Nakamura's MAGNIFICENT 9 Trailer Is Pretty Magnificent

Of the current crop of high end international directors today few have handled the transition from quirky indie fave to massive commercial success while retaining the quirk that drew everyone's attention in the first place better than Nakamura Yoshihiro. Rising initially as a high end writer - best known internationally as the writer of Nakata's Dark Water - Nakamura really hit internationally as a festival fave director with 2007 effort The Foreign Duck The Native Duck And God In A Coin Locker before really popping off 2009's Fish Story and right from the beginiing he has shown a definite preferance for flipping between big budget work and quirkier low budget fare with upcoming samurai comedy The Magnifient 9 appearing to strike a deft balance between the two.

Abe Sadao - possibly my favorite hangdog face in the industry - takes the lead of a stellar cast that also includes Matsuda Ryuhei and Eita in the tale in the story of a town banding together to pull a financial scam against local rulers and save their town from a crushing financial burden of exorbitant taxes and forced labor.

Production values look stellar here and the tone feels very much in keeping with the work of Mitani Koki who, in turn, has always modeled his works on the manners comedies of Golden Era Hollywood. This looks to be quality stuff from a director at the top of his game, take a look below.