends at VIZ Pictures are giving SciFi Japan readers in the United States and Canada a chance to win one of two new releases from the company: the Blu-ray DEATH NOTE COLLECTION or the DVD of BATTLE LEAGUE HORUMO. Continued…
Japanese Film, Fashion, Music and Art Celebrated in a Week of Activities Leading Up to All-Day Event Showcasing the Best in Modern Asian Popular Culture
Source: VIZ Pictures, MediaLab press releases
Official Site: J-Pop.com
Special Thanks to Erik Jansen
NEW PEOPLE, a dynamic entertainment destination bringing the latest examples of Japanese popular culture to North American shores, will expand its upcoming 2010 J-Pop Summit Festival, happening on Saturday, September 18th in San Francisco’s Japantown, with a special series of events taking place at the venue each night during the week leading up to the Festival.
Beginning on Monday, September 13th and continuing every evening through Friday, September 17th, different aspects of Japanese and Asian film, anime, fashion design, music and other forms of pop culture will be celebrated in a series of unique screenings, interactive discussions, multimedia presentations and live performances. Special gift bags containing a variety of fun premiums will be given to all ticket holders each night. Continued…
