JAPANESE TIDBITS

Apparently NINE SOULS director, Toshiaki Toyoda, is out of the doghouse. Back in August he was busted for possession and his just-completed film, THE HANGING GARDEN, was put on ice by the distributor. Now, the movie has shown up in the AFM catalogue, so it looks like Pony Canyon is ready to start shopping it around. The film is a family drama starring Kyoko Koizumi and Anne Suzuki (A TASTE OF TEA).

Also, Panik House is bringing out a DVD of SCREWED, a freaky-looking movie by Teruo Ishii (the recently-deceased cult director of HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN) according to Stauffen.de.vu. Go to that link for a really aggravating trailer of this 1998 film featuring an extremely young-looking and dewy-eyed Tadanobu Asano. And click on the poster to see a larger version.