BABY ASSASSINS 3: Well Go USA Completes The Trilogy With The Official Trailer
Coming to digital and Blu-Ray in August from WELL GO USA!
sosuke ikematsu
Japan Cuts XVII Review: Tominaga Masanori’s BETWEEN THE WHITE KEY AND THE BLACK KEY Hits the Right Note
3 min. read On a nostalgic New Year’s Eve in late 80s Ginza, aspiring jazz pianist Hiroshi (Ikematsu Sousuke) quits his cabaret pianist job because he doesn’t feel that he can grow there as a musician. As he begins traveling the nightime world of Ginza bar musicians, players who go to neighboring clubs and bars to play music, he becomes embroiled in the complex ecosystem of artists and gangsters out to ring in the new year. With his upperclassman Chikako (Naka Riisa) to give him guidance, he encounters a foreign singer (Crystal Kay), a fresh out of prison yakuza with a vendetta (Morita Go), and a well regarded bar pianist Minami (also Ikematsu) who also finds himself caught up in the chaos the night will bring. Adapted from an essay by esteemed jazz pianist Minami Hiroshi, Between the White Key and Black Key isn’t so much a biopic despite the […]
Fantasia XXVII Review: In SHIN KAMEN RIDER, Hideaki Anno Reaffirms A Beloved Tokusatsu Classic
Arriving just in time for the 50th anniversary, Shin Kamen Rider marks the latest treatment reviving the beloved Tokusatsu franchise first birthed on the small screen in 1971 from creator Shotaro Ishinomori. It’s a franchise that’s right on par with the cadre of Showa-era hitmakers that still bear relevance to this day, which film duo Shinji Higuchi and Hideaki Anno have been apt to revisit in recent memory via their Shin Japan Heroes Universe. For Shin Kamen Rider, the aforementioned Anno took on writing and directing duties with none other than Sosuke Ikematsu setting the stage in the role that made the classic TV series a hit for the ages. Joined by Ruriko Midorikawa (Midori Hamabe), Takeshi Hongo (Ikematsu) is successfully rescued from the clutches of a mysterious organization that nearly brainwashed him after transforming his body into a cybernetic Grasshopper hybrid. Little does Hongo know that his newly-minted body […]
Hideaki Anno’s SHIN KAMEN RIDER Rides Into Action In The First Teaser Trailer
More than seven years in the making and more than a year since its announcement with a pair of teasers to mark the semicentury festivities last October, director Hideaki Anno is heeding the call with a brand new teaser trailer as of Friday for Shin Kamen Rider ahead of its March 2023 release in Japan from Toei. College student and motorcycle enthusiast Takeshi Hongo is abducted by the evil organization Shocker and converted into a cyborg as part of their plans for world domination. Before they can brainwash him to do their bidding, he escapes and uses his new enhanced abilities as Kamen Rider to wage a one-man war against Shocker. Sosuke Ikamatsu (The Last Samurai, Death Note: Light Up The New World) etches in his take on the classic hero character of Takeshi Hongo, memorably portrayed by actor Hiroshi Fujioka in the original series. Also starring are Minami Hamabe […]
Hideaki Anno Exhibition Offers First Look at SHIN KAMEN RIDER
Hideaki Anno, creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion and director of Shin Godzilla, is currently the subject of an exhibition in Japan. This exhibition displays many pieces involved with his works, and covers his past, present and future works. As part of this exhibition, new information about the upcoming Shin Kamen Rider movie has been shared, including two teaser trailers, and cast reveals. Trailers: Toei has shared two versions of the first teaser trailer for the movie, featuring the updated designs of both Kamen Rider Ichigo and his iconic motorcycle, the Rider Machine, Cyclone! Trailer A Trailer B Cast The first two members of the cast have been announced. On the left is Sosuke Ikamatsu (The Last Samurai, Death Note: Light Up The New World) as Takeshi Hongo. After being kidnapped by Shocker, an evil organization bent on world domination, he was transformed into the cyborg soldier Kamen Rider. Upon his […]
JAPAN CUTS Review: Shinya Tsukamoto’s KILLING Cuts Deep Into The Existential And Horrific
Shinya Tsukamoto’s latest film takes a toll on the senses with Killing, a chilling eight-minute chanbara drama that suitably provides a template on which the multi-hat wearing filmmaker gets to exhibit the more visionary ends of his craft. The story and setting are encompassed by a foreboding undertone in Killing in which we engage the story of Mokunoshin Tsuzuki (Sosuke Ikematsu), a samurai tentatively housed with a farming family. Partaking on his share of the workload, he also spars at wooden swords with the son of the family Ichisuke (Ryusei Maeda), whose sister, Yu (Yu Aoi), shares all but concern regard her brother’s desire to be as talented a samurai as is their guest. The same goes for Tsuzuki who plans on leaving for Edo very soon for the battlefield. One day, a chance meeting with Jiaremon Sawamura (Shinya Tsukamoto), an aged ronin upon whom they spotted in a duel […]
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