Ragpre

This collection of shocking, unpredictable stories feature the first screen adaptation of the number one young author of his generation, Otsuichi. Working with five different directors, ZOO features five stories (four live-action, one animated) of fear, sadness and pain. ""Kazari and Yoko"" The mother of twin sisters, Kazari and Yoko, loves only one of her daughters, and abuses the other. When the abused tries to break free, things take shocking turns. ""Seven Rooms"" One day, a young boy and his older sister find themselves trapped in a small, concrete room. There are seven rooms in all, each containing a different prisoner. On the sixth day, everyone will be massacred. Can they survive?

"When the Sun Shines"" CG animation about a unique man learning about life and death in a world where most of humanity has already died out. ""So Far"" A young boy's father is convinced that his mother is dead. The mother is convinced the father is dead. The boy is the only person that both father and mother can see. ""Zoo"" A man kills a woman at an abandoned zoo and takes pictures of her dead body everyday. Then suddenly the zoo is gone and the line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.

(more…)

Share This

A female delinquent detective discovers an apocalyptic plot by a nefarious underground website in director Kenta Fukasaku's take on the popular serious previously adapted for the screen in film, television, and anime form. Asamiya (Aya Matsuura) is a tough New York City street kid who doesn't take kindly to authority figures. When Japanese officials discover a cryptic but undoubtedly sincere threat from a website known for offering tips on committing suicide and constructing bombs, they immediately have Asamiya whisked back to Tokyo, trained by the police force's special operatives unit, and placed under the care of stern Kazutoshi Kira (Riki Takeuchi). With few clues to go by and only 72 hours to spare, Asamiya must venture into Seisen High and wield her deadly yo-yo against a dangerous group who seems all too determined to set the city ablaze

(more…)

Share This

Masaki (Takuya Nakayama) is about to move to the U.S. with his parents, much to the dismay of five girls who all like him in different ways. Tomboyish Takako (Saya Yuki) always gives him a hard time; Haruna (Mikako Tabe) is a childhood friend; Alisa (child star Mei Kurokawa) has fancied him since a shopping trip in nearby Shibuya; Naoko (Aki Nishihara) is still readjusting after a long spell in the U.K.; and Yumi (Ayaka Morita, best of all) likes practicing basketball with him at night.

All wonder who's his "special" girl, but Masaki isn't saying. Film is constructed in tiny building blocks which start to take shape in the second half — to no great dramatic resolution but as a group portrait of friendship at a watershed. Ensemble playing is good, tech package clean.

(more…)

Share This

Twelve years ago, the swim team at a Japanese boys high school gave their first synchronized swim performance, which became a crowd-drawing annual event. Inspired by their story, director Yaguchi decided to cast actors who looked terrific in swimsuits but didn't know a Dolphin from a Flamingo. Cameras rolled after just a month of intensive synchro-training making WATERBOYS' stirring finale a testament to the actors' dedication to their new skill. TAKENAKA Naoto, the flamboyant dancer of SHALL WE DANCE? is featured as the boys' reluctant trainer.

(more…)

Share This

Waiting in the Dark (Kurai Tokoro de Machiawase) is based on a novel by Otsuichi. The story is about young Chinese-Japanese Akihiro (Wilson Chen). He is a loner who doesnt have many friends. When his boss died in an accident, Akihiro finds himself as a murder suspect and the police going after him. Avoiding the police, he sneaks in the apartment of blind young woman Michiro (Tanaka Rena). At first Michiro isnt aware that there is someone else in the apartment. Akihiro quietly assists in her daily life, and Michiro gradually realizes that there is someone else in her home. In that small and quiet apartment, a unique romance begins to bloom…

(more…)

Share This

In a small town in Japan, Kirie comes upon her boyfriend's father silently videotaping a snail. He seems unaware of her presence and she thinks no more of it. Later, the mans obsession with spirals becomes more and more bizarre, ending in his suicide in a washing machine which turn his body into a spiral. Soon other inhabitants become possesed with different forms of spirals, one student seems to be mutating into a snail, another's hair becomes strangely medusa-like. The entire town becomes possessed.

(more…)

Share This

Love is in the air — or rather in the multiplex. Not that it's ever been away, but love stories are trendy now, following the monster success last year of Isao Yukisada's romantic drama "Sekai no Chushin de Ai o Sakebu (Crying Out Love in the Center of the World)," better known simply as "Sekachu," and "Winter Sonata," the weepy TV series that spawned the current craze for all things Korean.

Takashi Minamoto's "Tokyo Tower" is trying for a demographic twofer: the women-of-a-certain-age who sighed over dreamy "Winter Sonata" star Bae Yong Joon and the under-25's who wept over "Sekachu's" tale of tragic teenage

(more…)

Share This

Meet the megalopolis dwellers. Owner of a design company at central Tokyo, Yumiko Osawa (Sachiko Kokubu) repeatedly encounters creepy events: a strange woman who rings the doorbell at dawn, and a neighbor who, Yumiko senses might be abusing children. One day Yumiko receives a garish letter, made out of scraps of paper stitched together with piano wire. I know you were born to marry me. Who could have written such a thing&

Welcome to megalopolis in chaos! BASED ON THE TRUE STORY! Director from TOMIE, a big hit horror movie in Japan, will make you realize What the scariest thing is in the world! One day, a letter arrives and says, "I know you were born to marry me!"

To return to reality from these unnerving happenings, Yumiko attended her school reunion. Then she received an anonymous letter: inside was her school picture covered in blood. Eventually, she started to remember suppressed memories—ghastly images began to flit across her mind. And the loathsome groom is coming.

(more…)

Share This

Rei (Ai Otuska) comes to Tokyo from her hometown in the country, after longing for the city from afar. As she meets a number of regular girls, she moves closer to her dream of working with music. One day she gets pulled into the band that plays at the bar where she works; leading her on a journey of friendship, love, frustration, dreams, and reality. 

(more…)

Share This

A pair of escaped convicts meet up with a group of gangsters by a remote forest road. After an arguement over a girl the mobsters have kidnapped, shots are fired and one of the gangsters is killed. The standoff is cut short, however, when the dead man suddenly springs to life and starts trying to kill his former friends. The zombie eventually goes down in a hail bullets, but their problems aren't over. It seems the gangsters have been using this forest to dispose of of their victims, all of whom are now looking to settle some old scores. Even if they get through this mess, there is still the question of why they've arranged to meet the convicts out here, and why they've brought along the girl. How are they connected to the dead bodies coming back to life?

(more…)

Share This