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The stage adaptation of Spirited Away, one of Hayao Miyazaki's most successful animated films, is set to release on digital and Blu-ray later this year.

Spirited Away is an Academy Award-winning Studio Ghibli film that has captured the hearts of people around the world since its debut in 2001. The stage adaptation of Spirited Away premiered in Japan on Feb. 28, 2022 to wide acclaim. Tony Award Winner John Caird directed and adapted Miyazaki's most famous film for the stage, successfully bringing his story to life. The beautiful sets and clothing, along with the new musical numbers and master puppetry by Tobie Olie, has captivated audiences throughout Japan. The filmed performances also debuted successfully in theaters in North America earlier this year. As reported by Gkids, the release of Spirited Away: Live on Stage will be distributed by Shout! Studios.

Related: Spirited Away Isn't the Innocent Children's Story We Thought It Was...

Over the course of his career, Eichiro Hasumi has been making quite a name for himself directing entertaining genre features, even though the majority of them is somewhat forgettable. Apart from “Assassination Classroom: Graduation” he is perhaps best known for this entries into the “Resident Evil”-franchise, “Infinite Darkness” and the upcoming “Death Island”, which cemented the reputation of the animated entries of the franchise being in many ways superior to the lukewarm features by the likes of Paul W.S. Anderson. In between these last two projects, he directed “re:member” (also known as “Re/Member”), which was released on Netflix, and which is his take on the horror genre, blending ideas from J-horror, the slasher genre and time travel movies.

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The story centres around six high-school students, with Asuka (Kanna Hashimoto) essentially being the main protagonist. One day, which begins seemingly normal,...

The world of Asian cinema has seen a vast share of their most recent fare emanating from manga adaptations, with titles ranging from Rurouni Kenshin, “Death Note,” Blade of the Immortal, and Gantz finding their inspiration coming from its pages. Such is the origins of the latest Netflix release in Eiichiro Hasumi's adaptation of “Re/Member,” which started out as a multi-year run in the early 2010s and was followed by an anime adaptation several years later before this current live-action feature.

After what seems to be a normal day, high-school student Asuka (Kanna Hashimoto) sees the ghost of the dead student Haruka at school, asking her to find the girl's dead body. When she and Takahiro (Gordon Maeda), Atsushi, (Fuju Kamio), Rumiko (Maika Yamamoto), Rie (Mayu Yokota), and Shota (Kotaro Daigo), a group of students, set out to find the various scattered pieces of Haruka's corpse buried in the school,...

Re/Member (Karada Sagashi) is a horror movie directed by Eiichirô Hasumi starring Kanna Hashimoto, Gordon Maeda and Maika Yamamoto among. It is based on the manga by Katsutoshi Murase and Welzard.

Re/Member is a Japanese scary movie… Japanese fashion with all the elements of recent “scary” movie successes and some extra ones extracted from the most classic Hollywood ones.

Ringu was a success because it was a novelty, Re/Member does not have much chances in standing out, precisely because of its “originality” or lack of it.

It does offer horror movie fans a little more of what they expect in this guilty sin.

Storyline

In order to break a curse, six students in a strange space/time will need to restore the balance in Sofia, a child that was murdered years ago and whom they wish to avenge.

Movie Review

A movie about ghosts and apparitions that is well made...

Gkids, the New York-based studio bringing beloved animated films to homes for generations, has acquired the North American audiovisual distribution rights to Spirited Away: Live on Stage. The live-action presentation recreates Hayao Miyazaki‘s classic fantasy film about a young girl who escapes to a magical world filled with danger, dragons, and spirits looking to rest their weary souls. Screenings of the Spirited Away stage play reportedly capture the entire performance from a front-row row view, bringing fans of Miyazaki’s enigmatic story closer to Chiriho’s journey than ever before. The recording is from the stage show’s 2022 run at the Imperial Theater in Tokyo, Japan.

Spirited Away: Live on Stage features Kanna Hashimoto and Mone Kamishiraishi as the story’s brave protagonist Chihiro Ogino. Honorary associate director of England’s Royal Shakespeare Company, John Caird, oversees the production, filled with mythical creatures, elaborate stage magic, and detailed sets...

Daigo Matsui is familiar with the festival experience, having presented his previous works in Melbourne and Tokyo and now, he is (virtually) back in Udine with “#HandballStrive”.

“#HandballStrive” screened at Udine Far East Film Festival 2020

An earthquake hit Kumamoto three years ago. A part of the city’s population has to relocate in temporary housings. Masao, 16-years old teenager, belongs to those who relocated. He’s not sure what he wants to do with his life and self-identifies as a loser. Masao used to play handball but stopped around two years ago. One day, he posts on his Instagram a picture of him playing handball. The picture receives a lot of likes. With his friend Okanoto, they establish an almost-brand: #HandballStrive. Supporting them means supporting people living in temporary housings. It’s a feel-good story users want: the small team from the small city going through difficulties and having an...

Soaked with climate-altering passion, Makoto Shinkai’s new animated spectacle “Weathering With You” once again pits two young lovers against forces beyond their control, treading similar waters as his 2016 global hit “Your Name,” for a thrilling extravaganza of scintillating imagery, uproarious music, and gravity-defying stunts with spiritual panache.

Torrential rain drowns Tokyo like it hasn’t in recent memory, and with every enormous drop that reaches the ground, the city’s dwellers long a little harder for the sunshine of summer. Such inclement conditions welcome 15-year-old Hodaka (voiced by Kotaro Daigo), a small-town dreamer who’s run away from home to the chaotic metropolis.

Necessity propels him to take a live-in job transcribing for a scruffy father figure, Keisuke (Shun Oguri), whose occupation is to write engaging fake news. But his luck changes when he, gun in hand, attempts to defend Hina (Nana Mori), a “sunshine girl” with the power to momentarily stop the downpour.

Makoto Shinkai’s “Weathering With You,” which tells the tale of a young boy who falls for a girl with the power to stop ceaseless rainstorms pounding Tokyo, marks the first time an anime has been chosen as Japan’s foreign-language Oscar entry.

The Gkids release echoes an element of Shinkai’s previous anime, “Your Name,” a body-swapping story that was a global phenomenon, topping the box office that year in Japan and earning accolades on its way to a $358 million global haul. Nevertheless, that film earned Shinkai some controversy as well, for using a natural disaster (a comet strike) as the basis for entertainment. His follow-up invites the same criticism, an outcome the director had considered.

“I thought, ‘Should I make my next film so that I don’t anger more people, or should I make a movie that angers them further?’ And I chose the latter,” he says...

In Texas, there’s a saying that goes, “If you don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes.” All the way over in Tokyo, changing the forecast doesn’t come nearly so easy — and may even require a human sacrifice to set things right — or at least, that’s the premise of “Weathering With You,” an inventive romantic fantasy from director Makoto Shinkai, whose 2016 hit “Your Name” became the first anime made by someone other than Hayao Miyazaki to earn more than 10 billion yen (or $100 million) in Japan. Here, a young couple desperate to stay together find themselves contending with all manner of meteorological freakery, with spectacular, if somewhat difficult to follow, results.

As in the body-swapping sensation that preceded it, “Weathering With You” blends the emotional concerns of 21st-century teens with elaborate supernatural elements, making for a visually dazzling, narratively convoluted adventure that speaks to the younger generation,...

"She really was the sunshine girl!" GKids Films has debuted a final full-length official trailer (with English subtitles) for the Japanese animation film titled Weathering With You, the highly anticipated next film from writer/director Makoto Shinkai, who achieved worldwide acclaimed with the beloved animated film Your Name. This first premiered in North America at Tiff earlier this fall, now opening in Us theaters in January. Weathering with You is another original film from Shinkai, featuring some stunningly gorgeous animation. The Japanese title is actually Tenki no ko, which translates to Child of Weather, as the film is about a young man who moves to Tokyo and befriends a girl who can manipulate the weather (she has the power to stop the rain and clear the sky so the sun can shine). The original Japanese version features the voices of Kotaro Daigo & Nana Mori. It's another lovely, whimsical Japanese film that I do recommend.

After Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. became one of the highest-grossing films in Japan’s history, the director is returning with his follow-up Weathering with You. With voice work from Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori, the story follows a lonely high school student who moves to Tokyo where he encounters dreary days and meets a girl who, due to strange circumstances, can control the weather. Set for a U.S. release early next year, a new teaser has now arrived for Japan’s Oscar entry.

Jared Mobarak said in his review from Tiff 2019, “This theme of stepping up and embracing responsibility for one’s actions permeates the entire film. Hodaka will inevitably have to face his past before figuring out what’s next. Mr. Suga will need to reconcile the pain of loss with the possibility of love. And Natsumi strives to find a place in this world as more than an afterthought.

Teenagers get plenty of flack these days with derogatory labels thrust upon them by older generations refusing to truly look outside their window at how much the world has changed. They’ve a lot to shoulder with the pressure of living up to impossible and antiquated expectations, confusion as to a future and identity they can’t quite decipher yet, and the crippling reality that the world around them is literally crumbling via war, genocide, and climate change. Kids used to run from home as a means of rebellion or cry for help, but now it’s sometimes out of necessity. Survival is staying off the grid so as not to be pushed into a damaging situation dictated by external forces that don’t understand or, worse yet, won’t listen.

What is Amano Hina (Nana Mori) supposed to do after her mother dies? Let child services take her brother...

Japan has chosen “Weathering With You” (Tenki no Ko), by record breaking director Makoto Shinkai as national entry for the Best International Feature Film Category at the 2020 Oscars.

“Weathering With You” – that has just reached the $100 million (10.7 billion yen) mark at the domestic box office – is the first anime, since ‘Princess Mononoke’ by Hayao Miyazaki in 1998, to be designated to represent Japan at the Academy Awards.

The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the theme-song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.

Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).

Synopsis

Hodaka Morishima runs away from his remote island to Tokyo,...

“Weathering With You” (Tenki no Ko) is a fable about friensdhip and climate, written and diected by acclaimed director Makoto Shinkai (“Your Name”. “The Garden of Words”, “Journey to Aghartha”, “5 Centimeters per Second”)

Produced by CoMix Wave (same studio behind “Your Name” and “Flavors of Youth”) the film premiered in Japanese Cinemas on the 19th of July and it’s already a huge hit.

The two protagonists are voiced by Kotaro Daigo (Hodaka) e da Nana Mori (Hina), and the them song “Ai ni Deikiru Koto wa Mada Aru Kai” is composed by popular j-rock band Radwimps that had greatly contributed to the success of “Your Name”.

Other members of the crew include Masayoshi Tanaka (“Your Name”) in charge of the character design, Atsushi Tamura head of animation, and artistic director Hiroshi Takiguchi (“The Garden of Words”, “Ajin”).

Considering the well-known passion and ability for weather rapresentation that director...

"I didn't know there were so many people longing for the blue sky." GKids has just released a brand new, official Us trailer (with English subtitles) for the Japanese animation film titled Weathering With You, the highly anticipated next film from writer/director Makoto Shinkai, who achieved worldwide acclaimed with the beloved animated film Your Name. Weathering with You is another new original film from Shinkai, featuring some stunningly gorgeous animation. The Japanese title is actually Tenki no ko, which translates to Child of Weather, as the film is about a young man who moves to Tokyo and befriends a girl who can manipulate the weather (with the power to stop the rain and clear the sky). The original Japanese version features the voices of Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori. This is officially set to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before getting a theatrical release later. The animation in this is stunning,...

How do you follow a highly acclaimed, high-grossing film such as Your Name (2016) ? The answer by director and writer Shinkai Makoto will be unfurled in Japan very shortly: Weathering With You. In December 2018, we heard more about the film from Variety: "Set in a world where the weather is out of whack, the film tells the story of a boy who runs away from home to Tokyo where he meets a psychically super-powered girl who has the ability to make the skies blue. Newcomers Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori will voice the male and female leads, respectively. "In a statement Shinkai said that he decided on weather as a theme since...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

"This is a story about the world's secrets that only me and her know..." Toho Co. has unveiled an official trailer for the Japanese animation film titled Weathering with You, the highly anticipated next film from writer/director Makoto Shinkai, who achieved worldwide acclaimed with the beloved animated film Your Name. Weathering with You is another new original film from Shinkai, featuring some stunningly gorgeous animation. The Japanese title is actually Tenki no ko, which translates to Child of Weather, as the film is about a young man who moves to Tokyo and befriends a girl who can manipulate the weather (the power to stop the rain and clear the sky). The original Japanese version features the voices of Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori. This is one of those exhilarating trailers where you don't even need subtitles or translation, the animation speaks for itself. And I won't deny that I'm...

Weathering With You Trailer Makoto Shinkai‘s Weathering With You (2019) teaser trailer stars Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori. Weathering With You‘s plot synopsis: the film “follows a high school student named Hodaka “who leaves his island home and moves to Tokyo. He’s immediately broke from the move and lives his life in isolation, but soon finds [...]

Continue reading: Weathering With You (2019) Teaser Trailer: A Visual Feast from Your Name’s director Makoto Shinkai...

Bested only by Spirited Away, Titanic, and Frozen, Makoto Shinkai’s 2006 anime Your Name. is one of the highest-grossing films in Japan’s history and now the director is returning three years later with his follow-up. Titled Weathering with You, the first international trailer has arrived and while no subtitles are available yet, we do get a look at the beautiful visuals.

With voice work from Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori, the story follows a lonely high school student who moves to Tokyo where he encounters dreary days and meets a girl who, due to strange circumstances, can control the weather. Set for a release this July in Japan, hopefully the film makes its way to the states soon after. In related news, Marc Webb was recently set to direct a J.J. Abrams-produced remake of Your Name. written by Eric Heisserer (Arrival).

Check out the trailer and poster below.

Three years after the animation “Your Name” began its long triumphant reign over the Japanese and international box office, its director Makoto Shinkai has announced his next animated feature. Titled “Weathering With You,” the film will arrive in theaters in Japan on July 19 of next year, with Toho distributing.

Set in a world where the weather is out of whack, the film tells the story of a boy who runs away from home to Tokyo where he meets a psychically super-powered girl who has the ability to make the skies blue. Newcomers Kotaro Daigo and Nana Mori will voice the male and female leads, respectively.

In a statement Shinkai said that he decided on weather as a theme since it is something “we ourselves worry about. Even though the sky is so distant.”

Shinkai’s fantasy romance “Your Name” was released in 2016. It earned a global total of $358 million, a record for a Japanese film.