Parade at PIFF 2009!

It has been announced that Tatsuya’s movie Parade (パレード) is going to be shown at the 14th Pusan International Film Festival (08-16 October 2009). Parade will be showing on the 12th, 13th and 14th. Tatsuya will also be on a Q&A panel with other members of the cast on 14th October. This will be Parade’s World Premiere. The movie is officially set to be released in 2010.

Click here for more information about the PIFF2009

Kenichi Matsuyama rejoins Tatsuya Fujiwara for “Kaiji”

Actor Kenichi Matsuyama (24) has been revealed as a supporting cast member in the upcoming movie “Kaiji,” which stars Tatsuya Fujiwara (27). This reunites the pair, who last worked together in the hit live-action “Death Note” films in 2006.

“Kaiji” is based on Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s popular manga about a gambler named Kaiji (Fujiwara) stuck in a dangerous game trying to clear an enormous debt. Matsuyama plays Kaiji’s colleague Sahara, who shares a similar fate.

The “Kaiji” movie was first announced last year and has been scheduled for an October 10 release. The supporting cast includes Yuki Amami and Teruyuki Kagawa.

Source: Tokyograph.com

YUI sings two tunes for “Kaiji”

Two similar news:

YUI has been tapped to provide the theme song and an insert song for the manga-to-movie adaptation “Kaiji,” which stars Tatsuya Fujiwara as a gambler trying to erase an enormous debt.

Initially, YUI was only asked to provide the theme, but director Toya Sato ended up using two of her tunes. “It’s all too much” will serve as the theme song, while “Never say die” will be heard during the film.

“Kaiji” is set to open in theaters on October 10. YUI’s two songs will apparently be released as a double A-side single sometime in the same month.

Source: Tokyograph.com

Singer-songwriter YUI will sing the theme song for the talked about new movie Kaiji that brings together Death Note stars Fujiwara Tatsuya and Matsuyama Kenichi. YUI’s upcoming single It’s All too much will be the theme song, and Never say die will be featured as an inserted song. The double A-side single is scheduled for release in October; the film will open on October 10.

Helmed by Sato Toya, Kaiji revolves around Fujiwara’s Ito Kaiji, who leads a life in poverty and debt and tries to change his destiny in an all-deciding gamble. The film is based on the manga Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji (a.k.a. “Ultimate Survivor Kaiji”) by Fukumoto Nobuyuki which started serialization in 1996. The series turned into a bestseller with accumulated sales of over 13 million, and won Fukumoto a Kodansha Manga Award. Besides Fujiwara and Matsuyama, Kaiji’s cast also includes Amami Yuki, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yamamoto Taro, Matsuo Suzuki, and Sato Kei.

Source: Yesasia.com

Isao Yukisada goes on “Parade”

Director Isao Yukisada is working on a screen adaptation of author Shuichi Yoshida’s first full-length novel, “Parade,” which won the Yamamoto Shugoro Prize in 2002.

Yukisada has apparently been hoping to make a movie out of the book ever since it was published in 2002. The story revolves around an unusual group of five young adults living together in a 2LDK apartment (two bedrooms, living room, dining room, and kitchen). Despite sharing such a small space, it turns out in the end that they really don’t know much about each other.

Yukisada has assembled a talented young cast for the movie. Tatsuya Fujiwara stars as Naoki, an employee of a film distribution company. Karina plays the illustrator Miki, while Shihori Kanjiya is the unemployed Kotomi and Keisuke Koide is the college student Ryosuke. Around the same time that a string of disturbing incidents occurs in their neighborhood, Miki meets a male prostitute named Satoru (Kento Hayashi), who ends up also living in the apartment.

In addition to directing, Yukisada wrote the screenplay for the adaptation. Filming started on May 15 and will continue until mid-June. The movie is currently scheduled for release in 2010.

Source: Tokyograph.com

「BATON」 – Project Announcement

Tasuya is set to be lending his voice to another project – this time a rotoscope/2D/3D hybrid animation called ‘BATON’. This will be a collaboration between Ryuhei Kitamura (Versus) and Shunji Iwai (All about Lily Chou-Chou) created for the 150th anniversary of the city of Yokohama. Instead of a 50 minute film it was revealed that BATON will be a trio of 20 minute episodes instead. They will screen at Theater Future on the bay in Yokohama from April 28th to September 27th 2009.

Official Site: http://www.baton-y150.jp/

Synopsis:
The 50-minute animation is a sci-fi fantasy story set in a future where space travel and migration between planets is possible. On Planet Abel, humans and robots co-exist. One day a mysterious stowaway on a transport vessel tries to invade the planet, but is discovered by Apollo (Hayato Ichihara), a robot that looks like a human; and Mikaru (Aya Ueto), a human that looks like a robot. The stowaway had in his possession a memory chip containing the latest in camouflage software, the mysterious “Sypher” OS. Apollo takes the Sypher chip simply for fun, but has no idea what he’s getting himself into. He suddenly starts acting strange, but Mikaru has no idea what’s wrong or that Sypher is behind it. What exactly is Sypher? What sort of secrets does it hold? Apollo and Mikaru will unravel a mystery encompassing the past, present, and future to find out.

Tatsuya voices the part of Sypher!

Other cast members include: Ren Osugi as ‘Dr. Newton’ and Mimura as ‘Hiroko Yazakiyaku’ as well as a whole load of others.

Sources: Twitchfilm.net, Nipponcinema.com