Today I came across Neo Action, a series of Japanese action flicks characterized by low budgets, short production time, insane ideas and sometimes an impressive usage of fake blood. In 2008 the Neo Action Double feature consisted of Hard Revenge, Milly and The Masked Girl. The former tells the story of a woman (Miki Mizuno) taking revenge for her murdered husband and child by a curious usage of weapons installed in her right leg. The Masked Girl deals with two school girls who gain super-human powers and save the world from an evil organization called Joker lead by a woman with funky hair.

Starting in May, this year’s double feature will be shown in a selected Japanese cinemas and includes Seishiyuri Kishidan: Super Gore Girl starring AKB48 member Sayaka Akimoto and Goo, the Kung-Fusion Boy with Itsuji Itao. Except for the cast there’s only little information available for these two flicks, but at least there’s already a trailer for us to enjoy. And while the Kung-Fusion half looks kinda lame, the parts where Japanese schoolgirls are firing large-caliber guns kinda make up for that…

[via Nippon Cinema]

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Great, just when I thought I could bring you the first review of Akira on Blu-ray Disc after AxelMusic sent out my shipping notice, The Fanboy Review comes along with a first early look of the US release. The review includes some nice full resolution screencaps showing that Akira indeed looks great on Blu-ray Disc even if it can’t keep up with newer, partly digital productions like Tekkonkinkreet. The Japanese 24bits, 192kHz Dolby TrueHD track supposedly sounds great as well. Sadly the reviewer can’t confirm if the disc is region free or not, but at least there’s no sign of region coding on the backcover. I can’t wait for my copy to arrive next week…

More screencaps at The Fanboy Review
[05.02.09] Update: MovieTyme just confirmed, that the US release is region free!

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Square Enix has updated it’s Japanese Website and added a new and official trailer for the upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete Blu-ray Disc release. The trailer is availabe in two resolutions (1280×720 direct link), a full HD version can be watched in the Japanese PS3 store. FF7ACC will be released in Japan on April 16, 2009 and includes several new and enhanced scenes. Sadly, Sony Pictures hasn’t announced an international release date yet.

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Fetch your reading glasses, kids! The Japanese limited edition of Studio 4°C’s anime omnibus Genius Party Beyond includes not one, but two storyboard books (one for Genius Party and once for Genius Party Beyond) with almost 600 pages per piece and a 120 page interview booklet named “Project Genius – The Making Book”. Also included in the box are three DVDs with the 82 minutes long main features, a making of and 100 minutes of interviews with the directors. As usually, English subtitles won’t be included when this babe hits the Japanese shelves on March 20th, 2009.

Check out this trailer/music video from Japanese singer Tamurpan and ask yourself if this release is worth ￥11,970 anyway.

[via Catsuka]
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Preorder the Genius Party Beyond Limited Edition DVD Box from Amazon Japan, YesAsia or CD Japan.

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The online retailer Things from another World has listed some information and a crappy cover scan of the upcoming DVD and Blu-ray Disc release of the Watchmen tie-in Tales of the Black Freighter.

Chronicling a castaway’s increasingly desperate attempts to return home to warn his family of the impending arrival of the Black Freighter – a phantom pirate ship which houses the souls of the damned – the Zack Snyder-directed ‘Tales of the Black Freighter’ animated story-within-a-story narrated by Gerard Butler (300) provides a gripping commentary of the events introduced in the Watchmen graphic novel and feature film, and includes the documentary-style film, ‘Under the Hood,’ that delves into the characters’ backstories. Scheduled to ship in March 2009.

Since TFAW is the first retailer with information about this release, I’m gonna take the release date with a grain of salt. But I’ll be more than happy to buy this on Blu-ray, even if it’s means to double dip when a longer version of Watchmen with both features included will be released later. At least the cover fits nicely into the Watchmen design world, replacing the well known smiley with a skull and bones.
Update: Looks like the TFAW cover is all wrong, DVD Times now has the real cover art for the DVD and Blu-ray release. Release date for both is March 24th, 2009.

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ComingSoon has posted the supposedly final poster art for Zack Snyder’s Watchmen adaptation. The motive is the same as the one on the official sountrack which will be available March 3rd, 2009. Tyler Bates’ Score will be released on the same day with a different cover showing only the faces of our beloved heroes. Thanks to the nifty zoom function from Amazon.com and some virtual scotchtape I was able to salvage the cover images in higher resolution:

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The sci-fi samurai anime Kurozuka from Studio Madhouse isn’t brand new per se (the last episode aired December 23, 2008), but Sony Picture took it’s sweet time to release a proper trailer (view the rather boring teaser here) for the upcoming DVD release in February. It shows some amazing footage of the samurai Yoshitsune (Kurō) who meets a mysterious woman whose sweet loving curses him with the gift of eternal life. Without memories of his former life, Kurō travels the evolving country searching for his one love while fighting zombie samurai, tanks and helicopters…

The Japanese Kurozuka Vol. 1 DVD will be released on February 25th, a complete collection on Blu-ray Disc has been announced for May.
[via Anime Vice]

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Kevin from Nippon Cinema has uploaded a subtitled trailer for Nice Rainbow’s newest indie comedy Sorasoi. Directed by Katsuhito Ishii (Funky Forest, The Taste of Tea), Shunichiro Miki and Yuuuka Ooosumi, Sorasoi tells the story of a young woman on the run who joins a group of college students practicing for an upcoming dance competition. The trailer describes the film as “a new style of Japanese comedy with cute comedy and dance”. Sorasoi premiered last October at the HIFF and will be shown in February during the 59. Berlinale as part of the Generation 14plus program.

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I know it’s not nice to laugh about people who don’t speak other languages as well as their native language, but watching “Steve from Portugal” playing Super Mario Land (obviously) after having some cans of beer I just can’t help it. Enjoy “Steve’s” Adventures in Super Mario Land, but watch out for those pizza stealing monsters!

[via Dark Diamond]

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The claymation feature Mary and Max was screened as the opening film on this year’s Sundance Film Festival and tells the story of the unusual pen-pal relationship between a bitter and obese 44-year old man with Asperger’s Syndrome from New York and a lonely girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne. Spanning 20 years, Adam Elliot’s and Melanie Coombs’ bizarre tale deals with sensitive topics like friendship, taxidermy, stiff nipples and copulating dogs. The voice cast includes stars like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Eric Bana and others.

Visit Collider for four clips, some more details and a short review.

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