First trailer for Takashi Miike’s live-action adaptation of the Capcom video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I’ve never played the game, but it looks like Miike had a lot of fun directing these after his remakes of Samurai classics…

[via Beyond Hollywood & Twitch]

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Looks like Takashi Miike tasted some blood while filming his remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 13 Assassins, so he decided to bring another samurai classic back to the screens with a remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai.
Teaser:

Clip:

Visit Wildgrounds for two more clips…
Synopsis:

A poverty-stricken samurai named Hanshiro Tsugumo arrives at the manor of a feudal lord under the pretense of wanting to find a suitable place to commit seppuku. The lord sees this as a bluff, as many hard up samurai had made the same request in hopes of getting a hand-out. However, Tsugumo’s true motive is to complete the last part of his vengeance.

[via Wildgrounds & Nippon Cinema]

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Synopsis:

In the era of the Shogun, an evil young lord rapes and kills, assured of immunity by law. But he didn’t count on the Thirteen Assassins. A feared secret force, each with their own deadly skill, the Assassins undertake a suicide mission to wipe out the Lord. As he embarks on a perilous journey, the Assassins close off his escape route and ambush him in a village of death. But little do they know, they are outnumbered four to one by the Lord’s crack team of bodyguards.

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Sweet! Too bad Magnet Releasing (part of Magnolia Pictures) decided to put Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins into VOD-hell in March before a proper home video release on DVD or BD…

[via Cinematical]

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Synopsis:

In the era of the Shogun, an evil young lord rapes and kills, assured of immunity by law. But he didn’t count on the Thirteen Assassins. A feared secret force, each with their own deadly skill, the Assassins undertake a suicide mission to wipe out the Lord. As he embarks on a perilous journey, the Assassins close off his escape route and ambush him in a village of death. But little do they know, they are outnumbered four to one by the Lord’s crack team of bodyguards.

[via Wildgrounds & CinemaAsia]

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This looks more like a music video for the Zebra Queen (played by cutie Riisa Naka) than a proper trailer but I just assume Takashi Miike knows what he’s doing…

Synopsis via Nippon Cinema:

In the year 2025, Tokyo has been transformed into “Zebra City” and completely covered in black and white. Every morning at 5:00am, the sensational singing voice of a woman called Zebra Queen (Riisa Naka) can be heard resounding throughout the city. Suddenly, a man named Shinichi Ichikawa (Show Aikawa) awakes with no idea of where he is. In his confusion, he’s shot at by police and barely manages to escape. After falling unconscious again, he’s rescued by a man in a strange costume and soon finds himself in a small commune outside of the city. Their leader recognizes Shinichi as the school teacher turned super hero who saved Earth from an alien invasion 15 years ago before suddenly disappearing. However, Shinichi has no recollection of where he was during that time…

[via Nippon Cinema]

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Looks like good ‘ol Miike just can’t get away from the super hero thematic, so after his live-action adaptation of Yatterman he now presents the sequel to his 2004 super hero comedy Zebraman. You can see the first teaser below, a short TV spot is available at the Japanese website. Zebraman 2 will open across Japan on May 1, 2010.

Synopsis via Nippon Cinema:

In the year 2025, Tokyo has been transformed into “Zebra City”. In the Zebraman’s absense, a woman calling herself Zebra Queen (Riisa Naka) has formed a zebra army and instituted “Zebra Time” throughout the city by force. Shinichi Ichikawa (Show Aikawa) suddenly wakes up with no recollection of his past, but instinctively returns to his super hero ways.

[via Nippon Cinema]

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Sanspo has released the first pictures from the cast and set of Takashi Miike’s remake of Eiichi Kudo’s 1963 classic Thirteen Assassins starring Koji Yakusho, Hiroki Matsukata, Yusuke Iseya, Takayuki Yamada, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Arata Furuta, Ikki Sawamura, Sousuke Takaoka, Yuma Ishigaki, Masataka Kubota, Seiji Rokkaku, Kazuki Namioka and Koen Kondo.

[via @ryuganji (Don Brown)]

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Is there some kind of official Takashi Miike holiday today in Japan? Because AV Watch announced the home video release of three of his films today.

VAP Video strikes first and will release Miike’s 2009 live-action adaptation of the Yatterman manga/anime on September 25th.
Mmmh, Kyoko Fukada as villainesse Doronjo in leather high definition…

Without Kyoko Fukada but starring Kuroki Meisa and also based on a manga series, Crows Zero I and II will be released by Happinet in the same week (October 2nd that is).
Less enjoyable than the pictures of the nice ladies is the fact that VAP Video and Happinet won’t include English subtitles on these releases.
But at least our French friend can rejoice because Wild Side Video will release both parts of Crows Zero on BD in August and November.

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Looks like Takashi Miike isn’t fully occupied with his planned remake of Eiichi Kudo’s classic Thirteen Assassins (Juusan-nin no Shikaku) since THR reports that the Japanese director will also helm the live-action adaptation of Buichi Terasawa’s Takeru manga. Miike has already directed several films based on manga sources, such as Ichi, MPD Psycho, Yatterman and Crows Zero. Takeru is set is a fictious world in which the ninja Takeru Ichimonji fights for his girlfriend’s life. Shooting is supposed to start in October 2010, the 30M US$ project will be produced by several Pan-asian companies based in Thailand, China and Korea.
[via ANN & @jgtokyo]

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