Gangsta Love

So what. I'm a sucker for gangster/mob films.

Crows Zero is a live-action adaptation of the popular manga by Takahashi Hiroshi, which is actually a prequel of his earlier work Crows. Marketed in Japan as Kurozu Zero, it's a story about gangs in delinquent-rich Suzuran High School where a transfer student, Takitani tries to take over the school over rival Serizawa while mentored by a Yakuza old boy Katagiri. Evil,  scheming teenage megalomaniacs trying to kill each other; gangster brotherhood; icky, sweaty and bloody bad boys - love it. And finally, a role that fits Mr. Oguri! (Away with the shoujo manga characters! Away with the pretty boy haircut! Haha.)
The film is directed by Takashi Miike who also did One Missed Call and Dead or Alive; and stars Daito Shunsuke, Oguri Shun, Yabe Kyosuke, and Yamada Takayuki (…to my surprise. Diba matinée idol ito? Lol.)

I can't wait to get my hands on this.

Reminds me of Battle Royale, hmmm.

The trailer isn't much, so anyone interested can search in YouTube by themselves. The one above is just a screenshot of their official website, which was kinda cool except for the annoying loading time.

Across the Universe

All you need is love. *grin*


I stumbled upon this new movie by Julie Taymor, Across the Universe.

Summary: A dock worker Jude (Jim Sturgess) travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). When her brother Max (Joe Anderson) is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism.

I'm fond of musicals but what intrigued me most is that the movie is actually a Beatles songbook squeezed in two hours of film. Remakes of their songs, that is. Even before I read the movie info the fact that it was Beatle-inspired was a little too obvious... hello, the main characters are named Jude and Lucy. Lol. Well, watching the trailer I felt thrown back into the '60s again. I have yet to see the whole thing though.

-edit-

I got the soundtrack, finally. :)