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On November 20, 1971, Nikkatsu launched its new Roman Porno line with the double bill of Hayashi Ishao’s “Castle Orgies” and Nishimura Shogoro’s “Apartment Wife: Afternoon Affair”. The following 17-year period saw a grand total of at least 850 titles (another catalogue mentions 1133) released under this new brand name. before the series came to a halt in 1988. The bulk of these, a total of around 710 films, were made in-house by Nikkatsu, with the rest produced under contract by a number of independent pink companies including Shishi Pro and Enk, which meant that one of the three films playing on the triple bills in the Nikkatsu-operated adult theaters would have been made outside of Nikkatsu

Check the review of the book Book Review: Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Cinema (2008) by Jasper Sharp

The films were (in)famously shot under three simple rules, ave a scene of...

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Safe to say there isn’t another country bar Japan where a handful of top directors, including celebrated auteurs and an Oscar winner, learned their craft in adult films. Or perhaps even anywhere else in the world where that is imaginable.

But when cinemagoing plunged in parallel with the penetration of television sets into homes in the 1960s, it was so-called Pink Eiga that kept large parts of the movie industry afloat for decades, nurturing a generation of directors, scriptwriters and other filmmaking crew.

Usually between 60 and 70 minutes long, shot on 35mm and released in theaters, often on triple bills, the low-budget productions gave directors a lot of freedom provided they delivered the prescribed number of sex scenes.

In 1964, with the eyes of the world on Japan as it reemerged onto the world stage after World War Two as host of Tokyo Olympics,...

Akihiko Shiota decides to introduce us his onscreen lovebirds Takuya and Satsuki during a casual, Japanese, high-school, Kendo practice. And this very moment of the two normal seventeen year olds dancing with their sticks opposed to one another with harmful intentions is Shiota’s trick to engage the viewer on witnessing one of the most heartbreaking stories of troubled romance ever filmed, and i say troubled since Takuya is clearly aware that his love and adoration for Satsuki can be only expressed by her hurting him, an idea the girl finds thoroughly appalling at the start of the film, but later, because of her disappointment about a sweet romance gone sour, she invests all her energy to humiliate Takuya the way he wishes. And she is intricated about that. And she loves that. And then she’s repulsed. By herself.

The scenery of Shiota’s movie is an S&m relationship,...

Highlighting the early efforts of now-established contemporary filmmakers, the Japan Society has announced the second Aca Cinema Project series Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors, which takes an intimate look at six of Japan’s most well-known directors: Naomi Kawase, Miwa Nishikawa, Shuichi Okita, Junji Sakamoto, Akihiko Shiota and Masayuki Suo. Pairing each debut with a recent work, the series presents two distinct facets of each filmmaker’s career – encouraging dialogue and interplay as well as tracking the development of their signature voice. By drawing parallels and contrasts between past and present, Flash Forward illuminates the importance of these pivotal early works within each artist’s career. Co-presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, in collaboration with Visual Industry Promotion Organization.

Tickets for in-person and online screenings are available from the Japan Society website: https://www.japansociety.org/arts-and-culture/films/flash-forward-japanese-films.

A stellar snapshot of recent Japanese cinema is coming next month to the Japan Society. Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors––which takes an intimate look at six of Japan’s most well-known directors: Naomi Kawase, Miwa Nishikawa, Shuichi Okita, Junji Sakamoto, Akihiko Shiota, and Masayuki Suo––will feature films available to stream nationwide from Dec. 3-23 and two in-person screenings in Japan Society’s auditorium on December 11 and 17. Ahead of the series, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the festival trailer.

Pairing each debut with a recent work, the series presents two distinct facets of each filmmaker’s career—encouraging dialogue and interplay as well as tracking the development of their signature voice. By drawing parallels and contrasts between past and present, Flash Forward illuminates the importance of these pivotal early works within each artist’s career.

Series highlights include Naomi Kawase’s...

Exclusive: The second Aca Cinema Project series, “Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors,” has set its lineup for a hybrid program that will run from December 3-23. Presented by the New York-based non-profit Japan Society and the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, in collaboration with the Visual Industry Promotion Organization, the event will be comprised of 18 films streaming in North America on Japan Society’s Virtual Cinema hub, along with two in-person screenings on December 11 and 17.

Highlighting the early efforts of now-established contemporary filmmakers, the program takes a look at six of Japan’s well-known directors: Naomi Kawase, Miwa Nishikawa, Shuichi Okita, Junji Sakamoto, Akihiko Shiota and Masayuki Suo. Pairing each of their debuts with a recent work, the series presents two facets of their careers. (Scroll down for the full list.) Panel discussions will also be held with some of the filmmakers and available to stream worldwide.

National cinemas come and go from the top, which is currently dominated by Korea, as it did by Hong Kong some decades ago, but the truth remains that the only one who has stayed on top since its beginning (maybe with the exception of the 80s) is the Japanese one. Either through the festival favorites like Koreeda, Kawase, Kiyoshi Kurosawa or through the more cult like Miike, Sono, Toyoda, or through a number of newcomers, Japanese cinema continues to make an impact, proving both its current quality and its potential for the years to come. The decade that just passed is another testament to the fact, and the movies that you will find in this list, the most distinct proof.

In an effort to winnow some of the best Japanese movies of the decade (2011-2020), we came up with 40 we felt were the ones that truly stand out in terms of quality,...

While many may still look down upon a genre such as pink film, many entries in Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno Reboot Project are not only entertaining to watch, they have also garnered quite a lot of critical acclaim. The guidelines of having, more or less, complete artistic freedom and the obligation to add a few nude scenes in the story has worked for titles like Sion Sono’s “Antiporno”, a movie which not only works as a titillating feature, but also as an in-depth look about gender images in film as well as class. In 2016, Akihiko Shiota, a director who has had experience working in the field of pink film, managed to convince both audience and critics with his entry into the project called “Wet Woman in the Wind”, a story about temptation and pretense.

Popularity comes with a price for Kosuke (Tasuku Nagaoka), a famous playwright,...

The 3/11 catastrophe is a reoccurring topic in recent Japanese cinema. After a slow start, the industry seems to be confident enough to tackle the trauma. It almost took nine years for a big production company to release the premier Fukushima-themed blockbuster, “Fukushima 50” by Setsuro Wakamatsu. In the same year Nobuhiru Suwa, film director and President of the Tokyo Zokei University, presents “Voices in the Wind”. For the first time in 18 years, Suwa returns to his home country to tell a devastating and haunting roadtrip drama about 17-year-old Haru, who lost her parents in the tsunami and travels to the place that once was her home.

Voices in the Wind is screening at Camera Japan

In the northern coast town of Otsuchi, there is a white telephone booth to which over 30.000 people from all over Japan have come to speak to the “loved ones” that were lost in the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.

Akihiko Shiota – attended Rikkyo University, where he was in a film club with other students such as Makoto Shinozaki and Shinji Aoyama and began making 8mm films in the tradition of other Rikkyo students like Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His independent films were recognized at Pia Film Festival and he began writing film criticism and working as an assistant for Kurosawa and other filmmakers. He also studied scriptwriting under Atsushi Yamatoya and worked as the cinematographer for films by Takayoshi Yamaguchi. His films ‘Moonlight Whispers’ and ‘Don’t Look Back’, both released in 1999 earned Shiota the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. ‘Don’t Look Back’ won also the Jury Prize at the Three Continents Festival. ‘Harmful Insect‘ (2002) was screened at the Venice Film Festival and earned two more awards at the Three Continents Festival. His first major commercial film ‘Yomigaeri’ was the fourth biggest grossing Japanese film in 2003. ‘Canary’ (2005) inspired by the...

Beginning 2000s, director Akihiko Shiota emerged as part of a new wave of Japanese filmmakers portraying teenage alienation in postmodern Japan. Like many other famous directors of his generation, Shiota was a student of Shigehiko Hasumi at Tokyo Film School. Though less prolific than his former classmates Shinji Aoyama (“Eureka” 2000) and Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Cure” 1997), Shiota produced impressive movies such as “Moonlight Whispers” (1999), “Harmful Insect” (2001) and “Canary” (2004), which all deal with young outcasts and a lack of parental presence. In the course of his career, Shiota shifted his focus from serious indie dramas to sentimental commercial productions and effect-filled entertainment (“Dororo” 2007). He finally ended up in the genre of medical drama with the TBS tearjerker “I Just Wanna Hug You” (2014). What may look like a decline of artistic demand, is proven wrong by Shiota’s newest film “Farewell Song” (2019).

“Farewell Song” was screened on Japannual Film Festival in Vienna.

Although Shiota...

Movie sales and distribution company Infotainment China comes to the Shanghai International Film Festival optimistic about Chinese audience trends, but gloomy about current business conditions.

“The market is bad and industry players are very pessimistic. I just hope it doesn’t get worse,” said Infotainment CEO Cindy Lin, though she noted that such periods of trouble are also just part of the cycle of business as usual in the territory.

“The China market has always been a turbulent one under strict government control, with many rises and falls,” she said. “Before, the market’s total volume was smaller, so when there was turbulence, the shock waves were also more contained. Now the market is bigger, so the impact of such waves are also more widely felt.”

One positive development for those in the art-house sector has been the growing influence of young audiences with more cosmopolitan tastes.

“The population of...

Akihiko Shiota’s fourth film was one of his most acclaimed internationally, screening in Venice, and earning awards in various international film festivals, for both him and his protagonist, Aoi Miyazaki, who was then doing her first steps in the film industry, much like Yu Aoi, who also stars in this unusual coming-of-age film.

“Harmful Insect” is screening during the Kinetic Visions: The Students of Hasumi Shigehiko tribute

“The story revolves around Sachiko, a junior high student who has a plethora of problems. Her father has abandoned her, and her mother has developed suicidal tendencies, extreme mood swings and a peculiar taste in boyfriends. Furthermore, her beloved sixth grade teacher has been forced to retire due to rumors of having an affair with her. As the pressure from every sides piles up, the girl becomes detached from both school (and her best friend Natsuko) and her home environment, ending up...

A curated programme of Japanese films called “Kinetic Visions: The Students of Hasumi Shigehiko” will be screening at the University of Chicago every Sunday starting this week. The programme will feature number of films by directors who were formerly students of Japanese critic and theorist Hasumi Shigehiko.

Hasumi Shigehiko (1932-present) is one of the most influential critics and theorists of Japanese Cinema. Emerging at the film journal Cinema 69 at the end of the 1960s, he would go on to become one of the dominant critical voices of Japanese Film Criticism in the 1970s and 1980s, write numerous theoretical books on film form and experience, and become one of the founders of Film Studies as an academic discipline at Rikkyō University and later Tokyo University.

Hasumi’s students include numerous influential Japanese film scholars such as Yomota Inuhiko and Chika Kinoshita, as well as a long list of influential genre and art-house filmmakers,...

Japanese sales and distribution firm Gaga Corporation is launching sales of Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda’s starry new project “The Truth” in Berlin, one of six Japanese titles the company is bringing to the European Film Market.

Kore-eda won the top prize at Cannes for “Shoplifters” last year. “The Truth” stars Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche in an uneasy mother and daughter reunion, that takes place under the eyes of Ethan Hawke. The film is now in post-production and is being jointly sold with France’s MK2 International.

Kore-eda’s production company is also behind Gaga title “His Lost Name,” a drama by first-time director Hirose Nanako. The story involves a young man who opens up his heart to an older friend after running away from his past. The film stars Yagira Yuya, winner of the best actor award at Cannes for Kore-eda’s “Nobody Knows,” and acclaimed actor...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Akihiko Shiota's Wet Woman in the Wind (2016), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from November 24 - December 24, 2017 as a Special Discovery.Much like Hollywood, the Japanese film industry goes to the well as often as possible once it hits a lucky strike. Such was the case with the so-called Roman Porno films of the 1970s, an infamous genre of sexploitation primarily identified with Japan’s oldest major studio, Nikkatsu. Financial trouble necessitated a popular, inexpensive product, and these softcore numbers were just the ticket. This may have been the studio where Kenji Mizoguchi and Shohei Imamura made films early in their careers, but by 1971 the Roman Porno factory was in full swing, producing quick, cheap, titillating product for an audience hungry for female toplessness and a great deal of convulsive thrusting.

If you read Playboy for the articles, “Wet Woman in the Wind” and “Antiporno” may be for you. Part of Mubi’s foray into theatrical distribution, they also represent the return of the Roman Porno — a particular kind of pink film (read: softcore porn) made by the Nikkatsu studio and prevalent in Japan throughout the 1970s and ‘80s.

The first of these, 1971’s “Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon,” spawned 20 sequels within a seven-year span and made Kuzuko Shirakawa a different kind of scream queen long before Jamie Lee Curtis first met Michael Myers. Nikkatsu produced roughly three Roman Pornos a month until 1988, helping the revered studio pivot away from Yakuza flicks. These affairs were short, sexy, and often quite good — critics responded to them with nearly as much enthusiasm as audiences.

Read More:‘Anti-Porno’ Trailer: Japanese Director Sion Sono Returns with a Feminist Take on Sexuality

To celebrate that legacy,...

Exclusive: Japanese studio and international sales agent pairing up for new sci-fi.

Japanese studio Nikkatsu is partnering with Wild Bunch to handle international sales on the next film from leading Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

The as-yet-untitled project is a sci-fi suspense film produced by Nikkatsu. The produers are keeping details under wraps but say the project is in post-production and based on an unspecified play.

Nikkatsu is handling Asian sales, with Wild Bunch handling all other international territories.

“This is my first film adapted from a theatre play,” said Kurosawa. “I was conflicted about tackling the marriage of satire, humour and sci-fi elements unique to the original work. But after overcoming the difficulties, I feel the different elements will be balanced.”

The film is executive produced by Nikkatsu’s Yuji Ishida, whose credits include Unforgiven, Confessions and Memories Of Matsuko. Kurosawa’s recent films include Creepy, which premiered at Berlin this year, and Daguerrotype...

Exclusive: Gael García Bernal among directors on anthology film.

Japan’s Nikkatsu Corporation has taken international sales rights on omnibus romantic drama Madly, which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in April.

Comprised of six stories, all of which focus on the complications of modern love, the film features behind-the-camera stints from talent including Gael García Bernal, Sion Sono, Sebastián Silva, Mia Wasikowska, Anurag Kashyap, and Natasha Khan, all of whom directed one of the 15-minute vignettes.

Following its premiere in Tribeca, where star Radhika Apte picked up the festival’s best actress award, the film had a subsequent berth at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August.

The feature was produced by Eric Mahoney and executively produced by Nusrat Durrani.

Durrani commented: “Madly is a thrilling take on a universal subject and its six scintillating films tackle bold themes that represent a global state-of-the-union of love. We are happy to have Nikkatsu represent the film...

45 years after Nikkatsu switched its focus from making yakuza movies to focusing on softcore erotica, the celebrated Japanese studio returns to the titillating genre with its Roman Porno Reboot project, and has attracted some pretty heavyweight talent along for the ride.   Directors Sion Sono (Why Don't You Play in Hell?, Love Exposure), Hideo Nakata (Ring, Dark Water), Akihiko Shiota (Moonlight Whispers), Kazuya Shiraishi (Love Paradise in Tokyo) and Isao Yukisada (Crying out Love in the Center of the World) were each recruited to make a 70-80 minute film, shot in one week, which will start screening theatrically from late November, as well as on satellite platform SkyPerfecTV!   The features, entitled Battle, Society, Art, Lesbian and Romance each revisit the roman porno genre...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The OrnithologistIt’s one thing to watch a film festival unfold and take the films as they come when they come, on their own individual merits. It’s another to look back at them as part of a bigger picture, tracing connections made in invisible ink that may not be apparent at the time. That’s one way to look at the competitive selection of Locarno in 2016. As usual, yes, Locarno did take risks very few other A-list festivals would, and it still gets away with stuff other events can’t. (Let’s pause here to remember that Filipino auteur du jour Lav Diaz only went on to the main Berlin line-up after winning the Golden Leopard two years ago.) If getting away with it means tripping over itself occasionally (and in my short time of attending Locarno there have been stumbles, believe me), I’m absolutely fine with it.

"Wet Woman in the Wind is a curious proposition—a formal genre exercise with energy to spare, and a cheerfully dirty mind," writes Jonathan Romney in a dispatch to Film Comment from Locarno. "Written and directed by Akihiko Shiota, best known for low-key drama titles such as Harmful Insect and action blockbuster Dororo, Wet Woman is one of a series of films commissioned by the Nikkatsu Corporation to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their 'Roman Porno' series of sex films, which originally ran from 1971 to 1988." We're collecting reviews. » - David Hudson...

"Wet Woman in the Wind is a curious proposition—a formal genre exercise with energy to spare, and a cheerfully dirty mind," writes Jonathan Romney in a dispatch to Film Comment from Locarno. "Written and directed by Akihiko Shiota, best known for low-key drama titles such as Harmful Insect and action blockbuster Dororo, Wet Woman is one of a series of films commissioned by the Nikkatsu Corporation to celebrate the 45th anniversary of their 'Roman Porno' series of sex films, which originally ran from 1971 to 1988." We're collecting reviews. » - David Hudson...

Exclusive: Akihiko Shiota’s latest has gone to South Korea and Taiwan.

Nikkatsu Corporation has sold Akihiko Shiota’s latest film Wet Woman In The Wind, which is set to receive its world premiere in Locarno’s International Competition today Friday (August 5), to South Korea (Orange Yellow Heim) and Taiwan (Movie Cloud).

This is the first Roman Porno film from Nikkatsu in the festival’s main competition since the Japanese company started the softcore porn label in 1971. It also marks the return of Japanese director Shiota to Locarno after his first feature Moonlight Whispers (not a Nikkatsu Roman Porno) was competing for the Golden Leopard in 1999.

The new picture is about a former playwright from the city who seeks to lead a quiet life in the mountain but is caught up in a spiral of desire with a promiscuous young woman. The main cast includes Yuki Mamiya and Tasuku Nagaoka.

Wet [link=tt...

More that 1,100 of similar soft-core productions were released in theaters during the 70’s and 80’s by Nikkatsu, which helped to launch the careers of filmmakers like Masayuki Suo (Shall we Dance?, The Terminal Trust), Takashi Ishii (Gonin), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Tokyo Sonata, Journey to the Shore), Yojiro Takita (Departures), Koji Wakamatsu (Endless Waltz, United Red Army, Caterpillar) and many more.

The main reason so many directors chose the particular genre was due to the complete artistic freedom given to the them after they have met four criteria:

The film must have a required minimum quota of sex scenes (supposedly a sex scene every five minutes, although this rule was never strictly met) The film must be approximately one hour in duration. It must be filmed on 16 mm or 35 mm film within one week. The film must be made on a very limited budget (about $35,000)

The films were commecially successes and...

Above: From left to right, Tokyo FilmEx festival directors Kanako Hayashi and Shozo Ichiyama; and Nobuteru Uchida's prize-winning film, Love Addition.

Last November, I had a conversation with Tokyo FilmEx Festival directors Shozo Ichiyama and Kanako Hayashi. For more than a decade, this duo has helmed Japan’s most serious festival, one dedicated to independent cinema from Asia. Office Kitano, Takeshi Kitano’s production company, has remained its key partner over the years, and helped Japan’s support of Iranian directors as well as groundbreaking figures from China, most notably Jia Zhangke, a regular at FilmEx from the beginning. The festival also revealed the fragile state of art cinema in and from Japan and how a very small, centralized community that has been determining what fits into this category, and what is not allowed in; a community that’s aged while being unable to neither find nor form new heirs.

by Colleen Wanglund, MoreHorror.com

Dororo (2007) is a Japanese horror/dark fantasy movie directed by Akihiko Shiota. Based on volume one of a three-volume manga of the same name written by Osamu Tesuka (there's also a 26-part anime), Dororo takes place in feudal Japan and tells the story of a young samurai named Hyakkimaru (Satoshi Tsumbakuki) who was born without 48 body-parts. His father, Daigo, sold those body parts to 48 different demons in exchange for the world. Hyakkimaru’s mother abandoned him, rather than watch Daigo kill him but he is found by a powerful shaman who builds him an artificial body made from the parts of dead children. After his "father" the shaman dies, Hyakkimaru begins a quest to kill all of the demons and get his real body back. He is joined in his quest by a thief who takes the name Dororo (Ko Shibasaki) which means 'little monster'...

It’s been a long time coming, but a trailer for Mamoru Hoshi’s Boku to Tsuma no 1778 no Monogatari has finally been released, nearly a full year after the project was first announced.

The film is based on the true story of science fiction writer Taku Mayumura whose wife died of colon cancer in 2002. After a doctor told him laughter can help the immune system, Mayumura began writing one story of at least 3 pages every day for his cancer-stricken wife. Although the initial prognosis was that she would only survive one year, she went on to live 5 good years with the help of the 1,778 total stories written by her husband for her over that time.

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi of Smap plays Sakutaro, a character modeled after Mayumura, and Yuko Takeuchi plays his wife Setsuko. The two last co-starred together 8 years ago in Akihiko Shiota’s “Yomigaeri”.

Source: Official website...

Time to call your cable or satellite provider and add the Sundance Channel to your lineup as the network is launching a new season of its late-night destination Asia Extreme™ on August 7, showcasing the sharpest of cutting-edge Asian genre fare every Saturday night at midnight.

You'll note that a few of the offerings aren't strictly horror fare, but we're including everything since just about all of them offer gore and violence, even if the supernatural/horror elements aren't quite there.

From the Press Release:

The 2010 season of Asia Extreme includes the U.S. television premieres of five films from South Korea: The Restless, Shadows in the Palace, Tazza: The High Rollers, Voice, and The Wig. The new season of Asia Extreme premieres on August 7 at 12:00 midnight Et/Pt.

In addition to their on-air presentations, the five premieres will be among the thirteen Asia Extreme titles available free from August...

In the few short years since making her film debut with an impressively precocious performance in Akihiko Shiota's Canary, 19-year-old Mitsuki Tanimura has established herself as one of the most interesting actresses in her age bracket. While it would be easy for a young idol signed to a major talent agency to just coast by on her looks with modeling gigs and appearances in schmaltzy TV dramas (as most girls of her stature do quite happily), Tanimura keeps jumping clean off the radar, signing on to act in some seriously oddball projects with little potential for press coverage, let alone financial success. And it's not as if her career has stalled -- far from it. In addition to several small films by unestablished directors, she's also slated to appear in Toshio Lee's Box!, Takashi Miike's remake of Thirteen Assassins, and Junji Sakamoto's Yukizuri no Machi, among others.

Director: Akihiko Shiota. Review: Adam Wing Now this is what Eastern cinema is all about. A female warrior raised as a man joins forces with a young samurai on a quest to kill the 48 demons in control of his body parts. Sound a little bit strange? You bet. Dororo is based on a comic series of the same name and tells the story of Hyakkimaru, a warrior cursed at birth who was born faceless, organ-less and limbless. The man responsible is Kagemitsu Daigo, and just so happens to be our protagonist’s father. I sense family domestics ahead. It's all about greed you see, and power, lots of it. Daigo offers his sons life for ultimate power but fortunately for us (not to mention the rest of the movie) his mother is on hand to stage a rescue, leaving her son to float down the river and start a new life.

Director: Akihiko Shiota. Review: Adam Wing Now this is what Eastern cinema is all about. A female warrior raised as a man joins forces with a young samurai on a quest to kill the 48 demons in control of his body parts. Sound a little bit strange? You bet. Dororo is based on a comic series of the same name and tells the story of Hyakkimaru, a warrior cursed at birth who was born faceless, organ-less and limbless. The man responsible is Kagemitsu Daigo, and just so happens to be our protagonist’s father. I sense family domestics ahead. It's all about greed you see, and power, lots of it. Daigo offers his sons life for ultimate power but fortunately for us (not to mention the rest of the movie) his mother is on hand to stage a rescue, leaving her son to float down the river and start a new life.

Director: Akihiko Shiota. Review: Adam Wing Now this is what Eastern cinema is all about. A female warrior raised as a man joins forces with a young samurai on a quest to kill the 48 demons in control of his body parts. Sound a little bit strange? You bet. Dororo is based on a comic series of the same name and tells the story of Hyakkimaru, a warrior cursed at birth who was born faceless, organ-less and limbless. The man responsible is Kagemitsu Daigo, and just so happens to be our protagonist’s father. I sense family domestics ahead. It's all about greed you see, and power, lots of it. Daigo offers his sons life for ultimate power but fortunately for us (not to mention the rest of the movie) his mother is on hand to stage a rescue, leaving her son to float down the river and start a new life.

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has been hired to write “Rainbow Bridge”, the DreamWorks adaptation of the Japanese cult hit “Resurrection.” Bruce Joel Rubin is also well know for such scripts as Ghost, Jocob’s Ladder and Deep Impact. Directed by Akihiko Shiota, the original 2003 film follows a town that is thrown into shock when various dead former residents come back to life, but instead of being stereotypical zombies and ghouls, simply go about their former lives. Brad Krevoy, Mike Callaghan and Tetsu Fujimura are producing the remake alongside Shiota. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for the latest movie news and more from “Rainbow Bridge” and the studio DreamWorks. By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)...

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has signed up to pen an English language reworking of Akihiko Shiota's 2003 hit Yomigaeri for DreamWorks, which is currently going by the working title  Rainbow Bridge.Rubin, of course, is best know for his Oscar-winning screenplay for Ghost which yanked our heart strings and helped Whoopi Goldberg to an Oscar. This, along with his Jacob's Ladder script, more than qualifies him as something of a specialist in all things spectral and haunt-y, which is especially handy, because Yomigaeri is about a Japanese town haunted by spectres. We're saying it's not a coincidence.Yomigaeri - or 'Resurrection' in English - is a lot closer in spirit (geddit?) to Field Of Dreams or Cocoon than The Ring, though. The central character is a government official who is sent back to his hometown to investigate the mysterious reappearance, in non-zombie form, of people who've been dead for years.

The Japanese zombie drama Resurrection is coming back to theatres as a Hollywood movie entitled Rainbow Bridge. Oscar-winner Bruce Joel Rubin has been hired to write the screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Resurrection, which was called Yomigaeri in Japanese, centers around a town in which residents who have been dead for years come back to life and return home to their families. The townspeople, however, simply go about their lives as if nothing is amiss.

The 2003 movie has been described as a supernatural-themed film without many chills, which ought to suit Rubin just fine. He previously won the Oscar for writing the 1990 movie Ghost, but that had very little horror in it; rather, it was more like a love story mixed with some action.

More recently, Rubin adapted The Time Traveler’s Wife, a love story with science fiction/fantasy elements. Starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, it debuted...

Bruce Joel Rubin, who won an Oscar for his "Ghost" script, is set to write the remake of Akihiko Shiota's recent Japanese hit fantasy film "Yomigaeri" (Resurrection) for DreamWorks.

The original film focused on a town in which people who've been dead for a long time suddenly come back to life and return to their loved ones and normal lives. No, no zombie action in this one (although you never know what Hollywood will be ending up doing to the idea).

Oscar-winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has been hired to write the DreamWorks adaptation of the Japanese cult hit "Resurrection," tentatively titled "Rainbow Bridge."

The scribe, who has already written an elaborate treatment for the project, will offer the kind of emotionally centered take for which he's historically been known.

DreamWorks acquired remake rights to "Resurrection," titled "Yomigaeri" in Japanese, last year. Akihiko Shiota's 2003 supernaturally themed pic centered on a town in which people who have been dead for decades come back to life. Instead of engaging in zombie behavior, though, the townspeople simply return to their normal lives as though nothing changed. Brad Krevoy, Mike Callaghan and Tetsu Fujimura are producing along with Shiota.

"Gladiator" scribe William Nicholson had initially been hired to write the script for the Steven Spielberg-Stacy Snider studio.

Rubin is best known for another from-beyond pic -- 1990's "Ghost," a love story that earned...

Manga adaptations have been hitting Japanese screens en masse in recent years, though fantasy sword epic “Dororo” does at least have an impeccable pedigree to set it out from the crowd, being based upon a long running series from the 1960s by the masterful Osamu Tezuka (who also created the much loved iconic “Astro Boy”). Having already been transformed into an anime, the comic made the leap to cinemas in 2007 at the hands of director Akihiko Shiota, previously responsible for the likes of “Canary” and “Harmful Insect”. The film was a massive hit on its original release, setting a domestic box office record by holding onto the top spot for an unprecedented six consecutive weeks, and is now finally available on region 2 DVD via Mvm, coming with a featurette and deleted scenes. Although it ostensibly takes place in the future, the film basically has a period setting, and begins as...

By Neil Pedley

With blockbusters taking a week off after "The Dark Knight" so thoroughly conquered the box office and its core audience descends upon Comic-Con in San Diego, an outstanding array from the indie scene offers plenty of alternative viewing.

"American Teen"

Her longtime collaborator Brett Morgen may be out of the picture, but "The Kid Stays in the Picture" co-director Nanette Burstein infiltrated the cliques, classrooms and hallways of an Indiana high school for her first solo doc, which netted her a directing award at Sundance earlier this year. Burstein follows a cross section of Warsaw High's senior class for 10 months in pursuit of their respective ambitions and priorities, and discovers that bonding at the library during Saturday detention is no way to communicate when text messaging and Im can be just as intimate.

Opens in limited release.

"Baghead"

Mumblecore alumni Jay and Mark Duplass celebrate their favorite...