toya sato

ACMA:GAME: THE FINAL KEY First Teaser Revealed For Toya Sato’s Feature Film Expansion

Riding all the way to a feature finale is the Acma:Game franchise based on the 2013 Kodansha novel publication. Thus, we get Acma:Game: The Final Key, directed by Toya Sato who also co-helmed the ten-part Nippon TV drama which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Plot details for the film are unknown but the incumbent movie features actor Shotaro Mamiya who reprises his role from the current drama series; The initial story for the drama centers on Teruasa Oda, the son of a powerful family who journeys in search of the mystery behind a legend pertaining to 99 keys that could grant their collective owner ultimate power. Also starring are Juri Tanaka, Kotone Furukawa, Ryo Ryusei, Lina Arashi, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, and more. The cast are further joined by series scribes Izumi Yoshihiro, and Taniguchi Junichiro, with a release set for October 25 from Toho.

Fantasia XXV Review: CAUTION, HAZARDOUS WIFE: THE MOVIE, Love On The Edge With Heartshot Espionage Thrills

Lee B. Golden III

If there’s one thing that serves as inviting to watch a recent series, its getting to screen that show’s feature film continuation, which is nifty little way to truly end a series drama on a high note. To that end, it definitely depends on how those behind the scenes attempt to weave together the connecting stories. Arguably, it might even lead to the notion that said film can even stand on its own – a notion that Toya Sato’s Caution: Hazardous Wife: The Movie certainly puts to the test in segueing from the cliffhanger end of the titular NTV drama starring Haruka Ayase (Honnouji Hotel, Ichi) and Hidetoshi Nishijima (Silent Night, Mozu franchise) in reprisals of their respective roles. There’s a gradual tone shift as the film commences with an opening action sequence before laying into the moment Nami (Ayase) awakens from a surrealistic dream. When the film starts, we […]

CAUTION, HAZARDOUS WIFE: THE MOVIE: Toya Sato’s New Spy VS. Spy Thriller Spies An Eye For March 2021

Lee B. Golden III

There’s no question as to how crippling the current pandemic has been on businesses, and that especially goes for film studios in Japan who’ve had to otherwise postpone or shelve titles indefinitely with theatrical exhibitors facing closures. With any luck, 2021 will see a much-needed turnaround though, and imaginably, a hope easily shared by Kaiji trilogy and Gatchaman helmer Toya Sato whose latest action comedy, Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie, is now slotting a March 19 release in Japan following a since cancelled June 2020 release. Inspired by Doug Liman’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2010), Sato’s Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie takes off from the ten-episode hit 2017 NTV series of the same name. Both actress Haruka Ayase and Hidetoshi Nishijima reprise their roles respectively as special agent-turned-amnesiac, “Kumi”, and Public Security Bureau operative “Yuji”. Married under false pretenses with their true identities and occupations kept secret, the series ends […]

CAUTION, HAZARDOUS WIFE: THE MOVIE Lands A Trailer For The Action Comedy Sequel Feature

Lee B. Golden III

Fresh from the annals of NTV broadcast history, fans will soon get to relive character favorite Nami Isayama in the big screen sequel, Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie. Kaiji trilogy and Gatchaman helmer Toya Sato directs returning screen couple, actress Haruka Ayase and actor Hidetoshi Nishijima with a story following the events of the 2017 ten-episode television series. That show follows special agent Nami (Ayase) avert toward simple married life with IT office worker Yuki (Nishijima) following a blind date. She tries to keep her past a secret from Yuki while events unfold surrounding the rescue of a woman from a domestic abuse situation. As the show itself tells it however, it appears Nami isn’t the only one in her marriage with a double life. That’s all we know of this property as it precedes Sato’s movie which opens in Japan on June 5, apart from what the film’s first […]