The recently disbanded Nakanomori Band will be releasing a best album called "GIRLS ROCK BEST" on September 24. The collection contains 20 tracks, including all of their singles and an unreleased song titled "Knock Ouch." The latter is apparently taken from a demo tape made before the group's major label debut, and it has never been performed in public.

The first press edition of the album comes with a special DVD packed with concert footage and the promo clips for their singles.

Nakanomori Band announced their breakup just last month. They originally formed in 2004 and released their first single in 2005.

Young actress Riko Narumi is starring in a new movie called "Tsumi Toka Batsu Toka," directed and written by Keralino Sandorovich (also known as KERA). Last year, she appeared in the comedy series "Enka no Joou," but this is her first time playing a comedic lead.

In "Tsumi Toka Batsu Toka," Narumi is an unsuccessful idol who takes on the role of "police chief for a day," a common PR opportunity for budding talents. But when a robbery takes place at a local convenience store, she actually attempts to resolve the incident. Kento Nagayama co-stars as a police officer who is also her ex-boyfriend.

Narumi has been acting in dramas since the age of 7, when she appeared in "Trick." She got her first starring role in the 2005 series "Ruri no Shima," and since then she has been gaining a reputation as a serious actress. With this movie she is expanding into comedy, and next year she will take on her first actual horror role in Naoto Takenaka's "Yamagata Scream."

"Tsumi Toka Batsu Toka" already finished filming last month. It is expected to be ready for a spring 2009 release.

The 65th Venice Film Festival has unveiled its lineup, which includes three of Japan's most acclaimed directors in the running for the Golden Lion. Among the 21 films in the competition category are Takeshi Kitano's "Achilles to Kame" ("Achilles and the Tortoise"), Hayao Miyazaki's "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" ("Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea"), and Mamoru Oshii's "The Sky Crawlers."

In addition to those three films, the China-Brazil-Japan collaboration "Plastic City" has been chosen for competition. Directed by Yu Lik Wai and produced by Jia Zhangke, the movie features Japanese actor Joe Odagiri in a major role.

Outside of the competition category, the festival will screen the 1937 film "Ketto Takadanobaba," directed by Masahiro Makino and Hiroshi Inagaki, and the just-released "Guilala no Gyakushu: Toyako Summit Kiki Ippatsu" ("Monster X Strikes Back: Attack The G8 Summit!") by Minoru Kawasaki.

The Venice Film Festival is being held from August 27 to September 6.

Johnny's act Hey! Say! JUMP captured their third #1 ranking this week, with their single "Your Seed" selling more than 160,000 copies. The song is being used to promote the Japanese version of the hit animated movie "Kung Fu Panda," which opened this past weekend.

aiko's "KissHug" came in second at 75,000 in sales. Little competition allowed the "Gake no Ue no Ponyo" theme song to climb up to #3, ahead of the newest releases by FUNKY MONKEY BABYS (#4), Megumi Hayashibara (#6), and Park Yong-ha (#7).

Meanwhile, EXILE dominated the albums chart, racking up more than 400,000 in sales for "EXILE ENTERTAINMENT BEST." The closest competition was GReeeeN's latest album at under 40,000 copies, though it has already been out for over a month.

The only other new albums in the top 10 were all soundtracks: "Persona 4 Original Soundtrack" (#5), "Naruto SUPER HITS 2006-2008" (#7), and "THE IDOLM@STER Vacation for you!" (#10).

In April, singer Yoshihiro Kai indicated that his former group, Kai Band, would be reuniting this year. Their return is now official, as they have scheduled a large-scale tour starting this October, accompanied by the release of two DVDs.

Kai Band debuted in 1974 and broke up in 1986. They have had temporary reunions since then and toured as recently as 2001, but their last nationwide tour was when they originally disbanded. This past December, they put out a best-of collection and reissued 17 of their older albums. They reunited for a single concert, and one of the tickets fetched a price of 400,000 yen in an online auction.

With fans repeatedly asking for the band to tour again, the group decided to go all out. They plan to be on the road at least from October to February, with 17 shows currently scheduled up until the start of 2009. 10 more dates are expected to be added soon.

Prior to the tour, the band will release two DVDs on September 26. One is a collection of music videos, while the other consists of live concert video, including the first public footage of their 1981 concert at the Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Stadium.

The main cast of "Shikisoku Generation" was revealed at a press conference on Tuesday. The movie, directed by Tomorowo Taguchi, is an adaptation of Jun Miura's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name.

A few rock musicians have been cast, starting with Daichi Watanabe as the main character Jun. Watanabe is the vocalist of the unsigned punk band Kuroneko Chellsea, whose name also seems to be romanized as Kuroneco Chelcy according to their MySpace page. He managed to land the part through an audition that had roughly 2,000 applicants.

Watanabe is joined by Quruli vocalist Shigeru Kishida and Ging Nang Boyz frontman Kazunobu Mineta. Unlike the other two, Mineta has appeared in a few movies before, including a starring role in Taguchi's previous film "Iden & Tity" (which was also a Jun Miura adaptation).

The rest of the cast includes writer Lily Franky and talento Chiemi Hori (both were announced last week), as well as fashion model Asami Usuda.

Distributor Stylejam expects to release the film in June 2009.