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113rd directorial credit for Takashi Miike (he actually already has two more after this), “Lumberjack the Monster” is based on the homonymous 2019 Mayusuke Kurai novel, was released widely in Japan December 1, and is now available on Netflix.

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The rather labyrinthic story unfolds as such. The initial scene shows a raid inside the house of a woman, who turns out she was doing experiments on children she had abducted. Before she is arrested, she kills herself in front of her latest ‘specimen'. The next scene introduce us to lawyer Akira Ninomiya, who is soon revealed to be a psychopath killer, a capacity that grows more intense as the movie unfolds. His only friend, if someone can deem him so, is Dr Kuro Sugitani, another psychopath who acknowledges both himself as one and Ninomiya, and is actually a champion of the complete...

"If he's trying to murder me, I'll kill him first." Another official trailer is available to watch for this kooky and crazy Japanese horror film called Lumberjack the Monster, based on the novel of the same name. A suspenseful thriller directed by Takashi Miike and starring Kazuya Kamenashi. The brutal film is about a series of bizarre murders by someone wearing a strange monster mask found in the picture book 'Monster Woodcutter' who then steals their brains. Akira heads out to get revenge on this Lumberjack killer. The plot follows this Patrick Bateman-like psychopath lawyer (who also kills) going up against this vicious masked murderer - pitting a psychopath against a serial killer in a totally bonkers new Takashi Miike creation. Only someone like Miike could make something so absurd! Lumberjack the Monster stars Kazuya Kamenashi as Akira Ninomiya, Nanao, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, and Shido Nakamura. The film already opened in Japan last December,...

Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike has over 115 directing credits to his name, and it has only taken him 33 years to reach that impressive number. One of his latest credits came on a blood-soaked horror thriller called Lumberjack the Monster, and the folks at Rue Morgue have confirmed that Lumberjack the Monster is going to be available to watch on the Netflix streaming service as of June 1st.

Before the film reaches Netflix, New York City’s Japan Society (located at 333 East 47th Street) will be hosting its the North American premiere screening on Monday, May 6 at 8pm. Rue Morgue notes, “There will also be a pre-screening reception at 7pm with beverages donated by Sapporo-Stone Brewing and Brooklyn Kura. The screening is being presented in conjunction with the Tribeca Film Festival, as part of its Escape from Tribeca program.”

Lumberjack the Monster is based on a novel by Mayusuke Kurai and stars Kazuya Kamenashi,...

Prolific genre filmmaker Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is back with Lumberjack the Monster, an adaptation of Kaibutsu no Kikori by Mayusuke Kurai. And it’s heading to Netflix this summer.

It’s going to be battle to the death between a serial killer and a psychopath.

Lumberjack the Monster will make its North American premiere on May 6 at the Japan Society, in partnership with Tribeca Festival’s Escape from Tribeca, ahead of its Netflix debut on June 1, 2024.

In the film, “Akira Ninomiya (Kamenashi) is a remorseless lawyer who doesn’t hesitate to eliminate anyone who stands in his way. One night he is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant wearing a monster mask. Although he miraculously survives the assault, Ninomiya becomes fixated on finding the attacker and getting revenge. Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders occur where the victims are found with their brains removed from their bodies.

"Psychopath vs. Serial Killer!" Warner Bros Japan has revealed the first look teaser trailer for a brand new Takashi Miike film, a surprise new production called Lumberjack the Monster, based on the novel of the same name. It's set for release in December in Japan, though we still don't know when it'll show up in the US - likely sometime in early 2024. "A suspenseful thriller directed by Takashi Miike and lead starring Kazuya Kamenashi." The brutal horror film involves a series of bizarre murders by someone in a monster mask from the picture book ‘Monster Woodcutter’ who then steals their brains. The plot features a Patrick Bateman-like psychopath lawyer who goes up against this masked murderer - pitting psychopath against killer in this totally bonkers new Miike creation. Only someone like him could make this! Lumberjack the Monster stars Kazuya Kamenashi, Nanao, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, and Shido Nakamura. This is teaser is only 40 secs,...

The ever-prolific Takashi Miike is back this year, following his Disney+ series Connect last winter. Based on a novel “Kaibutsu no Kikori” by Mayusuke Kurai, the Japanese director’s latest feature is Lumberjack the Monster, a serial killer vs. psychopath thriller that will arrive in his native country this December and is awaiting a U.S. release. Starring Kazuya Kamenashi, Nanao, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, and Shido Nakamura, the first teaser and set of posters have arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Akira Ninomiya (Kamenashi) is a remorseless lawyer who doesn’t hesitate to eliminate anyone who stands in his way. One night he is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant wearing a “monster mask.” Although he miraculously survives the assault, Ninomiya becomes fixated on finding the attacker and getting revenge. Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murder occur where the victims are found with their brains removed from their bodies. While police conduct an intensive investigation,...

Prolific genre filmmaker Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is back with Lumberjack the Monster, an adaptation of Kaibutsu no Kikori by Mayusuke Kurai. A brand new Japanese teaser trailer highlights the violence in store when a serial killer crosses paths with a psychopath.

The trailer introduces a Patrick Bateman-like psycho and a masked killer that may prove even more bloodthirsty, teasing a hyper-violent grudge match for the ages. The film’s official site explains, “A series of bizarre murders in which people wear a monster mask from the picture book ‘Monster Woodcutter’ and steal their brains with an axe.” The teaser also touts Miike’s feature as “insanely suspenseful.”

Whoever loses, all signs point to audiences winning. Miike always delivers on the unexpected and never shies away from pushing boundaries when it comes to violence or taboos.

Lumberjack the Monster is slated for theatrical release in Japan on December...

Exclusive: Toshimasa Kobayashi makes his feature debut with the manga adaptation

Japan’s Gaga Corp has picked up international rights to comedy drama Almost Coming, Almost Dying based on the Kumoman manga created by Manabu Nakagawa.

The film is about Nakagawa’s own experiences and subsequent shame when he was struck down by a brain hemorrhage on the point of orgasm in a massage parlour. Toshimasa Kobayashi, who worked with Nakagawa on TV drama I Still Don’t Have Any Friends, is making his feature debut with the film.

Starring comedian Nou Misoo, the film is produced by Creative Nexus Inc and was released by Tripleup in Japan on February 4.

New titles on Gaga’s Berlin slate also include sci-fi drama A Beautiful Star, an adaptation of literary giant Yukio Mishima’s novel, which is directed by Yoshida Daihachi (Pale Moon). Lily Franky, Kazuya Kamenashi and Tomoko Nakajima head the cast of the film about a family...

Pale Moon’s Daihachi Yoshida [pictured] directed the sci-fi tragicomedy, currently in post-production.

Gaga Corporation will represent sales on Beautiful Star (working title), an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Japanese literary giant Yukio Mishima, at the Asian Film Market in Busan later this month.

Directed by Pale Moon helmer Daihachi Yoshida, the sci-fi tragicomedy focuses on a family who suddenly come to believe that they are extraterrestrials.

The family members are played by Lily Franky (Like Father, Like Son), Kazuya Kamenashi (It’s Me, It’s Me), Ai Hashimoto (Little Forest) and Tomoko Nakajima (Tokyo Family).

Gaga also produced the project, which was filmed in the Tokyo area earlier this year. It will bow in Japan next May.

Probably better known to modern generations for his death by seppuku, or ritual disembowelment, while trying to overthrow the Japanese government in 1970, Mishima was a prolific novelist and playwright who typically wrote serious dramas.

First published...

Hitoshi (Kazuya Kamenashi) works a job he hates for a boss he loathes, but he does it for the measly pay check he gets at the end of the week. It’s not long before that’s not enough though, so one day he makes a spur of the moment decision to “accidentally” steal a stranger’s cell phone and commit a bit of a scam. It’s called ‘ore-ore sagi’ which loosely translates to “it’s me! it’s me! scam/swindle,” and it involves phoning a stranger’s friend or relative, claiming to be that stranger, and then milking the concerned person on the other end of the line for money. It’s a rash act, something Hitoshi would never have thought himself capable of, but he does it all the same. He calls the stranger’s mother, pretends he’s been in an accident resulting in damage to someone else’s car, and...

Spike Jonze may have a monopoly on the tropes associated with neurotic loners in the throes of surreal existential crises, but Japanese director Miki Satoshi ("Adrift in Tokyo") does justice to Jonze's motif. The increasingly bizarre setup -- in which a man accidentally creates multiple versions of himself that populate the world beyond his control -- immediately calls to mind the identity issues of "Being John Malkovich." But where that movie at least adheres to its own internal logic, Miki's adaptation of Tomoyuki Hoshino's novel is ostensibly trapped in the turmoil of its leading man from start to finish, unfurling his confusing situation as if were a shaggy dog detective story akin to "The Big Lebowski." Like those precedents, Satoshi's curiously entertaining character study feels oddly familiar and unpredictable, often at the same time. Kazuya Kamenashi (the frontman for the Japanese pop group Kat-tun) allegedly takes on 33 roles over the course of "It's Me,...

Sake-Bomb [pictured] and It’s Me, It’s Me are slated for Us theatrical release

Japan’s Pictures Dept. has announced the Us acquisitions and theatrical releases of SXSW comedy Sake-Bomb, directed by Junya Sakino and Kazuya Kamenashi-starrer It’s Me, It’s Me, directed by Satoshi Miki.

Pictures Dept. Co. Ltd. and First Pond Entertainment are partnering to handle Us distribution on Sake-Bomb’s theatrical release. The deal was negotiated by Yuko Shiomaki of Pictures Dept. and Oliver Ike of First Pond Entertainment.

New York-based Digital Media Rights has also picked up DVD and VOD rights for the Us.

The road movie, named after the cocktail of a shot of sake dropped in a glass of beer, follows the exploits of a sarcastic Asian American internet star wannabe and his naïve cousin, a sake-maker from Japan, as they travel through northern California in search of the latter’s ex-girlfriend.

Sake-Bomb was picked...

We recently posted three big announcements from the Fantasia Film Festival which included Edgar Wright’s The Worlds End (closing the fest), a special Live theatre event for Clive Barker’s A History of the Devil, and a lifetime achievement award for Andrzej Żuławski. Additional first wave highlights have also been announced, and so far the line-up is shaping up to be better than last year’s batch. Hit the jump to view the current roster.

****

Across The River

Italy Dir: Lorenzo Bianchini

A brilliant opposition of new and old narratives, this chilling discovery from Italy is the most downright efficient atmospheric horror film you’ll see anywhere this year, haunting with a slow-building, intense crescendo approach to its atmosphere of disorientation and dread. From the director of Custodes Bestiae.

World Premiere.

Big Bad Wolves

Israel Dirs: Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado

Described in its official marketing as “a brutal comedy...

While we here in the States are getting ready for San Diego Comic-Con, our friends to the North are prepping for the grandaddy of film fests, Fantasia, which kicks off at the same time.

Here's the first announcement of what you crazy Canucks and your guests from around the world will see there.

From the Press Release:

The Fantasia Film Festival is coming back, and coming soon. From July 18 to August 6, Montreal will be home to a showcase of over 100 feature films from around the world, along with a wealth of special events, conferences, and parties. Audiences can look forward to discovering numerous World and International premieres, as well as the Canadian debuts of some of the most acclaimed genre works from this year’s Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, Berlin, and Tribeca film festivals. The festival’s full lineup of screenings and events will be announced on July 9. For now, we...

While Fantastic Fest seems to satisfy my needs when it comes to a genre film festival, I have always wanted to attend Fantasia. I have heard & seen so much about it that, as a genre fan, it makes me salivate. Luckily, Fantastic Fest seems to nab some titles from their extraordinary lineup so I get to experience some of their programming.

Today, Fantasia has released their first wave of titles. Those lucky bastards get to see live Clive Barker stage theater, see the finale of the Cornetto trilogy and more. Read below for the full list.

Fantasia 2013′S First Wave Of Incredible Titles Has Been Announced!

The Fantasia Film Festival is coming back, and coming soon. From July 18 – August 6, Montreal will be home to a showcase of over 100 feature films from around the world, along with a wealth of special events, conferences, and parties. Audiences can look forward to discovering numerous World and International premieres,...

The Fantasia Film Festival is taking place from July 18th to August 6th in Montreal and will feature over 100 films from around the world. The initial lineup has just been announced and includes The World’s End, The Conjuring, and a number of horror films making their world premiere:

Official Closing Film – Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (Canadian Premiere)

Fantasia 2013 will come wildly to a close on the night of August 6 with the Canadian premiere of UK filmmaker Edgar Wright’s hotly anticipated apocalyptic comedy The World’S End, starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Rosamund Pike and Martin Freeman. As Fantasia was the site of the Canadian Premieres of Wright’s landmark 2004 debut Shawn Of The Dead as well as his most recent Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, we couldn’t think of a better way to close this year’s festival.

Joining us in Montreal will be...

On Thursday it was announced that a movie version of the Ntv drama Yokai Ningen Bem is in the works, tentatively titled Eiga Yokai Ningen Bem.

The original 10-episode drama aired from October - December 2011 and was itself a live-action adaptation of a 1968 animated children’s series. The movie version will bring back the same lead cast: child actor Fuku Suzuki as Belo, fashion model Anne as Bela, and Kat-tun’s Kazuya Kamenashi as Bem.

The new movie will feature a completely original script and will take advantage of the format by making more liberal use of things like special effects makeup, CG effects, and wire stunts than the drama.

The trio will once again play three yokai (monsters) who are feared for their hideous natural appearance, but nevertheless fight against evil for the sake of humanity while desperately wishing to become human themselves someday.

At the end of the drama,...

Today it was announced that Satoshi Miki (Adrift in Tokyo, Instant Swamp) is working on a new movie called It’s Me, It’s Me (Ore-Ore), and Kazuya Kamenashi of the pop band Kat-tun is set to star.

Miki based the screenplay on a novel by Tomoyuki Hoshino about the nature of identity which won the 5th Kenzaburō Ōe prize for literature in 2011.

The story involves a popular scam in Japan called “ore-ore sagi” in which the scammer calls up unsuspecting people (typically the elderly) and pretends to be someone they know, asking for money for an emergency or whatever urgent reason they can come up with.

In the film, the protagonist gets bored with his mundane life so he tries out the “It’s me” fraud. In a surreal twist, he keeps meeting different "me"s after that—literally all different versions of himself—and they continue to multiply.

The more I see of this upcoming movie addition to the Gokusen canon the more I can see that the production team behind it is really, really catering to only fans of the show. Thus dictates how successful they will be at the box office but with the new trailer and announcement of a lot of the returning cast from the first two seasons making appearances in the film it should boost their success at home in Japan. And then there are the gaijin like me who like the show as well who will want to see this as well but will have to resort to getting it on DVD cause I don’t imagine this could travel outside of Japan as a stand alone film.

With “Gokusen: The Movie” less than a couple months away, a new announcement has revealed that six more actors from the drama’s earlier seasons will be returning,...