Cool News
Japan-AICN: Kill Bill (Japanese version);Sky High; Devil Man; Cutie Honey; Deep Love; Hinokio; You've got a Call
Father Geek here in ol' Austin, Texas welcoming back our longtime Tokyo reporter on Japanese cinema, pigmon. He had some family health issues that kept him away from the keyboard throughout the summer and early Fall, but he's back with us now, annnnnnd we are looking forward to his regular weekly reports once again. He may also be putting out a Japanese language version of AICN (not just Japan-AICN) in the near future... We'll let you know when and where that's happening right here in this column, sooooo stay tuned for that update...
NEWS
* There was a Huge press conference for a different version of "Kill Bill" held in Tokyo last
week. Mr.Tarantino, Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Lawrance
J Bender,and Yohei Taneda(production designer) attended this packed conference.
The greatly excited Mr.Quentin Tarantino
looks so hyper at this conference you would think he was about to explode right there on the stage. He said loudly and with very much pride, "You guys will be seeing the much better one!
Americans and Europeans are seeing a weaker one!". Known as the "Japanese version" this KILL BILL will be including many more
violent shots than the American version that is showing right now on the screens in Japan as well as the rest of the world.
* Well popular mobile novel(you can read only by moblie phone through the net
,"Deep Love" will be big screen. Michika Shigeizumi won big role through
audition out of 1600 candidates.
Its story about 17 years old high school prostitue meeting lots of people and
learns what love is.
"Deep Love" is extremely popular among high school students. Yoshi,the author
of this novel will direct the movie as well.
* Toei co. will produce "Shi Ni Hana"(death to flowers) which features
Japanese elderly great
actors,such as Hisaya Morishige,Tsutom Yamazaki,and Yukio Aoshima. 5 guys
escape from nursing home and plan bank robbery and success to get big bucks. Kendo
who works for Toei.co.will direct this slow action movie and it will be
releasing next summer.
* Shochiku co. will produce SIFI fantasy,"Hinokio" which is directed by
Akihiko Akiyama who has been top Japanese visual effects
supervisor("Rampo","Kappa","Acri",and "Final Fantasy:The Movie"). A boy refuses to go to
school,goverment's special robot goes to the school instead of boy...Shooting should be
starting soon and will be at the theaters next March.
* Yuji Osada of Toei produced "T.R.Y." recieved best actor award at 48th
annual Asia Pacific Ocean Film Festival in Iran. Also Kouichi Takeuchi and Yoshio
Inagaki,both production designer for "T.R.Y." recieved best art direction award
as well.
* For the fisrt time,all 58 local film commissions in Japan gathered and have
meeting which is sponsered by Agency forCultural Affairs. Compared with
American and European film commissions,Japanese film commissions is far from
succeed. Still many civilians are not corported film produciton. These days,many good
film projects from the US abondoned filiming in Japan,such as "Kill Bill" and
"Last Samurai". High cost of rental fee of studio and eqipments,high taxes,and
high wages of crews are some of the reasons.Director Yusuke Narita says,"Why
city goverments can stop the traffic for marathon but not for film
producion! This is reality of location shooting in Japan!". I agree with him.
* Tom Cruse will attend world premire of "Last Samurai" at Tokyo Roppongi
Hills theater on November 20th. This is going to be his third visit to Japan this
year.
* These are list of Tokyo International Film Festival 2003 competition
category. I don't have
time to see any of movies this year,so those of you who sees these
movies,please send me reviews to me.
Competition
- A Day on the Planet
,Director:Isao Yukisada
- Calendar Girls
,Director:Nigel Cole
- Dreaming of Julia a.k.a. Cuba Libre ,
Director:Juan Gerard
- Feathers in My Head,
Director:Thomas de Thier
- FirefliesRiver of Light,
Director:Hiroshi Sugawara
- Good Bye, Generalissimo! ,
Director:Albert Boadella
- God Is Brazilian ,
Director:Carlos Diegues
- Nuan,
Director:Huo Jianqi
- Omen ,
Director:Tamaraks Kamutamanoch
- SANSA ,
Director:SIEGFRIED
- Santa Smokes ,
Director:Chris Valentien
- Till Terror a.k.a Schauder
The Pharmacist,
Director:Jean Veber
- The Suit ,
Director:Bakhtiyar Khudoinazarov
- VIBRATOR,
Director:Ryuichi Hiroki
- Winning Ticket ,
Director:Szab
,Director:Isao Yukisada
,Director:Nigel Cole
Director:Juan Gerard
Director:Thomas de Thier
Director:Hiroshi Sugawara
Director:Albert Boadella
Director:Carlos Diegues
Director:Huo Jianqi
Director:Tamaraks Kamutamanoch
Director:SIEGFRIED
Director:Chris Valentien
The Pharmacist,
Director:Jean Veber
Director:Bakhtiyar Khudoinazarov
Director:Ryuichi Hiroki
Director:Szab
* Miike's latest movie,"You've Got A Call" which will be world premire at
Tokyo Intetnational
Film Festival,theme songs will be singing by one of the actress from the
movie,Kou Shibasaki("Battle Royale" and "Yomigaeri"). She sold more than 900,000
cds of theme song of "Yomigaeri" which was released early this year. "You've Got
A Call" will be released next January and producers expect big hit for both
movies and soundtrack.
* Press conference of "Cutie Honey" was held on 22nd of October,in
Tokyo. Director of this film is Hideaki Anno of "Evangelion".Shooting is completed already
and post production goes smoothly for next May release. Cutie Honey who is
played by Eriko Sato wears more than 30 costumes. Warner Japan is looking for
world wide release.
* Also same author of "Cutie Honey",Go Nagai's another project "Devil Man" is
in production now. I saw some of the footage at press conference on 30th of
October in Tokyo,it looks great.
Full CG Devil Man looks so cool. Protagonist is played by twins,Hisato and
Yusuke Ito who is the member of singing unit,Flame. Director is Hiroyuki Nasu and
will be released next summer.Toei co.plans to show all over the world.
REVIEW
"Sky High" directed by Ryuhei Kitamura
I met Ryuhei at press screening of "Underworld" and he arranges me to see
"Sky High". Well,
this is his best effort so far."Sky High" is based on well popular late night TV show. The bride,Mina(Yukiko Shaku) got killed brutally at wedding. Heart was
missing on bride's body.Her soul has arrived at grudge gate where soul can
choose next stage: 1 go to heaven in peace, 2 stay as ghost spirit in this world
and 3 kill one person and go to hell.Kanzaki(Shouske Tanihara) who is the
police detective,is searching who kills his Mina. She was 4th victims. He
remembererd that he saw mysterious woman at the wedding.Kanzaki found out that she
worked for DNA scientist,Kudo(Takao Osawa). Meantime,Mina became the gurdian or judge of grundge gate. From now on,she leads human spirits.Don't expect too much
acton on this movie. Ryuhei is famous for fast pace action direction,but "Sky
High" focus on drama. Of course there are various scenes feature top rated
battle,especially final battle between Kudo and Mina. Takao Osawa who is appeared
Ryuhei's anthter masterpiece,"Aragami",performes great evil character.This movie
will satisfy both Ryuhei and horror/action manias. Moreover,"Sky High" tv
series will be remaked in the US.Negotiation is underway....
BOXOFFICE
* (New )Kill Bill
* (New )Tears of the Sun
* (1)Ougon No Hou
* (2)The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
* (6)Spy Kids 3D Game Over
Pigmon
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+ Expand All
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I hope somehow they will release both versions on dvd
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WTF! More violent shots. A better version? And then the article ends without any further explanation. Damn it! I hope we will be getting this extra stuff when the DVD comes out.
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Nov 02, 2003 2:23:20 AM CST
I suppose the 'lip chewing' scene will be much more graphic.
by cash bailey
That was the only cut to the film that bothered me.
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wasnt it supposed to be like that? like a throw back to the reservoir dogs ear scene
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I thought the b/w would be the major difference. But I have to admit, I like Kill Bill the way I saw it.* I guess we are supposed to buy a SE dvd with the Japanese version on.
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I thought the lip biting scene was a deliciously wicked move on Tarantino's part to make you THINK he was referencing his most infamous scene... then punching in for a graphic close-up.
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People, check this teaser trailer of Ghost in the shell sequel: http://www.innocence-movie.jp/information/trailer/tokuho1.html
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Is Kill Bill longer or now color the whole movie? If it's color that dude getting cut in half is gonna look brutal.
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Nov 02, 2003 8:00:31 AM CST
I think the sequel should be called Kill Bill: Ressurection with
by chaffro
"I bet I could fry an egg on your head right now, brother, whereas mine does a whole grill combo."
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The version of Kill Bill shown here in Tokyo was indeed in all color. And yes, the scene of Go-Go slicing that guy and his inards spilling on the floor was quite intense. There was no close-up of the lip biting scene here though. It was edited so that I didn't know where all the blood came from. You couldn't tell what The Bride did at all, it looked like she just bit his tongue. Oh, and this is my first ever post to a talkback after lurking for like 5 years!!!
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Virgin Cinema opened their flagship theater in Roppongi Hills earlier this year to much fanfare. Now the entire chain has been bought by Toho, which is pretty sad - the last Toho cinema I was in was full of cigarrete smoke. That leaves Warner/Mycal (which has many good qualtiy cinemas) and the one AMC at the Ikspiari-Tokyo Disneyland. Gotta love Japan - highest ticket prices, lowest qualtiy movie theaters in the world. But hey after a few many beers you don't notice these things ........... Speaking of AMC Ikspiari, see you there at 11:00pm, Nov 5th, for Matrix Revolutions! Free parking! Free goodies! And all the beer you can bring in .........
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I suspected as much, the Japanese version being more violent than the American version. Looks like I'll need to wait for the import DVD until I can see the 'real' version.
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Nov 02, 2003 10:30:52 AM CST
The Japanese version no doubt has all the female leads played b
by rolling_stone
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Nov 02, 2003 10:34:04 AM CST
Hope 'You've Got a Call' is good, but where is the Zebraman news
by blacklist
I imagine in a short period of time, we'll be swaped with it on this site (relative to other AICN-Japan news I mean), and more than just the handful of bizarre pictures that are available online now. A Takashi Miike movie about a costumned superhero called Zebraman? It was made for this site!
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You gotta be kidding me?!?! Too bad it will probably be extremely cheap and cheesy when it should be stylish and ultra-violent like the 3 OVA films ... There's just now way that they can pull off all those cool demons with a limited budget ...
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Nov 02, 2003 12:05:55 PM CST
Miike's YOU'VE GOT A CALL looks like PHONE 2: PHONE HARDER ...
by godoffireinhell
So far Miike's films have always been inventive and full of originality but YOU'VE GOT A CALL looks like a total rehash of everything from RING (and all the sequels, remakes, spin-offs) to JU-ON to the Korean horror film PHONE. I really hope that Miike will deliver something fresh but even he himself has said that he's not interested in doing supernatural horror stories. Well, even if it's a bad film, 2004 will still give us his ZEBRAMAN (which looks like insane fun) and his long-awaited and only recently wrapped collaboration with Takeshi Kintano, the period action flick IZO. OK, that and probably about 10 other films ...
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Go to: http://movie.goo.ne.jp/special/tiff2003/trailer02.html and scroll down to the picture of the girl with the cell phone! Enjoy!
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http://www.chakuari.jp/web/
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http://www.zebraman.jp/
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http://www.sanchodoesasia.com/sdtm2/index.php
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http://www.mangax.com.br/manganews/2003/1102_devilman_liveaction_imagens.shtml
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I start to feel like that creepy schizophrenic dude that rides on the subway all day talking to himself ...
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Sigh...
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I know Tarantino's hyper-enthusiastic, but it hurts my feelings a little bit for him to excitedly say the Americans got the short shrift, when I thought it was a cool stylistic choice. I guess I'm going to have to buy both versions eventually.
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What they need to get out soon is a trailer, or something in English for us monolinguals. I doubt 'Call' will be simply an exercize or Phone knockoff. I'm sure whatever it is, it'll have something you've never seen before in it.
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One can only hope that Tarantino will include the extra stuff cut from the American version on the dvd.*hope hope*
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Thanks for the links.
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I liked that b/w, too. I have the strong feeling like it would've been too much for me, to see everything in true life color. I saw this interview with Tarantino where he said something like: people in the US and Europe don't have problems seeing a large amount of blood, but they do have a problem with its red color. I knew what he ment, when I saw the movie.
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anything to appear popular to everyone.
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Blah, blah, more violence, in colour. Big wows! Watch Battle Royale again to remind yourselves how a film should really play out. Oh, and that lip-biting bit was the only thing I remembered from that vacant two hours, just because I had strong deja-vu, til I remembered that the exact same thing was done (better) in Wes Craven's Shocker. But no-one rememberes that because Taranteenie didn't direct it. Shite!
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Nov 02, 2003 6:54:44 PM CST
The 'vacant two hours' being, of course, Kill bill, and not Batt
by jimbolo
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The Japanese version will end up on Kazaa soon I suspect.
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I liked it better the first time when it was called Lord of the Flies.
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Why all of the complaining about black & white? As a stylistic choice, it distinguished that section of the movie from the others. Yes, it was strange, but not a bad choice.
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I thought Kill Bill was a BAD ASS movie and I've been following up this movie for some time now. I have a friend in Tokyo that said there were no b/w scenes in Japan's version. It was in full color. I'm not sure if there were additional scenes but I'm sure there are. If you read the Fangoria Magazine a few months back, it had a big article on Kill Bill and some pictures of the gore that weren't even in the film. Forget all you who liked the black and white because for it's "STYLE". And Man, F**K the MPAA. I'd rather watch a movie for the director's portrayal or artistic vision, rather than the MPAA's version to get an R rating instead of NC-17. We're just going to have to get the Japanese version on DVD when it comes out. Bad News, Unfortunately, Tarentino is already talking about having LOTS and LOTS of different version and releases on DVDs. "No DVD will be the same as the other." SHIET!!! I love this movie and Tarentino, but I hope there aren't as many versions of KILL BILL on DVD as those freakin Terminator 2 DVDs.
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I just love buying the same thing over and over and over again! Please for the love of god, don't do it right the first time, split it up into a two movies, have an R rated a pg rated a japanese only version, an american only version,european only version, a special edition, a directors cut, a super duper deluxe collectors edition, oh I almost forget the boxed set. Also be sure to come up with entertaining excuses as to why I should buy the same thing over and over again, I dont like seeing the colour red, I can't sit thru long movies. I liked those excuses, they were creative! Well Done! I like the creative marketing of the same thing over and over again.
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