Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Tadanobu Asano and Sakichi Satô reunite for "Kimagure Robot"

by Chris MaGee

Okay, to be precise Tadanobu Asano isn't reuniting with writer/ director Sakichi Satô. The two who worked together on Satô's 2005 comedy "Tokyo Zombie" reunited in 2007 with Satô penning the scripts and Asano starring in eight 5-minute short films based on micro-stories (only 3-4 pages long) by Japanese science fiction author Shinichi Hoshi. The combined films went under the title "Kimagure Robot" and were available exclusively as downloads for DoCoMo cell phone customers, but the good news is that now all eight films have been combined into a DVD/ CD package (above right) being released by Warner Music Japan on February 25th. Sadly the DVD component is Region 2 Japanese, but still.

"Kimagure Robot" was directed by video artist Koichi Tsujikawa, a frequent collaborator producer and multi-instrumentalist Cornelius (a.k.a. Keigo Oyamada) who also provides the soundtrack for the project. The eight films tell the story of Asano's character, a novelist named Mr. N, who purchases a robot from The Robot Research Institute to help him around the house after his mother passes away. When the robot starts malfunctioning and tearing things up Asano complains to the Institute who send out a representative, played by Karina (Shaberedomo shaberedomo), to investigate.

You can preorder "Kimagure Robot" through either Amazon Japan or through CD Japan, but while you're waiting for the 25th to roll around you can get a feel for the project by checking out the making of featurette below and watching some of Koichi Tsujikawa's and Cornelius' other collaborations over at Pink Tentacle. Once that's all done head to the official website for "Kimagure Robot" here for a poke around.


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