DETROIT METAL CITY Director Toshio Lee Steps In The Ring To BOX!

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the serious tone of Toshio Lee's Box! You see, despite the very silly nature of his previous feature Detroit Metal City and his history with 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano's television comedy efforts, the feature that really elevated DMC above a horde of silly Japanese comedy peers was Lee's ability to get the characters just right. People that should have been outrageous caricatures throughout the film somehow weren't. So clearly Lee has got a little something going on when it comes to understanding his young protagonists and that something is all over the upcoming teen athletic drama Box!

Yes, the exclamation mark is part of the title.

Hayato Ichihara and Kengo Kora star as high school friends and rivals who take up boxing and, apparently, the young stars trained hard for months ahead of time so that they could perform all the boxing sequences themselves.

The first teaser arrived last month and has now been followed by a full trailer. Both are solid. Lee is quickly establishing himself as one of the better directors in Japan, I think, one who fuses openly commercial sensibilities with a surprising attention to detail and character. This is looking very good to me ...