Fist of the North Star manga artist to revisit samurai friend of Maeda Keiji

This year’s 46th issue of Shinchosha’s Weekly Comic Bunch magazine has announced on Friday that Fist of the North Star artist Tetsuo Hara is launching a spinoff to his Hana no Keiji -Kumo no Kanata ni- manga about the historical samurai figure Maeda Keiji. The new Gifū Dōdō Naoe Kanetsugu -Maeda Keiji Tsuki-Gatari- series will begin in the magazine on November 7. According to Hara’s comments in the current Weekly Comic Bunch issue, he feels that he didn’t delve far enough into the life of Maeda’s close friend, the samurai Naoe Kanetsugu, when he drew Keiji from 1990 to 1993. A four-installment Keiji short story that focuses on Maeda and Naoe’s first meeting is already running in the magazine.

Hara and his writer Mio Aso loosely based their samurai stories on a novel written by Keiichiro Ryu. The defunct North American manga publisher Gutsoon! Entertainment published portions of the original Keiji manga in its Monthly Raijin Comics magazine.

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Well I finally got round to watching the third installment of the 4 Horror Tales stories, and in actual fact, I think this is the best one so far.  It was kind of like Ju-On in its style, but the story was told in a very unique way to this type of horror film. 

The basics of this story are (spoiler free) ,  Min-young moves onto the fifth floor of a new studio apartment with her six-year-old daughter, Joo-hee. She’s concerned when her downstairs neighbour, HAN Chang-soo, says that he cannot tolerate the noise above him, even though the two women live tranquilly. Furthermore, she is anxious about other residents’ strange behaviors and their mysterious deaths.

Min-young hardens herself mentally after the move into the new house, largely because of her daughter’s unprecedented odd behavior and continual run-ins with a bizarre woman. Convinced that Joo-hee has fallen sick and perturbed by the mysterious events around the studio apartment, Min-young looks to disclose the truth by herself.

The little girl in this film is a brilliant actress, being able to switch instantaneously from a cute and well behaved child, into a demonically possessed monster, making the film that much more convincing to the viewer.  There is also a twist to the story right at the end, which I did actually suspect, but it wasnt exactly made to be obvious.

This movie was actually really good, its not exactly scary, but it shows human nature to be what it truly is…every man for themselves.

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Black House is based on the Japanese writer Kishi Yusuke’s award-winning hit Psychological horror novel.The story centers around an insurance agent that suspects a family murdered their son to receive his insurance policy.

The story begins when the main character is sent to a difficult clients house, after apparently being asked for by name.  When he gets there, he is invited to sit

down in the lounge.  The father then calls his son, calling him rude for not showing his presence.  When the son does not appear, the father tells the insurance agent to go and get his son, something which the agent finds extremely weird. 

When he enters into the boys room, he finds him hanging there.  At this the father stands up and walks over to the room.  What is that we see in his expression?  Shock at the events that have occurred under his roof?  Or guilt at the death of his son?

This film was REALLY good, in fact, so good, I didn’t even expect the ending, I was too drawn into the stories that occur throughout.  The movie shows the story of the insurance agents attempt to prove the guilt of the father, as well as the breakdown of his relationship as he becomes too engrossed in his work.  If you want to watch a movie that is not your typical horror, then this is the one for you.  It’s not so much a horror, as a psychological thriller, and a brilliant one at that.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching the Korean movie ‘A Tale of Two Sisters‘ by the infamous Kim Jee-Woon.

Now I will be brutally honest, my first reaction to this film was not a positive one, in fact, I deemed it boring, however, I decided that since I had already spent 40 minutes watching it, I may as well finish it.  And I am so glad that I did.

The film centres around two sisters, Su-Yeung and Su-Mi, recently released from a psychiactric ward, and their vicious step mother who is known to torture Su-Yeung by locking her in a wardrobe.  But I shall say no more than that, just in case I provide you with a spoiler.

The reason I loved this movie so much is simply because once you know what is actually going on, you appreciate the beginning of the film, so that I no longer view the first 40 minutes as boring and drab, but as the piece of art that it actually is.  I was so suprised by this film, but after watching the whole thing, I can say no other than it is brilliant.

However, the plot for this film can be very confusing if you are not used to watching this sort of film, however, there is a thread on IMDB.com that has all the information about the plot, so if you watch it and feel a little confused afterwards, I would advise you to have a gander here.

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