RELEASE DATE: January 17, 2012 One of the best films of the decade! – Sight & Sound – Koji Wakamatsu’s (Caterpillar) epic docudrama United Red Army explores the political unrest of 1960’s Japan, when mass student uprisings coincided with the beginnings of the far-left United Red Army group, which tortured and murdered its ”deviant” members during a 1972 training session. An uncompromising piece of filmmaking from one of Japan’s most … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: December 27, 2011 Goro Kishitani’s Killer Bride’s Perfect Crime is a killer comedy about very bad things. Hiroko spent 25 years failing at everything, but for the first time, luck is on her side. She’s about to marry the man of her dreams: the rich, handsome and charming Kenichi. However, on the day before her wedding, she ends up accidentally killing her landlord. Determined to go through with her … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 10, 2012 Synapse Films is proud to present Yoichi Nishiyama’s Gurozuka! A fun getaway turns into a journey to Hell for some teenage girls visiting an isolated house to rehearse and perform a play for their private movie club. Taking the trip with an adult chaperone, the girls learn that a previous club member supposedly went missing in the house, and another went insane! Shortly after they … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: November 29, 2011 Zen is a biopic of Dogen Zenji, a Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher and the founder of the Soto school of Zen in Japan after travelling to China. Directed by Banmei Takahashi and starring Kantarou Nakamura, Yuki Uchida, Ryushin Tei, Jun Murakami and Tatsuya Fujiwara. Check out the trailer here.

RELEASE DATE: November 29, 2011 Takashi Miike’s (“13 Assassins“) 2010 sequel to his 2004 flick about a superhero named “Zebraman” (Sho Aikawa). Also also stars Riisa Naka and Masahiro Inoue. This film was controversial due to the film’s theme of a religious war with the antagonists as analogies of the Happy Science movement in Japan. Check out the trailer here. Update: The FUNimation trailer can be found here.

RELEASE DATE: November 8, 2011 The Greatest Love is a 2011 Korean romantic comedy series broadcasted by MBC. In this sometimes wacky, sometimes heartfelt romantic comedy, a has-been pop star (Gong Hyojin) struggles to make the jump from beleaguered to beloved, all while finding a heart-thumping love (Cha Seungwon) along the way. Check out the trailer.

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2012 A group of high school girls struggling with exams and lecherous teachers are ready to sell their souls if it would bring them luck. When they hear about a secret telephone number that will make a caller’s dreams come true, they figure they have nothing to lose. But little do they know that the Devil has granted their wishes, and will now own their souls! … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2012 After losing her parents in a traffic accident, Koto discovers the ability to communicate with the souls of the dead. She meets Shinji, who lost his lover in the same accident, and they begin a torrid and tempestuous affair. Directed by Tadashi Shimizu and starring Ryo Ishii and Mari Sakurai (Big Tits Zombie).

RELEASE DATE: January 24, 2012 Time Traveller marks the newest adaptation of the original 1967 novel by Tsutsui Yasutaka, and the classic 1983 live-action movie. Starring Riisa Naka, voice of Makoto in the anime adaptation. Akari is the daughter of the time-traveling teen from the anime classic The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. In order to help her mother, she travels from the present to the 1970s, where she must … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 17, 2012 Tim Maughan of Anime News Network describes the film as “something very special, very different, and insanely exhilarating.” Redline is a racing film created by studio Madhouse (Paprika). Redline is about the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame, including JP, a reckless dare-devil driver oblivious to speed limits … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 10, 2012 Seong-nam, a married man in his early forties, is an award-winning painter who, after getting busted for smoking pot with an American exchange student in Seoul, impulsively flees to Paris. Crashing in a dingy hostel run by a fellow Korean and unable to speak a lick of French, he finds himself wandering aimlessly around Paris, trapped in both his art and life. Night and Day … Continue reading →

RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2012 In a ruthless battle for power, several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. The rival bosses seek to rise through the ranks by scheming and making allegiances sworn over saké. Long-time yakuza Otomo has seen his kind go from elaborate body tattoos and severed fingertips to becoming important players on the stock market. Theirs is a never-ending … Continue reading →