Pony Canyon Inc. (K.K. Ponî Kyanion) and Tornado Film K.K. (K.K. Torunêdo Firumu) are scheduled to release Wataru Hayakawa's The Wall Man (Kabe-otoko) on sale DVD (PCBG-51138; NTSC, region 2, English subtitles) in Japan on March 19th; the DVD is available for pre-order from CD Japan (Neo Wing K.K. / K.K. Neo Wingu) and Amazon Japan K.K.. The movie had its world première at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival (Dai-19-kai Tôkyô Kokusai Eigasai) on October 22, 2006. Tornado Film released it theatrically in Japan on September 15th of last year. Pony Canyon is the international sales agent for it.

The screenplay for The Wall Man (Kabe-otoko) was written by Hayakawa, based on the eponymous short manga "Kabe-otoko" by Daijirô Morohoshi. (Takashi Komatsu's Inferno (Kidan) was based on Morohoshi's short manga "Seimei no ki", and Shin'ya Tsukamoto's Hiruko the Goblin (Yôkai hantâ: Hiruko) was based on Morohoshi's manga Kairyû-sai no yoru - yôkai hantâ.) The movie stars Masato Sakai, Mayumi Ono, Hironori Yamazaki, Kanako Watanabe, Sôshi Miyajima, Maiko Nishimura, and Hineki Mito.

Here's a synopsis for The Wall Man from Pony Canyon's website: "The 'wall man' ['kabe-otoko'] is a strange wall-dwelling creature that is neither human nor ghost. He observes the ways of mankind from his unique position, and television plays an important role in [his] existence. When Nishina tells his TV reporter girlfriend Kyoko what he has heard about this creature, she introduces the story on her show, setting off a bizarre chain of events..."

The Wall Man trailer (QuickTime)
The Wall Man official website
Pony Canyon: The Wall Man
CD Japan: The Wall Man Japanese sale DVD
Amazon Japan: The Wall Man Japanese sale DVD
* * *
Inferno trailer (Windows Media Video)
Inferno artwork (JPEG)