Mamoru Hosoda s Belle Releases First International Trailer
Studio Chizu has debuted the first international trailer for Mamoru Hosoda s newest film,
Belle! Hosoda has made a major name for himself among anime fans for feature film projects such as
Wolfwalkers, Song of the Sea) and legendary Disney animator Jin Kim.
Belle, will be officially making its debut in Japan later this Summer on July 16th, but has yet to confirm any international release plans as of this writing. Greasing the wheels in this matter is the first international trailer for the new film featuring English subtitles and the newest addition to the cast, Kaho Nakamura, as the voice of the titular Belle. Check out the trailer below:
Now showing
Once again, he is working from an original script, this time co-written with Hiroyuki Ohashi, and the story centers on a shaggy-haired slacker living in Shimokitazawa, a Brooklyn-esque neighborhood of artsy shops, clubs and theaters in Tokyo. Named Aoi Arakawa (Ryuya Wakaba), he works at a used clothing store and spends much of his downtime at a hole-in-the-wall bar.
The episodic story mostly concerns Aoi’s serial failures, starting with an aborted career as a singer-songwriter seen, thankfully, only in flashback. In the pandemic-less present, his girlfriend (Moeka Hoshi) abruptly dumps him, saying she has found another guy. Then a no-nonsense student director (Minori Hagiwara) casts him in her graduation film, but he blows his one scene which requires him to sit and read a book and ends up on the cutting room floor.
Over the Town : Offbeat locals give slacker s life color japantimes.co.jp - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from japantimes.co.jp Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Now showing
Go Ayano is at his most grizzled playing Susumu Nakoshi, who we first find living out of a car parked on the border between Tokyo’s highrises and a park populated by homeless people. He’s not sure how he got there, but his disheveled suit and still-valid American Express card suggest he fell from a great height.
All the same, Susumu submits a little too easily to become a guinea pig for Manabu Ito (Ryo Narita), a wild-eyed medical student with the fashion sense of a feral K-pop star.
After going under the drill, Susumu finds he is able to see other people’s “homunculi”: visual manifestations of their buried traumas, which look more like the supernatural creatures of Japanese folklore. The first time he discovers this ability, it’s like something out of Hayao Miyazaki’s animated 2001 hit “Spirited Away,” but the film never recovers that initial sense of wonder.