ADV will release the thriller SYNESTHESIA and the horror film GHOST TRAIN in 2007. SYNESTHESIA international publicity flyer courtesy of Shochiku Co., Ltd. © 2004 Art Port/Shochiku/Euro Space/Kansai Telecasting Corp. GHOST TRAIN AFM screening advertisement © 2006 Ghost Train Film Partners

Source: ADV Films Special Thanks to Shochiku Co., Ltd. ADV Films of Houston, TX and Shochiku Co., Ltd. of Tokyo have announced an agreement for several recent properties from the Japanese studio. Under terms of the deal, ADV has North American theatrical, video and TV rights to the feature films GHOST TRAIN and SYNESTHESIA, as well as North American, British, and Australian video, TV and Video On Demand rights to the hit animated series LE CHEVALIER D’EON. These titles are planned for release before the summer of 2007. Founded in 1895, Shochiku is involved in movie and television production, theatrical distribution of Japanese and foreign motion pictures, worldwide sales, exhibition, DVD and home video distribution, and the Kabuki Theater. The company has produced a number of critically and financially successful films, including Yoji Yamada’s THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI (Tasogare Seibei, 2003), the 2004 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film. In a press release for the ADV deal, Masaki Koga of Shochiku’s International Business Division commented, “We are very proud of the titles and hope that their success in the US and other territories mirrors their success in Japan. ADV Films is one of the premier specialty distributors in North America and the ideal distributor for these properties. We hope to establish a long standing distribution partnership that begins with this initial deal.” SYNESTHESIA (Gimme Heaven, 2005) is a suspense thriller directed by Toru Matsuura and starring Yosuke Eguchi (ANOTHER HEAVEN, SAMURAI COMMANDO: MISSION 1549), Masanobu Ando (BATTLE ROYALE, AEGIS), and Aoi Miyazaki (EUREKA, TOMIE: FORBIDDEN FRUIT). Synesthesia is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another— such as when hearing a particular sound produces the visualization of a color— which can create a feeling of disassociation from reality. The condition and its symptioms are hard to comprehend so individuals with synesthesia often feel isolated from other people. When two lonely souls who possess the same puzzle of mind meet each other, it leads to events of unsolved mystery and serial murder. GHOST TRAIN (Otoshimono, 2006) is based on the urban legend of the haunted train, and takes audiences to a nightmare dimension where evil lurks in everyday life. The heroine is an 18-year-old high school girl named Nana, who is looking after her younger sister Noriko while their mother is at a hospital. Nana’s world turns into a nightmare when Noriko suddenly disappears. The only clue she has left is the commuter pass that she had picked up on the train before disappearing, and the dark shadow that followed Noriko in the surveillance camera. GHOST TRAIN was directed by Takeshi Furusawa, a former assistant director on Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s horror hit PULSE, and stars Erika Sawajira (ASHURA, SHINOBI: HEART UNDER BLADE) and Aya Sugimoto (ULTRAMAN TIGA & ULTRAMAN DYNA, FLOWER AND SNAKE). The Film has been an enormous success in Asia, and was screened this past Saturday at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, CA. LE CHEVALIER D’EON (2006) is a 24 episode series from Shochiku and Production I.G. (GHOST IN THE SHELL). The show is directed by the acclaimed Kazuhiro Furuhashi (GET BACKERS, RUROUNI KENSHIN) from an original story by story supervisor Tow Ubukata (FAFNER). The story is about D’Eon de Beaumont, a handsome intellect who actually lived in the 18th century. D’Eon was known as a diplomat who traveled around various countries under the French king’s command, but his most peculiar trait was that he managed to pass himself off as a woman. The core of the story is based on the mysterious hero and the historical facts.