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Well Go USA has acquired Mamoru Oshii's 2009 live-action sci-fi film Assault Girls and will be releasing it on DVD in North America on October 19, 2010.

The film was released in Japan back in December as the feature-length follow-up to Oshii's previous short films “Assault Girl: Kentucky no Hinako” and “Assault Girl 2”, both of which were part of omnibus action movies (2007’s “Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden” and 2008’s “Kiru ~ Kill”, respectively).

Plot: In the aftermath of global thermonuclear war, the Earth's surface has been turned into a desert battlefield. Three beautiful female hunters: Gray (Meisa Kuroki), Lucifer (Rinko Kikuchi), and Colonel (Hinako Saeki) traverse the barren landscape armed with powerful assault rifles to fight a group of deadly sand-dwelling monsters called "sunakujira" (sand whales). When the the epic battle eventually seems to be coming to an end, the sparkle of muzzle flash dies down and assault ship flies overhead. Suddenly, a...

Fans of heavily armed and armored girls rejoice! Geneon Entertainment Japan has announced to release Assault Girls, Mamoru Oshii’s quasi-sequel to Avalon on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 23, 2010 in standard and special collector’s editions. The latter will include a bonus disc with a bunch of promotion material, the ‘prequels’ to Assault Girls, Assault Girl (Oshii’s segment for True Female Tachigui: The Amazing Lives of the Fast Food Grifters, click here to watch) and Assault Girl 2 (taken from the Kiru ~ Kill omnibus), a 92-page storyboard script written by Oshii and an enhanced booklet (16 pages instead of just four).

None of these editions will include English subtitles, but according to some theatrical reviews the films dialogues are all in Eng(l/r)ish anyway. Hopefully our sweet girls had access to better vocal coaches than those cowboys in Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django…

[via @wildgrounds]...

Our good friends at Hk Mania discovered a first trailer for Mamoru Oshii’s Assault Girls on the just released Japanese DVD of Kiru ~ Kill. While they didn’t upload the trailer itself (yet?), they were kind enough to post a bunch of screencaps from the video. I just love girls in tight armour…

Visit the Hk Mania forum for all screencaps.

Oshii's first live action film after the excellent Avalon, this is the third film with the "assault girl" theme. The first, titled "Assault Girl: Kentucky no Hinako," was a segment in Oshii's 2007 omnibus movie "Shin Onna Tachiguishi Retsuden" and starred Saeki. The second, "Assault GIRL2," was part of last year's "Kiru ~ Kill" omnibus and starred Kikuchi. [via TokyoGraph] Opening December 19th, the production staff promises to combine high-quality visuals, visual effects, and battle sequences. We only have one still which you can see on the right, and it sounds utterly incredible:

The science-fiction story is set on a desert battlefield after giant monsters named "Suna Kujira" (literally, sand whales) devastated the land. Three beautiful female hunters — all of whom wield assault rifles and other powerful weapons — engage in battle with the monsters, including the biggest of them all, the Madara Suna Kujira (spotted sand whale).

Sounds awesome! More as it comes.. via...

Ann has posted some new/first details for Mamoru Oshii’s upcoming live-action film Assault Girls. According to Hollywood Channel and Cinema Today, the long version of Oshii’s Assault Girl 2 short from the Kiru ~ Kill omnibus will open in Japan on December 19th. The film is set on a desert planet that has been devastated by giant monsters called Suna Kujira (sand whales). For reasons yet unknown, three female hunters played by Meisa Kuroki, Rinko Kikuchi and Hinako Saeki visit the planet to hunt down the most dangerous sand whale there is, the Madara Suna Kujira (spotted sand whale) using assault rifles and other weapons.

Even though the films is getting released pretty soon, only one photo that makes one of the Assault Girls (Meisa Kuroki) look like an amazing mix of Casshern and Oshii’s Avalon has been released so far.

Geneon Japan will release the Kiru ~ Kill omnibus of sword-fighting climaxes featuring episodes from Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii, Takanori Tsujimoto, Kenta Fukasaku and Makoto Tahara on July 24, 2009.

As expected from Geneon, the 82 minutes long anthology will be released as a Standard DVD and Special Collector’s Edition DVD set. The latter comes with two bonus DVDs full of interviews, trailers, extra footage, making-of documentaries, a replica of a theatrical pamphlet and a “deluxe” guide booklet. The only thing missing are, just as expected, English subtitles…

For those of you who have already forgotten about the project, here’s the latest (and first) trailer for Kiru ~ Kill:

[See post to watch Flash video] [via @wildgrounds]

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