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After the success of the original film, the decision was made to explore the life of the beloved protagonist Sadako from the original Ringu with some of the same individuals behind the camera. With an adaptation of several stories in Koji Suzuki's short-story collection Birthday that contained several stories to fill in the details of Sadako's history and newcomer Norio Tsuruta filling in for director Hideo Nakata, this is a fine entry that helps to cement gaps in the story from the previous films.

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Prequel to the horror film “Ringu”, this movie provides the background story of how Sadako (Yukie Nakama) later became a vengeful murdering spirit. The story starts with her as a shy, somewhat withdrawn college student who nonetheless gets involved in a drama club. The director thinks she has talent, but some of the other performers start to get jealous of the attention he gives her.

Based on Koji Suzuki’s “Birthday”, which collects three short stories that fill in details of the story of “Ring”, the third cinematic entry of the original movie trilogy saw a change in the helm, from Hideo Nakata to Norio Tsuruta, which resulted, unfortunately, to the worst part of the series at the time.

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The story takes place 30 years before the events of the first two movies, where Akiko Miyaji, the fiancé of a fellow reporter who was killed during Shizuko’s infamous Esp demonstration, is researching the event and particularly Sadako, by talking to her former teachers and eventually to a psychiatrist who is treating her. In the meantime, 19-year-old Sadako has joined a theatrical troupe as an understudy, as a therapy to her nightmares suggested by her doctor. Her hard work and her undeniable beauty have made her popular with both the director, Yusaku and the sound director,...

Giovannis Island Trailer. Mizuho Nishikubo‘s Giovannis Island / Giovanni no Shima (2014) movie trailer stars Tatsuya Nakadai, Yukie Nakama, Masachika Ichimura, Kaoru Yachigusa, and Yusuke Santamaria. Giovannis Island‘s plot synopsis: “In the aftermath of the most devastating conflict mankind had ever experienced, the tiny island of Shikotan became part of the Sakhalin [...]

Continue reading: Giovanni’S Island (2014) Movie Trailer: The Aftermath of War Animated...

Say what you will about how tightly controlled Japanese movie publicity is, but they sure know how to keep a secret. Just one day from the theatrical release of Tsutomu Hanabusa’s Sadako 3D in Japan, the young actress playing the latest incarnation of Sadako has finally been revealed: Ai Hashimoto.

There was actually a preview screening held back in April, but the 12 minutes of end footage that would have revealed her identity was left out.

The casting puts her in good company. Although the first Sadako was played by kabuki actress Rie Inoo for her ability to move creepily, subsequent Sadakos were played by famous actresses such as Yukie Nakama and Tae Kimura.

Anyone who follows mainstream Japanese films should be pretty familiar with Hashimoto at this point. She’s appeared in a slew of movies since her debut in 2009. Most notably, her performance in Tetsuya Nakashima’s critically-adored...

Yes, it’s been a while since the last update. Busy with stuff nobody cares about, yadda yadda. Anyways, figured it best to ease back into blogging slowly, so in keeping with that theme, here’s the new trailer for Yoshimitsu Morita‘s Meiji Restoration-set drama Bushi no Kakeibo. It was previously going by the tentative English title “Samurai Book-keeper” but according to Shochiku, it is now called “Abacus and Sword”. I suppose that title is less inviting of snarky insults from English speakers, but not a whole lot less.

The film is based on the diary of an unnamed accountant who worked for the Kaga Clan around the time of a series of major events which marked the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and a drastic political shift toward imperial rule.

Masato Sakai plays the accountant, Hachidaime, and Yukie Nakama plays his wife as they work together to keep...

Yes, it’s been a while since the last update. Busy with stuff nobody cares about, yadda yadda. Anyways, figured it best to ease back into blogging slowly, so in keeping with that theme, here’s the new trailer for Yoshimitsu Morita‘s Meiji Restoration-set drama Bushi no Kakeibo. It was previously going by the tentative English title “Samurai Book-keeper” but according to Shochiku, it is now called “Abacus and Sword”. I suppose that title is less inviting of snarky insults from English speakers, but not a whole lot less.

The film is based on the diary of an unnamed accountant who worked for the Kaga Clan around the time of a series of major events which marked the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and a drastic political shift toward imperial rule.

Masato Sakai plays the accountant, Hachidaime, and Yukie Nakama plays his wife as they work together to keep...

Shochiku’s English-language website has been updated with a new subtitled teaser for Yoshimitsu Morita‘s Samurai Book-Keeper.

The film is based on the diary of an unnamed accountant who worked for the Kaga Clan around the time of the Meiji Restoration, a series of major events which marked the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and a drastic political shift toward imperial rule.

Masato Sakai plays the accountaint, Hachidaime, and Yukie Nakama plays his wife as they work together to keep their lives in order in a time of great upheaval for samurai families. At any other time, their position in society would have brought them great wealth, but as the Kaga Clan falls into financial crisis, Hachidaime is forced to sell off all their furniture and household possessions to hold things together. Through it all, his wife stays supportive and cleverly makes due with what little they have to maintain a frugal,...

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,...

After I wrote about the move to the big screen for the very popular comedy/drama Gokusen in Japan I made a point of watching the show to find out more about it. And after the first season I couldn’t stop and a few weeks later I have watched all three seasons. Yukie Nakama [Shinobi] stars in all three seasons and the film marks her last time taking on the role of a young teacher named Kumiko Yamaguchi who no matter which school she ends up at is put in charge of the notoriously misbehaved class 3-D, a class full of delinquents and wannabe thugs. The big secret of course is Yamaguchi isn’t just any ordinary young teacher. She’s also the 4th-generation heir to the Ooeda yakuza family, which is run by her grandfather since he took her in at a young age when her parents were killed.

Chris Magee over at JFilm Pow Wow related an old adage a friend of his who worked in the Japanese film industry told him, “There’s a formula in Japan. First you have a manga, then you have a TV show, then you have a movie”. So it would seem that the hugely popular manga turned television series Gokusen is following that exact pattern. The popular drama series “Gokusen” is getting a movie version this summer. After three highly-rated seasons, the film will be the last time that lead actress Yukie Nakama plays the role of the teacher Yankumi.

Newly graduated Kumiko Yamaguchi wants to make her mark on the Japanese educational system as a teacher. All well and good until she finds out that the class she’ll be in charge of is full of troublemakers and rabble-rousers. But those guys don’t frighten her though for she has...