TOKYO – Top Japanese sales company Pony Canyon has added two major titles to its film slate in time for the Tokyo Film Festival’s TIFFCOM and ahead of next week’s American Film Market. Both are major titles that are set to bow theatrically during Japan’s peak box office season at New Year.
“The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio,” is the follow-up to the 2014 Takashi Miike hit “The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji,” an action comedy about a bumbling cop assigned to infiltrate a yakuza gang. Set to open on Dec. 23 in Japan with Toho distributing, the film again stars Toma Ikuta as the ‘mole,’ this time ordered by his gang boss to face off against the Chinese mafia. Maverick film maker Miike again directs.
The second is “Honnouji Hotel,” an action-fantasy directed by Masayuki Suzuki from an original script by Tomoko Aizawa. The titular hotel connects to a time tunnel leading to a Japan of 400 years ago, when powerful war lords were contending for mastery of the country.
Haruka Ayase (“Our Little Sister”) stars as a woman who makes the journey from the present to past. Produced by Fuji TV, Toho and talent agency Horipro, the film will open in Japan on Jan. 14, 2017, with Toho releasing on nearly 350 screens.
