Distribution rights for Shion Sono's Hazard - a.k.a. "Hazâdo" - are now being offered for sale by Eleven Arts Inc.. The movie was screened at the 18th Sapporo Film Festival (Dai-18-kai Sapporo Eigasai) in Hokkaido, Japan on November 5th of last year.
The screenplay for Hazard was written by Sono. The movie stars Joe Odagiri (Odagiri Jô) as Shin, Jai West (Jei Wesuto) as Lee, Motoki Fukami as Takeda, and Hiroyuki Ikeuchi as Won. The rest of its cast apparently includes Rin Kurana, Saya (a.k.a. Saya Hagiwara and Sayako Hagiwara), Kenjirô Ishimaru, and Rachel Germaine.
Here's a synopsis for Hazard from Eleven Arts' website: "Shin was a university student, living a meaningless life. One day, Shin goes inside a university library where he spots a book titled 'Dangerous Ways to Walk the World'. Inside, he finds a page written about hazards in NY. Shin takes the book and runs away with it in his hands. He was eager to get out of the boring country of Japan as soon as possible. ¶ Arriving in NY, Shin buys a T-shirt on the street that has the word 'HAZARD' printed on it, purposely seeking danger. When he is about to shoplift, he gets caught by Lee and Takeda, who find Shin interesting and offer him a place to stay. Lee used to be a well-known gangster in NY in the 90's. Takeda is the kind of guy who would use his gun with no reason, but is also single-minded towards the girl he loves. With Lee and Takeda, Shin's days in NY are now full of excitement and danger. When they need a ride, they threaten people and take their cars. When they are hungry, they rob the deli for food. Shin throws an imaginary coin to Lee, promising to make this coin into 100 million dollars and take over the world. ¶ One day, Mike - who's been on bad terms with Lee for a long time - brings several policemen, and Lee and Takeda start getting beaten up by the police. When they attempt to escape, Takeda gets shot and Lee is placed under arrest. ¶ As Shin is back in Japan, he has immense ambitions reminiscent of his goal - making the imaginary coin into 100 million dollars. With this in mind, he exits the ticket gate of Shibuya station."
Sono's other directing credits include the story "Otona ni nattara" in the omnibus movie No-Pants Girls - Movie Box-ing2 (Nô-pantsu gâruzu - Movie Box-ing2), Strange Circus (Kimyô na sâkasu), Noriko's Dinner Table (Noriko no shokutaku), Into a Dream (Yume no naka e), and Suicide Circle (Jisatsu sâkuru) - a.k.a. "Suicide Club".
Hazard official website
Eleven Arts: Hazard
No-Pants Girls - Movie Box-ing2 trailer (downloadable 7.9 MB WMV file)
No-Pants Girls - Movie Box-ing2 official subsite
Strange Circus trailer (downloadable 14.4 MB WMV file)
Strange Circus 1 MB trailer (streaming Windows Media)
Strange Circus 300 KB trailer (streaming Windows Media)
Strange Circus official website
Noriko's Dinner Table trailer (English subtitled; downloadable 4.4 MB MOV file)
Eleven Arts: Noriko's Dinner Table
Into a Dream trailer (streaming Windows Media)
Into a Dream trailer (downloadable 5.4 MB ASF file)
Into a Dream official subsite
GOMORRAHY.com: Trailer Park subsite