U.K. DVD releases of Osamu Fukutani's THE SUICIDE MANUAL and Yûichi Onuma's THE SUICIDE MANUAL 2: I
Screen Entertainment Ltd. plans to release Osamu Fukutani's The Suicide Manual (Jisatsu manyuaru) and Yûichi Onuma's The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage (Jisatsu manyuaru 2: chûkyû-hen) on DVD in the U.K. in the next few months; it's apparently scheduled to release the former under the title "The Manual" (SDVD-1061) on October 24th, and the latter under the title "The Manual 2: Intermediate Stage" (SDVD-1062) on December 26th.
The Suicide Manual opened at the Shibuya Ciné la Sept in Tokyo on October 6, 2003. The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage was released directly to video in Japan on December 26, 2003. The official Japanese subsites (see bottom of this article) for both movies are still online, and there are downloadable English-subtitled trailers (see bottom of this article) for both movies on the website of Belle Equipe Y.K. (Y.K. Beru Ekippu).
The Suicide Manual and The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage were based on Wataru Tsurumi's non-fiction book The Complete Manual of Suicide (Kanzen jisatsu manyuaru).
The principal cast of The Suicide Manual was as follows: Chisato Morishita (she's in Yôichi Nishiyama's Gurozuka; she was also in Kôsuke Suzuki's Oppai seijin), Kenji Mizuhashi (he's in Aniki (Hajime Ishimine), Katsuhito Ishii, and Shin'ichirô Miki's Naisu no mori: The First Contact; he was in Satoshi Miki's Kame wa igai to hayaku oyogu, Ataru Oikawa's Tomie: Beginning, Nobuhiro Yamashita's Cream Lemon (Kurîmu remon), and Yôichi Nishiyama's Trouble Maker Lucy (Inazuma Rûshî) - one of the three movies in Euro Space's Wara Bancho Series (Wara banchô shirîzu)), Hideo Sakaki (he was also in Hajime Hashimoto's Gokudô no onna-tachi: jôen), Yûko Nakamura (she was also in Tôru Kamei's Double Suicide Elegy (Shinjû erejî) and Satoshi Miki's In the Pool (In za pûru)), Ayaka Maeda (she's in Akio Yoshida's Kaidan Shin Mimibukuro: gekijô-ban: 'yûrei manshon'; she was also in Kôji Shiraishi's Dead Girl Walking (Kaiki! Shinin shôjo) - one of the movies in the Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror (Hino Hideshi no za horâ: kaiki gekijô) hexalogy), Nozomi Andô (she's in Yôichi Nishiyama's Gurozuka and Shiori Kazama's World's End / Girl Friend (Sekai no owari)), and Kei Horie.
The principal cast of The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage was as follows: Nozomi Andô (see above), Masaru Matsuda (he's in Eiji Ôtsuki's Jitsuroku Kantô yakuza kôsô-shi: Matsuda-gumi 2; he was also in (Eiji) Ôtsuki's Jitsuroku Kantô yakuza kôsô-shi: Matsuda-gumi), Yûko Nakamura (see above), Yôichirô Saitô (he was also in Tetsuo Shinohara's Karaoke Terror (Shôwa kayô daizenshû)), Yûrei Yanagi, Yûko Daike, Mika Mifune (she was also in Hiromu Nakamura's Concrete (Konkurîto)), Katsuya Kobayashi (he's in Kentarô Moriya's School Daze (Sukûru deizu) and Yûichi Satô's Pray (Purei); he was also in (Osamu) Fukutani's The Last Supper (Saigo no bansan), Kumiko Akiyoshi's short "Bubu Again", and Hiromu Nakamura's Concrete (Konkurîto)), and Kanji Tsuda (see below).
Kanji Tsuda is in Aniki (Hajime Ishimine), Katsuhito Ishii, and Shin'ichirô Miki's Naisu no mori: The First Contact, Takao Nagaishi's Masked Rider: The First (Kamen Raidâ: The First), and Takashi Miike's The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô). He wrote the screenplay for, directed, and starred in the story "Akuryô" in the omnibus horror movie 'Chô' kowai hanashi the movie: yami no eigasai. He was also in Tadafumi Itô's Diet (Zesshoku) - one of the half-dozen hour-long movies in the Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater (Umezu Kazuo: kyôfu gekijô) series - Noboru Iguchi's 'family drama' Impolite Education (18-kin - abunai kankei: the kinshinsôkan), Mari Asato's The Boy from Hell (Jigoku kozô) - one of the movies in the Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror (Hino Hideshi no za horâ: kaiki gekijô) hexalogy - Shin'ya Nishimura's Love Kill² (Rabu kiru kiru), a.k.a. "Love Kill Kill" - one of the four movies in Euro Space's Eros Bancho Series (Erosu banchô shirîzu) - Mari Asato's Samurai Chicks (Dokuritsu shôjo gurentai), a.k.a. "Samurai Chicks: Girls for Independence" - one of the three movies in Euro Space's Wara Bancho Series (Wara banchô shirîzu) - and Tetsuo Shinohara's Karaoke Terror (Shôwa kayô daizenshû).
The Suicide Manual trailer (downloadable 9.0 MB MOV file)
The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage trailer (downloadable 15.3 MB MOV file)
The Suicide Manual official subsite
The Suicide Manual 2: Intermediate Stage official subsite