Disney’s classic 1937 movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs  is a popular story in Japan.   There is of course a Japanese dubbed version with the songs also in Japanese.  Read more...

One way for Japanese folks learning English to practice telling stories.  In this case, Japanese lady Mika retells Hollywood movies Spiderman, Inception and Titanic.

Though English is not her native language, she explains the movies Spiderman, Inception and Titanic in simple English (and within 2 minutes!)

Spiderman in 2 minutes

Titanic in 2 minutes

Inception in 2 minutes

Astro boy (also called Atom アトム in Japan)  is the 2009 animated movie loosely based on the long running Japanese manga and anime  series 鉄腕アトム of the same name by Osamu Tezuka 手塚 治虫 .

The 2009 Hollywood film featured the voices of Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas, Bill Nighy, Donald Sutherland, Moises Arias, Charlize Theron and Nicolas Cage.

Japanese Astro boy trailer

Japanese TV coverage of the film

The Princess and the Frog is a 2009 Disney animated film inspired in part by E. D. Baker’s novel The Frog Princess, which was in turn inspired by the Grimm brothers’ fairy tale “The Frog Prince”.

The hand drawn animated feature has Disney’s first black princess and received three Academy Award nominations at the 82nd Academy Awards: one for Best Animated Feature and two for Best Original Song.

Here is the Japanese trailer for the film.

Princess and the frog Japanese trailer

Bullitt ブリット is the classic 1968 American thriller film starring Steve McQueen スティーブマックィーン, Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn and directed by Peter Yates.  The movie was adapted from novel titled Mute Witness (1963) by Robert L. Fish (aka Robert L. Pike).

Bullitt ブリット is probably best remembered for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, regarded as one of the most influential car chase sequences in movie history. Above are some rare Japanese posters for the film (compared to the American poster below).

Bullitt Movie trailer

Seems Japanese folks really like the song A whole New World 新しい世界 (Atarashii Sekai) from the 1992 Disney movie Alladin.  The song was translated and is a favorite on TV and karaoke.

The movie version was sung by Shinichiro Miki 三木 眞一郎 and Kaori Asoh 麻生 かほ里. Jpop diva  Kumi Koda and Peabo Bryson included a cover for Koda’s 2006 album Best: Second Session.

From the movie Alladin – A Whole new world in Japanese

Hong Kong movie star Jackie Chan has long had a big following in Japan.  All his movies have been dubbed or subtitled and he always draws a crowd when he visits Japan.  Here are some movie trailers and promos in Japanese (including classics like Police Story, Project A, City Hunter etc.)  Read more...

If you liked the animated movie Cars カーズ from Pixar, you will also like Cars 2 カーズ2.  Here are the Japanese trailers and promo videos with a tie in with popular Jpop group Perfume which had their song Polyrhythm inserted into the movies soundtrack.

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Don’t mess with Japanese ninja kids!  Actually these photos were taken from the 2011 Hollywood live action movie based on the 1993 NHK produced anime Nintama Rantarou / Ninja Boy Rantarou / Rantarō the Ninja Boy 忍たま乱太郎 based on Sōbē Amako’s manga Rakudai Ninja Rantarō. The story revolves around the adventures of Rantarō and his friends and teachers at Ninja school.

The Takashi Miike film was released in Japan in July and stars  Seishiro Kato as Nintama, Roi Hayashi as Kirimaru, Fuuta Kimura as Shinbe, Shido Nakamura as Dad, Rei Dan as Mom, Susumu Terajima as Yamada-sensei, Takahiro Miura as Doi-sensei, Hiroki Matsukata as Happosai and
Mikijiro Hira as Ookawa.  Read more...

Kunoichi Ninpocho “Female Ninjas: The Magic Chronicles”  くノ一忍法帖,  is a series of low budget WTF B exploitation lady ninja films created in the early 1990s.   Adapted from the books of Futaro Yamada 山田 風太郎, the first movie くノ一忍法帖  is bizarre yet intriguing story of a princess and her four female ninja who have sworn to protect the unborn heir to their tribe.

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