Black Butler (Review)

Black Butler

aka 黒執事 aka Kuroshitsuji
Black Butler 黒執事
2014
Written by Tsutomu Kuroiwa
Based on the manga created by Yana Toboso
Directed by Kentaro Otani and Keiichi Sato

Black Butler 黒執事
Demon butlers, terrorist conspiracies, gender-hiding revenge plots, English-Japanese hybrid toy baron nobles, and an alternate world with only two spheres of influence is the setting for a murder mystery that soon balloons into a wild tale that could only be a live-action manga tale. And, yes, it is. Kuroshitsuji (黒執事) – aka Black Butler – features a demonic butler named Sebastian who aides his master in her revenge quest in return for the permission to devour her soul once it’s completed. Despite the overly-complicated world building, the resulting film is entertaining and fun, delivering a cool story without biting off too much and feeling like everything is rushed.

Black Butler takes a train into gender confusion land. We first run across Ayame Gouriki held captive by human traffickers. After the action sequence is finished, she rips off her wig to reveal shorter hair beneath. It’s not until a scene or two later (like 20 minutes into the film) that I figure out she’s pretending to be a man named Earl Kiyoharu Genpo. Which means in her first appearance, she’s a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a girl. Like Connie Chan or Polly Shang Kuan, there is a zero percent chance that anyone would think that Ayame Gouriki was a male, which makes the scenes even more confusing.
Black Butler 黒執事
Shiori is under disguise because her whole family was wiped out by a traitor. She survived only by promising her soul to the demon Sebastian, who posed as her guardian servant, and Shiori posed as the illegitimate son of her father, named Kiyoharu Genpo. Why the illegitimate son has the same last name as the dad is best unanswered. She keeps up the ruse while trying to track down who hire the hitmen who slaughtered her family, and while running her family’s very successful toy company. Sadly, the toy company doesn’t factor into the plot as much as it should.
Black Butler 黒執事

Black Butler Sebastian (Hiro Mizushima) – Mysterious demon butler servant of Earl Kiyoharu Genpo that no one has noticed hasn’t aged at all in 12 years. Because no one looks at the servants, naturally!
Earl Kiyoharu Genpo / Shiori (Ayame Gouriki) – Earl Kiyoharu Genpo is the eye-patch wearing bastard heir to the Genpo fortune and the head of the East’s most successful toy company, Funtom Company. He’s also really the lone surviving Genpo daughter, Shiori, who faked her death and is now faking her gender after selling her soul to Sebastian in order to get revenge. Is also an agent known as The Queen’s Watchdog
Maid Rin (Mizuki Yamamoto) – Rin is the clumsy maid that serves the Genpo family like her family has for generations. Which is sort of sad because that’s like slavery or something. Also, despite the fact she’s a gigantic klutz, she’s also a secret super double gun wielding crack shot killer that mows downs all sorts of goons to protect her master.
Hanae Wakatsuki (Yuka) – Earl Kyoharu Genpo’s Aunt (though really the sister of Shiori’s mom, which would make her unrelated to Kiyoharu Genpo even though she’s related to Shiori) and helped raise the Earl and run the toy company while he was still a child.

Black Butler 黒執事
Continue reading

Jossy’s (Joshi Zu – 女子ーズ ) trailer


[adrotate banner=”1″]The female tokusatsu comedy film Joshi Zu (女子ーズ) now has an English name (Jossy’s, though I have no idea why it is possessive!) and a trailer, which shows off how hard it is to have a fighting team with five completely different personalities with five completely different lives. It looks funny, but I’m just annoyed at the name.

Plot:

To battle a malicious monster, five women are gathered in front of Commander Charles against their will. The five women are selected because they each have a family name that represents a color. The five women are filled with doubts about what they are able to do collectively, but they go up against the monster using their lethal technique “Women Tornado”. The five women can only use the “Women Tornado” when they are all gathered together.

Mirei Kiritani(Ace Attorney) plays the red Naoko Akagi, Mina Fujii(Gehara: The Dark and Long Hair Monster and Monsterz – the Japanese remake of the Korean film Haunters) the blue Mika Aota, Mitsuki Takahata the yellow Yuri Kikawada, Kasumi Arimura the green Kano Midoriyama, and Mizuki Yamamoto(Black Butler) the blue Sumire Konno. Their boss Commander Charles is played by Jiro Sato. Joshi Zu is written and directed by Yuichi Fukuda, who directed Kid’s Police.

via Asian Wiki

Joshi Zu (女子ーズ) brings the female Super Sentai!

Joshi Zu
[adrotate banner=”1″]Another Super Sentai (Power Rangers for us Americans!) spoof is in the works, this time featuring an all female team that fights evil suing a “Woman Tornado”! Of course, there are monsters and goons and color-coded costumes, because that’s what is expected! Joshi Zu (女子ーズ) features a team of five women who are forced to work together against their will to battle monsters and other dangers associated with the tokusatsu genre.

Plot:

To battle a malicious monster, five women are gathered in front of Commander Charles against their will. The five women are selected because they each have a family name that represents a color. The five women are filled with doubts about what they are able to do collectively, but they go up against the monster using their lethal technique “Women Tornado”. The five women can only use the “Women Tornado” when they are all gathered together.

Mirei Kiritani(Ace Attorney) plays the red Naoko Akagi, Mina Fujii(Gehara: The Dark and Long Hair Monster and Monsterz – the Japanese remake of the Korean film Haunters) the blue Mika Aota, Mitsuki Takahata the yellow Yuri Kikawada, Kasumi Arimura the green Kano Midoriyama, and Mizuki Yamamoto(Black Butler) the blue Sumire Konno. Their boss Commander Charles is played by Jiro Sato.

Aside from some promo shots from filming and a poster release, there is no monster details for Joshi Zu.

Writer/Director Yuichi Fukuda previous worked on the super hero spoof HK: Forbidden Super Hero/HK Hentai Kamen, which features a guy running around with panties on his head. He also directed Kid’s Police, the crime film starring entirely children that is not Hawk Jones.

Joshi Zu hits theaters June 7, 2014

via AsianWiki

Joshi Zu poster

Joshi Zu Mirei Kiritani