That the J-horror movement is not faring so well lately is pretty much a given but based purely on the director's pedigree Otoshimono may be one to look out for. Why? Takeshi Furusawa is a classmate of Takeshi Shimizu of Ju-On and Marebito fame and has put in time as an AD and writer for Kiyoshi Kurosawa, co-scripting Kurosawa's Doppelganger. So he knows his stuff. His debut film, Otoshimono, is due in the summer and our thanks to Don Brown who found and translated this article about it for us:
"19-year-old actress Erika Sawajiri, who rose to fame in last year's critical and box-office success "Pacchigi!" (We Will Overcome Someday), is to star in studio Shochiku's new horror film "Otoshimono."
Story:
One day, the younger sister of high school student Nana (Sawajiri) mysteriously disappears after picking up a discarded train pass at a station. Meanwhile, Nana's classmate Kanae (idol Chinatsu Wakatsuki) becomes stalked by an unknown presence after she finds a bracelet inside a train compartment. As Nana and a former train driver (Shun Oguri, from "Azumi" and "The Neighbour Number Thirteen") delve deeper into the mystery surrounding this 'lost property,' they learn of a woman who died in an accident on the same train line...
The director, Ken Furusawa, is a former classmate of "Juon" director Takashi Shimizu at The Film School of Tokyo, and also worked under Kiyoshi Kurosawa as a director's assistant on "Pulse" (Kairo) and "Barren Illusion" (Oinaru Genei). Furusawa also co-wrote the screenplay for Kurosawa's last film "Doppleganger."
"Otoshimono" opens across Japan this September, and is also scheduled for release in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia."