The Director Of SWING GIRLS And WATER BOYS Returns With ROBO-G

Writer-director Shinobu Yaguchi occupies a fairly unique space in Japan's film industry. On one hand he reads like a classic indie film director, one who creates clever character based stories with a cinematic eye but minimal frills. He's an observer, and a damn good one. But on the other hand Yaguchi also makes money. And lots of it. Though he is left a large degree of control Yaguchi's films are made with major studio backing and have been enormous commercial hits at home while titles like Swing Girls and Water Boys have won him a loyal overseas cult.

Yaguchi's latest, Robo-G, hit's Japanese screens in January and it represents a bit of a departure for the director, at least on one obvious level. Special effects, and lots of them, are required to tell this story of a humanoid robot. But this being a Yaguchi film the robot stuff isn't going to go as you might expect ... Tokyograph describes the story like this:

The story revolves around a team of three at a small electronics maker, who receive an order from the company president to develop a robot for the purpose of getting the company more exposure. However, one week before their planned announcement at a robotics expo, their robot gets destroyed, so in order to save face they decide to take the stage with an old man in a robot suit. Unexpectedly, their "robot" receives huge acclaim and fame.

Yuriko Yoshitaka, Mickey Curtis, Takehiko Ono, Gaku Hamada and Tomoko Tabata star. Check the teaser below!