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The Osaka Expo is only a few months away and one of the most interesting pavilions just got much more enthralling. The previously announced Gundam Next Future Pavilion released more details on what is happening inside the space, revealing that a new anime attraction will be available to experience. The anime, titled Gundam: Next Universal Century , released a trailer, a key visual and cast and staff members. Gundam: Next Universal Century Trailer and Visual Related: Gundam Unveils First Life-Size Statue for Osaka The Gundam: Next Universal Century attraction will immerse people in the world of Gundam’s main timeline. The anime portion is directed by tokusatsu director Takanori Tsujimoto ( Ultraman Arc ) based on a story and concept by Shigeru Morita ( Mobile Suit Gundam Seed ) and music by Evan Call. The animation is produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks and its sub-brand Sunrise. The star-studding cast list from Japanese...

Quick Links Pulse (Kairo) Plot and Cast The Loneliness of Pulse Why You Should Watch Pulse

In the world of streaming, many equate Max with the utmost quality programming, with the history of HBO behind their catalog offering some of the most revolutionary television. This has extended to their movie selection. This makes the recent addition of Pulse (Kairo) a pleasant yet not unexpected addition to their catalog. The horror movie is exemplary of the best and most sophisticated the country has on offer, exploring themes of loneliness and isolation to push terror into uncomfortable yet familiar territory.

We will look at the landmark Japanese horror movie, the mand behind the work, and how it brilliantly dwells on uncomfortable themes and emotions to make a lasting impact. For those who are uncomfortable with the discussion of suicide and depression, please proceed with caution or check out another article.

Pulse (Kairo...

Combining a European director with an exclusively Japanese cast is not exactly the norm in international cinema, and therefore “Tokyo Eyes”, stands out from the beginning, which was probably the reason it was selected for the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, in the Un Certain Regard-category.

The story revolves around two rather unusual characters. K is a young Japanese programmer who collects Techno LP. However, the unique thing about him is that he is also a vigilante who shoots people who behave badly, when he encounters them, although he always misses purposefully. Before each shooting, he wears a pair of glasses, with the media quickly naming him “Four Eyes”. Hinano is a 17-year-old girl who works part time at a beauty salon and lives with her older brother, Roy, who is assigned the Four Eyes-case. One day, Hinano recognizes K on the subway, from a police sketch her brother brought home, and finds herself fascinated by him,...

Takashi Miike has answered the “Can a film be so bad that is good?” question affirmatively a number of times, and the “Katakuris” is definitely among the movie that provide a positive reply.

The script is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s film, “The Quiet Family”, but Takashi Miike took the basic premises of the original and turned them completely upside down, in order to present a movie that lingers between the musical and the thriller, also including elements of slapstick comedy, parody and claymation.

The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri, his wife Terue, his father Jinpei, his formerly criminal son Masayuki, his divorced daughter Shizue, her child Yurie and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father’s redundancy pay to purchase an old home in the country, near Mount Fuji, in order to convert it into a bed and breakfast.

Shudder will take viewers to the place that's "not as brightly lit" this Halloween season, as the 1980s anthology series Tales From the Darkside will be available to watch in its entirety on the horror streaming service beginning October 1st:

Press Release: New York, New York – September 26, 2016 – The AMC-backed streaming service, Shudder, is The entertainment destination for everything you need to watch this Halloween season. Whether you’re a hardcore horror fan or simply looking for the scariest films to celebrate this time of year, Shudder has something for everyone in its sweeping library, carefully curated by some of the top horror experts in the world.

As Halloween approaches, Shudder is expanding its database with a variety of new titles including cult favorites, blockbuster hits, and classic thrillers. Additionally, for the first time ever, Shudder will be offering horror TV series to complement its expansive film library.

Premiering October 20th...

Takashi Miike‘s The Happiness of the Katakuris begins with a woman probing a freshly delivered bowl of soup only to fish out a miniature angel/gargoyle/teletubby? whose presence seems to instigate the onscreen conversion of the world into claymation before tearing out the poor woman’s uvula and tossing it into the air to float away like a heart-shaped balloon. This is a film that, even in an oeuvre that includes works as disparate as gross out shocker Visitor Q and the kid friendly The Great Yokai War, is pure unpredictable insanity that baffles as much as it entertains. Essentially a horror comedy musical, Miike’s genre mashing farce is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s The Quiet Family, in which a family owns a remotely located bed and breakfast whose customers always happen to die during their stay, yet takes that simple premise to its outermost extremes in the silliest of ways.

Stars: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Kiyoshirô Imawano, Tetsurô Tanba, Naoto Takenaka, Tamaki Miyazaki, Takashi Matsuzaki | Written by Ai Kennedy, Kikumi Yamagishi | Directed by Takashi Miike

Being a Takashi Miike fan takes you down some strange roads. Whether it is the extreme Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q, or the fun Crow Zero movies there is always something a little off about all of his movies. One of the strangest to come from him has to be The Happiness of the Katakuris, a musical about happiness, family and death which is out now from Arrow Video…

When the Katakuri family build a bed and breakfast in the country, they do so on the promise of a new road being built close to it to provide them with plenty of customers. When the road doesn’t appear though they start to wonder if they are cursed to fail.

Opening this fall in Japan is the live adaptation of the manga Kyou Kara Hitman. Shinji Takeda [Lovedeath and Kairo] will play this dual role. As he is also a musician he will also be providing the theme song. The film will be directed by Kenji Yokoi

The film is adapted from the manga of the same name by Hiroshi Mutou. Takeda plays an ordinary salaryman who gets mixed up in the death of a legendary hitman, and as a result, he has to lead a double life as the hitman’s successor.

The manga started in 2006 and has been ongoing since.

'Tokyo Eyes'

Slick and stylish, intriguing at first but ultimately unsatisfying, French director Jean-Pierre Limosin's "Tokyo Eyes" (Un Certain Regard) is an end-of-the-century love story between a bespectacled young rebel who calls himself K (Shinji Takeda) and the younger sister, Hinano (Hinano Yoshikawa), of a police inspector on the trail of a mysterious shooter who randomly confronts people on the streets of Tokyo but misses his targets even at close range.

A happy teenybopper just beginning to pay serious attention to boys, Hinano recognizes K as the unpredictable "virtual killer" in the news and at first wants to help her brother catch him. But once she gets to know the spacy video-game maker, she comes to sympathize with his instant rages at prejudiced, intolerant and callous people who cross his path. While Limosin's technique draws one into the convoluted mystery-thriller-romance and the performances are solid, the film's appeal is limited to younger audiences and U.S. distribution is a long shot.

'Teatro Di Guerra'

A small theater company in Naples struggles to mount a production of Aeschylus' "Seven Against Thebes" in 1994, intending to present the grim drama of war and fratricide in disintegrating Sarajevo. Unfortunately, this frustrating Italian Un Certain Regard offering from acclaimed avant-garde writer-director Mario Martone is too choppy and uninvolving except for the most patient cineastes, with most of the characters remaining sketchy and distant despite a nearly two-hour running time.

Rehearsing in a ramshackle theater in a rough neighborhood, the group of pro and tyro thesps led by Leo (Andrea Renzi) manages to stay afloat despite lack of funding and the disinterest of more successful comrades. Last-minute support comes when Leo agrees to hire a drug-taking star (Anna Bonaiuto), while the situation outside the stage door becomes more ominous with the gunning down of the local Mafia boss. The film builds to an ironic conclusion that underscores the war everywhere between artistic conscience and indifference.

'Divine'

With the unholy ghost of Luis Bunuel hovering over this Un Certain Regard entrant -- iconoclastic Mexican auteur Arturro Ripstein was mentored by the great Spanish surrealist -- "Divine" (El Evangelio De Las Maravillas) is a millennial allegory about a bizarre religious cult with a movie-loving priest, self-proclaimed prophetess and dozens of sheepish followers. Unfolding as more than a dozen "mysteries," the non-linear structure is the most interesting aspect of the storytelling that is driven by the arrival of a reformed prostitute (Carolina Papaleo) and sinful teenager Tomasa (Edwarda Gurrola) in the shut-off community.

Veterans Francisco Rabal (Bunuel's "Nazarin") and Katy Jurado (an Oscar nominee in 1954 for "Broken Lance") are the leaders preparing the flock for the coming of a new messiah, and the latter before dying proclaims Tomasa the new prophet. But the youngster rewrites the rules and commands every male to have joyless sex with her. It sounds racy and relevant, but it's ponderous and far from a divine viewing experience.

David Hunter...