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Stars: Lily Franky, Tak Sakaguchi, Rino Katase, Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi, Mitsu Dan, Masaya Katō, Hitoshi Ozawa, Hideto Katsuya, Masanori Mimoto, Akane Sakanoue | Directed by Kensuke Sonomura

Wataru Gojō CEO of the Gojo Conglomerate is the most powerful man in Kaiko City, the Bad City of the title. He’s just been acquitted of corruption charges and declared his candidacy for mayor in order to go after those he says are really behind the corruption.

As he’s holding a press conference an assassin is hacking their way through members of the Sakurada Yakuza clan. Suspicion falls on the Korean mafia and their enigmatic leader Madam. It may not be a coincidence that their chief enforcer Kim Seung-gi, and Gojō are acquainted.

As open warfare breaks out on the city’s streets the head of public safety Koizumi and Chief Prosecutor Hirayama form an unofficial task force to take Gojō. Unfortunately, the...

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Well Go USA has acquired all North American rights to Japanese director Kensuke Sonomura’s heavy-hitting crime thriller Bad City.

A follow-up to the genre director’s assassin thriller Hydra from last year, Bad City will screen at Austin’s Fantastic Fest on Friday, followed by an in-competition slot at Sitges in October.

Well Go will first release the film over its martial arts specialty streamer Hi-yah! as a Hi-yah! Original, followed by a theatrical outing and broader VOD release sometime later this year.

The film is set in Kaiko City, a place torn apart by rampant corruption and violence amongst a private conglomerate, the yakuza and even the authorities. But after a mafia-connected businessman runs for mayor and begins systematically eliminating his opponents, a former police captain imprisoned for murder is released in a desperate, last-ditch effort to take the corrupt tycoon down.

In the perhaps golden period of Miike at the beginning of the second millennium, where he already consolidated his cult following, comes “Man in White”, divided into two parts: “Bloody Battle of Lions” and “Requiem for the Lion”. There is a single international cut condensed in 150 minutes, but make sure to watch the first and second parts separately to delve deeper into the film and the characters that are presented to us.

The protagonist, Asuza, is a yakuza – always dressed in white – raised in the streets in a setting of tragedy marked by the death of his parents. The father is killed by his stepbrother, and the mother subsequently commits suicide. The feeling of guilt tortures Azusa while leaning on the father figure of his boss. Sadly, fate will play tricks again, when his superior dies suddenly murdered in his presence. The man in white will search the killer obsessively,...

Omnibus project Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections forms part of Japan’s drive to build links with Southeast Asia.

Produced by Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) and the Japan Foundation, Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections is an omnibus film with segments directed by the Philippines’ Brillante Mendoza, Japan’s Isao Yukisada and Cambodia’s Sotho Kulikar.

The film, which premiered at Tiff last week, involves characters living in Asia who have some kind of connection to another country within the region. Mendoza’s segment, Shiniuma: Dead Horse, filmed in both Japan and the Philippines, stars veteran actor Lou Veloso as an illegal immigrant in Japan who is deported back to the Philippines and forced to make a new life.

Filmed in Penang, Malaysia, Yukisada’s film, Pigeon, revolves around the bond between a Malaysian careworker (Sharifah Amani) and an elderly Japanese man suffering from dementia (Masahiko Tsugawa). Kulikar’s segment, Beyond The Bridge...

Omnibus project Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections forms part of Japan’s drive to build links with Southeast Asia.

Produced by Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) and the Japan Foundation, Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016: Reflections is an omnibus film with segments directed by the Philippines’ Brillante Mendoza, Japan’s Isao Yukisada and Cambodia’s Sotho Kulikar.

The film, which premiered at Tiff last week, involves characters living in Asia who have some kind of connection to another country within the region. Mendoza’s segment, Shiniuma: Dead Horse, filmed in both Japan and the Philippines, stars veteran actor Lou Veloso as an illegal immigrant in Japan who is deported back to the Philippines and forced to make a new life.

Filmed in Penang, Malaysia, Yukisada’s film, Pigeon, revolves around the bond between a Malaysian careworker (Sharifah Amani) and an elderly Japanese man suffering from dementia (Masahiko Tsugawa). Kulikar’s segment, Beyond The Bridge...

It’s the tail end of the twenty-first century and Earth has nearly overstayed its welcome with dwindling resources and over-population. Scientists believe they can release the CO2 pockets underneath Mars’ surface and move the Red Planet from -50 degrees Celsius into a human-friendly temperature and atmosphere. So mankind sends rockets of moss and cockroaches to commence the process, a half-century passing before a team of colonists can finally journey forth. Everything should be ready for this hand-selected group under Ko Honda’s (Shun Oguri) supervision: go to Mars, kill the cockroaches, and return home with stories of our salvation via a new frontier. It sounds so simple and yet no one is prepared for what they’ll find because no one but Honda and the Japanese government know the truth.

That itself is a wild premise ripe for science fiction fun, but manga creators Yû Sasuga and Kenichi Tachibana are hardly finished.

dTv, Japan’s biggest streaming service released a preview for “Terraformars:A New Hope” series, a three-episode prequel of Takashi Miike’s adaptation, that will premiere on April 24, with the actual film scheduled for April 29.

The prequel will center on the research institute responsible for screening candidates for the Mars mission. The candidates will cheat and betray each other in a mental battle to be chosen as part of the crew, and it will reveal why the 15 crew members in the film were the ones chosen.

Hideaki Ito, Emi Takei, Mariko Shinoda, Rina Ota, Rinko Kikuchi, and Masaya Kato are reprising their roles from the film. Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Kōji Matoba, Ken Aoki, Takahiro Kuroishi, Kento Hayashi, Tetsuya Sugaya, Takemi Fujii, and Saki Takaoka are playing other characters who are unique to the prequel.

Takashi Miike supervises the production, with Yoshitaka Yamaguchi directing. Yamaguchi has worked before with Miike as assistant...

Line-up includes Sharifah Amani from Yasmin Ahmad’s Gubra.

Tokyo International Film Festival and the Japan Foundation Asia Center have announced the main cast for their Asian Three-Fold Mirror 2016 omnibus to include Masaya Kato from Takeshi Kitano’s Brother and Malaysian actress Sharifah Amani from Yasmin Ahmad’s Gubra.

As previously announced, Brillante Mendoza from the Philippines, Isao Yukisada from Japan and Sotho Kulikar from Cambodia will each a segment.

Filipino actor Lou Veloso is starring in Mendoza’s segment. Japanese stars Masahiko Tsugawa and Masatoshi Nagase are in Yukisada’s along with Amani. Kato and Cambodian actress Chumvan Sodhachivy will star in Kulikar’s.

Each segment features an Asian living in a different country in Asia. The films will shoot in Japan, the Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia.

The omnibus will complete post-production in Malaysia at Imagica South East Asia and world premiere at Tiff (Oct 25 – Nov 3).

Although I've never really warmed to Jackie Chan's unique blend of mayhem and mirth, I've seen enough of his action pics to be more than a little intrigued by the prospect of him attempting some 'proper' acting. It reminded me of those heady days in the mid 90s when Sly decided that his time machine gunning assorted middle Eastern baddies was over and he'd rather gain weight, take a pay cut and play a partially deaf sheriff. Of course, he's now seen sense and gone back to the weights machine, and in the case of The Expendables, dragged along a few of his mates. Good man.

The Shinjuku Incident sees Chan on similar ground, trying a reinvention (of sorts) which I gather from fellow Twitchers is not entirely without merit. The plot goes something like this...

"Hundreds of Chinese refugees wash up on Japan's Wakasa Bay. Each has a dream of a better life,...

Although I've never really warmed to Jackie Chan's unique blend of mayhem and mirth, I've seen enough of his action pics to be more than a little intrigued by the prospect of him attempting some 'proper' acting. It reminded me of those heady days in the mid 90s when Sly decided that the days of machine gunning assorted middle Eastern baddies were over and that he'd rather gain weight, take a pay cut and play a partially deaf sheriff. Of course, he's now seen sense and gone back to the weights machine, and in the case of The Expendables, dragged along a few of his mates. Good man.

The Shinjuku Incident sees Chan on similar ground, trying a reinvention (of sorts) which I gather from fellow Twitchers is not entirely without merit. The plot goes something like this...

"Hundreds of Chinese refugees wash up on Japan's Wakasa Bay. Each...

Truth be told, I wasn’t a fan of the grossly melodramatic 2009 Jackie Chan outing “The Shinjuku Incident,” but I suppose there are oodles of people out there who are genuinely excited about its arrival on Region 2 DVD this February. The film is pretty much a straightforward crime saga; there’s nary a death-defying stunt to be found anywhere in the picture, and, as a result, the film rests squarely on Chan’s abililties as an actor. Since the guy’s really not known for his dramatic skills, you can only imagine what you’re forced to endure. But, I digress. The 2-disc “Ultimate Edition,” released by by Cine Asia, will sport the following nifty features: * Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes * Extended & Deleted Scenes * Trailer Gallery * Interview Gallery with Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Masaya Kato, Naoto Takenata, Chin Kar Lok, and Pater Kam Pau-Tat The artwork is lovingly embedded below. Start...

A must have for UK Jackie Fans. Marking a rare return to a fully dramatic role, Chan’s controversial and violent crime thriller Shinjuku Incident is heading for a UK Blu-ray and DVD release next month via Cine Asia. The two-disc Ultimate Edition featuring a host of extras, including: Making of; behind the scenes featurettes; extended and deleted scenes; trailer gallery and interview gallery with Jackie Chan, Daniel Wu, Xu Jinglei, Masaya Kato, Naoto Takenata, Chin Kar Lok, Pater Kam Pau-Tat. Not to shabby at all.

Killer Imports [1] is a regular feature on Film Junk where we explore foreign-language films from around the world that haven’t yet had their chance to shine. See Jackie Chan drive a farm tractor on an iced, shallow pond and fall through! That’s the only promotional blurb I can think of to sell this latest Jackie Chan movie to a Jackie Chan audience. Shinjuku Incident marks Jackie Chan’s first full attempt at a dramatic role. His role in the 2004 New Police Story movie was more of a transitory role in which he got to do some emoting as a drunken cop and for which he received a Best Actor nomination by the Hong Kong Film Awards and a win by the Golden Rooster Awards. And although there is action in this movie with gangs fighting each other, Jackie’s trademark stunts and fighting skills are nowhere to be seen.