kubota masataka

HiGH&LOW THE MOVIE 3: FINAL MISSION Engages More Gang Warfare In The Latest Trailer

I’ve been long enamored with LDH, Inc.’s efforts with the HiGH & LOW film saga. The trailers have had my attention forever and so we wait with the hopes of seeing a wider release of these films as time moves on and with any luck, talk of such goals will stir next year while Shochiku readies the upcoming release of its third installment, HiGH&LOW The Movie 3: Final Mission on November 11. The film proceeds the grand scheme of its story from its previous two-season series, HiGH&LOW: The Story Of S.W.O.R.D., to last year’s summer hit, HiGH&LOW: The Movie, ensuing the tale of how an entire city became split between five warring gangs, and the tumultuous aftermath of events thereafter. The footage below very much depicts this upheaval in a very climatic way with generations of gangsters, both young and old, clashing with explosive, uprooting fervor that very much excites. […]

TOKYO GHOUL: Creepy Girlfriends, Crawlers And Creatures In The Gory U.S. Trailer For The Live-Action Horror Manga Adaptation

Lee B. Golden III

As expected, a full trailer is here for the upcoming horror manga adaptation, Tokyo Ghoul. Funimation Films is gearing up for a limited theatrical engagement slated from October 16 through 22. Riddled with gripping fight scenes and tasteful gore, this adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul brings the popular manga series to life like never before. Buried in books and a quiet life, Ken Kaneki is all but dead to the world in an age where flesh-eating ghouls live among us. But when his only chance for survival is an organ donation that turns him into a ghoul-human hybrid, he finds sanctuary at Anteiku—a café run by the people he once considered monsters. Targeted by anti-ghoul forces, this safe house is up against a hunger more sickening than their own. When their most innocent members are threatened by humanity’s taste for vengeance, Kaneki will risk life and limb to protect the very world that […]

TOKYO GHOUL Sets An October Limited Theatrical U.S. Release From Funimation Films

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been a bustling year with Japanese movie adaptations, and not for nothing either with the successes that have emerged. Such is what Anniversary helmer Hagiwara Kentaro brought with Ishida Sui’s 2011 horror manga, Tokyo Ghoul, which became well received in Asia. It also earned praise from viewers and fans this summer at Anime Expo in Los Angeles. Fumination Films held that screening and I reckon they couldn’t be prouder for it, now setting a timetable for limited theatrical engagements from October 16 through 22 in select U.S. theaters. Riddled with gripping fight scenes and tasteful gore, this adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul brings the popular manga series to life like never before. Buried in books and a quiet life, Ken Kaneki is all but dead to the world in an age where flesh-eating ghouls live among us. But when his only chance for survival is an organ donation that turns […]

HiGH&LOW THE MOVIE 2: End Of Sky Gets Brutal And Emotive In The Newest Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

It’s been nearly two years since the LDH, Inc’s HiGH&LOW project, shepherded by producer Exile Hiro, with two shows and a slate of films that will now culminate with a two-part finale this year. For that, I reckon it’ll be another few years thereafter until we hear more on overseas distribution should we be so lucky, and I can only hope this is at least the case as much as I’ve been following this particular franchise. That’s a two-season drama and a five-film run with two of those being spin-offs therein, featuring a stellar line-up of actors and notables of J-pop supergroup Exile Tribe as the franchise chronicles the events within a town fractured by gangs and the interwoven politics of its leaders. For this, we now have Kubo Shigeaki (HiGH&LOW: The Movie) and Nakakuki Tsuyoshi (HiGH&LOW: Season Two) at the chair for the latest chapter in the saga, HiGH&LOW […]

More Ghoul Action And Suspense In Two New Promos For TOKYO GHOUL

Lee B. Golden III

Hagiwara Kentaro’s latest IP adaptation, Tokyo Ghoul, is still on deck for a Japan release on July 29. With its Anime Expo premiere pending it’s worthwhile to consider the prospects of a U.S. release anyday now and one that would be even more so for fans of the hit manga and subsequent anime. Actor Kubota Masataka leads the cast of the film which tells of an ordinary college student who befalls the ills of a near-death transformation to a half-human “ghoul”, stumbling into a hidden world of other monsters where epic battles await. Rounding out the cast are Shimizu Fumika, Aoi Yu, Suzuki Nobuyuki and Oizumi Yo. Check out the new minute-long and 30-second promo from Shochiku.

TOKYO GHOUL Loads Up On Ghoul Action In The Extended New International Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

This summer is a great time to be an otaku if the annual Anime Expo in Los Angeles is within your purview. Consider yourself part of the crowd as well if you’ve been prioritizing a viewing of Hagiwara Kentaro’s forthcoming live-action adaptation of Ishida Sui’s popular manga, Tokyo Ghoul. Kubota Masataka leads the cast of the film which tells of an ordinary college student who befalls the ills of a near-death transformation to a half-human “ghoul”, stumbling into a hidden world of other monsters where epic battles await. Rounding out the cast are Shimizu Fumika, Aoi Yu, Suzuki Nobuyuki and Oizumi Yo for the film’s +18 wristband-approved World Premiere audience at AX 2017 on July 3. The film features a soundtrack by Don Davis (The Matrix Trilogy) with a title track by Radwimps lead singer, Noda Yojiro who produced music for the award-winning anime fantasy, Your Name. Funimation Films will be hosting […]

TOKYO GHOUL: Kubota Masataka Is The Monster Mankind Needs In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Currently the subject of a live-action adaptation, Ishida Sui’s hit manga Tokyo Ghoul seems quite an ambitious push for fans knowlegeable of the source material. Clearly the production itself is promising something that moviegoers and fans alike will be keen on upon its July 29 open from Shochiku. For this, the film’s select cast and crew were host to a live online audience over the weekend to a raft of questions, as well as freshly added footage now available in an official trailer that streamed accordingly. The film also took to Cannes last month as well for buyers and so we may very well hear on some overseas distribution news soon. In Tokyo, man-eating monsters called “ghouls” run rampant. The populace has become fearful of these creatures, who hide themselves among ordinary people, and remain shrouded in mystery. Kaneki (Masataka KUBOTA) is an ordinary university student. He frequents a coffee […]

Kubota Masataka Dons The Mask In The First TOKYO GHOUL Live Action Teaser

Lee B. Golden III

Morita Shuhei’s animated treatments of Ishida Sui’s 2011 horror manga, Toyko Ghoul, currently remains on my wishlist of titles to catch up on. I’m drawn to it as it is given the premise as it centers on a young university student whose near-fatal chance encounter with a flesh-eating ghoul sets off a chain of events that begin to consume him into life as a half-human ghoul himself among other ghouls in secret from human society. I look forward to sinking my teeth into the series at any rate while Japan distributor Shochiku has since granted moviegoers a first teaser trailer for Anniversary helmer Hagiwara Kentaro’s sophomore outing adapting the film for release in July. Actor Kubota Masataka (13 Assassins, The Last Cop: The Movie) stars as our coming-of-age ghoul struggling to cope with his newfound life, next to actress Shimizu Fumika in the wake of a controversial retirement from acting […]

The New Trailer For LAST COP: THE MOVIE Goes For The Glory!

Lee B. Golden III

Expect things to ramp up a bit for actor Kubota Masataka with his latest starring role in a live-action adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul this summer. Until then, you can catch him laying down the law some alongside Karasawa Toshiaki this may in the new action comedy, Last Cop: The Movie which opens in May, and now with a new trailer in its wake after airing a teaser in December. And of all things, German TV series was the inspiration for NTV’s own serial remake of it last year with Inomata Ryuichi the helm. Inomata and Kubota (Death Note TV series) reunite following their work on the show with Karasawa as they continue the story of a tough cop who awakens after a thirty year coma following the pursuit of a dangerous criminal, now back on the beat, with a young detective with a personality far different from his own. The […]

NTV Action Drama Takes To The Big Screen With The First Teaser For THE LAST COP: THE MOVIE

Lee B. Golden III

Taking cues from German television, NTV got the notion of remaking the 2010 hit series, Last Cop prior to premiering just this past summer with some episodes slated for Hulu. Clearly it’s a move that served them well now with movement toward a second series in October and subsequent feature film production from Shochiku, and with one of the show’s co-helmers, Inomata Ryuichi, in the director’s chair for it May release next year. And at the center of it all: actor Karasawa Toshiaki (Casshern, In The Hero) who plays a tough cop – awakened after a thirty year coma following the pursuit of a dangerous criminal, now back on the beat, with a young detective with a personality far different from his own. Joining Karasawa is actor Kubota Masataka, star of the upcoming adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul, and feeding into the buddy cop formula some, we’re graced with the first […]

TOKYO GHOUL Goes Live-Action For The Big Screen Next Year

Lee B. Golden III

Recently there have been murmurs of a live-action adaptation of a Sui Ishida’s 2011 Weekly Shonen Jump manga, Tokyo Ghoul. Well, it turns out word is true and music video and commercial director Kentaro Hagiwara will helm the movie as his feature debut. Kentaro will be joined by Death Note TV series star Masataka Kubota who will play the lead role of Ken Kaneki, a college student whose newfound abilities following a brush of near death with Rize, a Ghoul among many feeding off flesh and living among other humans, forces him to come to terms with the two lives now shares as a half-ghoul while battling both Ghouls and the government forces aimed at wiping them out. As someone who has grown a proclivity toward watching anime this year, I’ve been strongly curious about this series. The fact that its become so popular among fans between books, the anime […]

Oda’s ONE PIECE Sets The Course For Live-Action Movie, First Casting Announced

Lee B. Golden III

As of today, the fascination of turning anime and manga properties can now extend to author Oda Eiichiro’s popular work, One Piece. Of course, this mark yet another addition to my own anime absorption homework this year, but an official announcement was just published solidifying its first two leads, with actor Kubota Masataka fresh off the success of Japan’s Hulu Hit series, HiGH&LOW and it’s forthcoming film next month. Also set to star is Chinese pop idol Xie Leilei of GNZ48 which might be a peculiar casting choice for critics observant of this kind of thing…I’m not sure. At any rate, Kubota as the choice to play elastic adventurer and aspiring Pirate King, Monkey D. Luffy as he and his loyal friends battle demons, monsters and enemies galore could be an interesting one. If it works, then it works, but for those of you familiar with One Piece, what do […]