Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's FREESIA - BULLET OVER TEARS (FURÎJIA): World première at International Film F

FOR TRAILERS, SEE THE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's Freesia - Bullet Over Tears (Furîjia) - a.k.a. "Freesia - Icy Tears" (English working title) - is scheduled to have its world première at the 36th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) on January 29th at 10:00 p.m., and to subsequently be screened there on January 31st at 12:15 p.m. and February 2nd at 10:30 p.m.. Cine Qua Non Y.K. (Y.K. Shine Ka Non) is scheduled to release it theatrically in Japan on February 3rd.

As was previously reported here and there on ScreenAnarchy, the screenplay for Freesia - Bullet Over Tears (Furîjia) was written by Takashi Ujita, based on the eponymous manga serial Furîjia by Jirô Matsumoto. The movie stars (listed order corresponds to rowwise order on cast page of official website) Tetsuji Tamayama, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tsugumi, Masaki Miura, Tasuku Emoto, Pistol Takehara (Takehara Pisutoru), Shôji Kôkami, Kyûsaku Shimada, Maki Sakai, Hiroshi Ôguchi, and Kei Suma.

Here's a description of Freesia - Bullet Over Tears from the IFFR website: "In the near future, in a violent and chaotic Japan, victims are allowed by law to take revenge with the aid of a special hit man. That's how our traumatised, erratic hero Hiroshi earns his living. But basically he's looking for his lost feeling. Film based on the strange and worrying cult mangas by Matsumoto.

The story goes that during the Edo era, when Japan was still hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world, criminals could be executed by a professional hit man at the request of a victim. Those who were sentenced to death in this way were informed in advance and were allowed to hire their own protection. The hypothesis in the cult manga series Freesia by Matsumoto Jiro, and also in Kumakiri’s latest film Freesia - Bullet over Tears, is that in a repressive, chaotic Japan in the near future, this law will again apply. The protagonist is such an angel of revenge, Hiroshi. He showed his cold-bloodedness on his first commission for the Katsuma Revenge Agency and it will soon turn out to be erratic dispassion. Fifteen years earlier he was traumatised by an experiment with a 'freeze bomb' and stripped of human feelings. His female employer Higuchi was also hit by the same event and she wants to take revenge on Toshio, whose father was the soldier who ordered the gruesome experiment. Kumakiri is one of the young Japanese directors who has affinity for both calm, psychological dramas and equally stylish and bloody genre films. Matsumoto's dystopic vision of the future, which is primarily seen in the unexplained background chaos, is in very good hands with Kumakiri. Another manga considered unfilmable has been filmed."

Kumakiri's previous directing credits include Green Mind, Metal Bats (Seishun ☆ kinzoku batto), The Volatile Woman (Kihatsusei no onna), The Ravaged House: Zoroku's Disease (Tadareta ie: 'Zôroku no kibyô' yori) - one of the movies in the Hideshi Hino's Theater of Horror (Hino Hideshi no za horâ: kaiki gekijô) hexalogy - Antenna (Antena), Hole in the Sky (Sora no ana), and Kichiku: Banquet of the Beasts (Kichiku daienkai).

Freesia - Bullet Over Tears theatrical trailer (downloadable 9.8 MB MOV file)

Freesia - Bullet Over Tears theatrical trailer (downloadable 11.2 MB WMV file)

Freesia - Bullet Over Tears teaser trailer (downloadable 7 MB MOV file)

Freesia - Bullet Over Tears teaser trailer (downloadable 9.4 MB WMV file)

Freesia - Bullet Over Tears official website

IFFR: Freesia - Bullet Over Tears

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Green Mind, Metal Bats theatrical trailer (downloadable 9.3 MB WMV file)

Green Mind, Metal Bats teaser trailer (downloadable 3.7 MB WMV file)

Green Mind, Metal Bats official website

The Ravaged House: Zoroku's Disease trailer (downloadable 0.7 MB WMV file)

The Ravaged House: Zoroku's Disease official webpage

Hole in the Sky official subsite