News

A second live-action movie inspired by the Mr. Osomatsu anime series is set to release in Japan in early 2026. The official website for the live-action film project revealed today that the five members of Ae! Group and Takuya Nishimura from Kansai Junior will newly play the sextuplet Matsuno brothers. Both groups belong to Starto Entertainment, the successor company to Johnny & Associates. The cast members to play the sextuplets are as follows: Osomatsu played by Seiya Suezawa (Ae! Group） Karamatsu played by Yoshinori Masakado (Ae! Group） Choromatsu played by Masaya Sano (Ae! Group） Ichimatsu played by Ken Kojima (Ae! Group） Jushimatsu played by Keita Richard Kusama (Ae! Group） Todomatsu played by Takuaya Nishimura (Kansai Junior) The first live-action film starring the nine members of Johnny & Associates' male idol group Snow Man released in March 2022, earning 1.67 billion yen (11.53 million Usd) form its total domestic run. In place of the first film's Tsutomu Hanabusa,...

For Love’s Sake

Directed by Takashi Miike

Written by Ikki Kajiwara, Takayuki Takuma, Takumi Nagayasu

Starring Emi Takei, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Takumi Saito, Sakura Ando

Welcome to an alternate reality Tokyo of 1972, and adolescent student Ai (Emi Takei) has fallen deeply in love with the forehead scarred bad-boy Makoto (Satoshi Tsumabuki), a violent and uncompromising young hooligan whom Ai idolises as her fairytale saviour. Makoto however couldn’t care less for her beatific affections, and when Ai’s fathers pulls some strings to enroll him into her elite private school he returns the favour by blackmailing her parents when he discovers that she is moonlighting at a local maid service bar. The infatuating incredulity deepens as Ai has her own desperate paramour, the nerdy and bespectacled Iwashimizu (Takumi Saito) who confesses his undying love for her, promising to follow Ai to the depths of hell in order to secure her fleeting affections.

For Love’s Sake aka Ai to makoto aka The Legend of Love & Sincerity

Written by Takayuki Takuma, Ikki Kajiwara, Takumi Nagayasu,

Directed by Takashi Miike

Japan, 2012 Fantasia imdb

This year, Fantasia pulled out all the stops to kick off the Festival with a bang – several bangs. They unveiled a new interactive screen that displays pictures from films playing in the festival with capsule reviews in English and French, logos of sponsors and recent random tweets that mention FantasiaFest. It can become a bit of an infinite “Meow” loop, but it is still very cool.

To mark the fact that a Japanese film was chosen as the official opening film for the festival, the local Japanese consulate sent a representative and (better still) sponsored a Japanese dance and an awe-inspiring Japanese drum performance. When I say that it was a percussive assault, I mean that in the most complimentary way.

For those that are confused (which would obviously include me) the column that has the url: http://www.soundonsight.org/fantasia-2012-mike-ryans-five-most-anticipated-films/ is actually my column on the five films that I am most upset to be Missing.

This is my column on five seven films that I am most looking forward to:

1) Takashi Miike (For Love’s Sake and Ace Attorney)

For Love’s Sake (2012) Written by Takayuki Takuma, Ikki Kajiwara, Takumi Nagayasu, Directed by Takashi Miike

You really only need three words to sell For Love’s Sake: Takashi. Miike. Musical.

But here are a few more words…

Takashi Miike is beloved by the Fantasia crowd for pushing the boundaries of genre filmmaking in films like Audition, Visitor Q and Ichi the Killer, but I tend to prefer Miike when he is working in a specific sub-genre where he is forced to subvert the conventions at play in more subtle ways,...