Variety is reporting that Viz Pictures has acquired the rights to Maiko Haaan!!!, a fast-paced screwball comedy about a salaryman obsessed with Geishas, written by the extremely talented Kankuro Kudo (Ping Pong, Ikebukuro West Gate Park, Zebraman, Go, Yaji and Kita).  Viz Pictures plans to release the film in March in five cities including New York and San Francisco before expanding its release on the art house circuit.

Maiko Haaan!!! (literally 'Miss Maiko' -- 'haaan' is the honorific 'san' in the Kyoto dialect) stars comedian Sadao Abe (whose frenetic acting and bowl haircut are occasionally reminiscent of Moe of The Three Stooges) as the salaryman who dumps his office worker girlfriend (who eventually apprentices as a Geisha in order to win him back) and moves to Kyoto to pursue his dream of playing a 'strip baseball' drinking game with a real Geisha.  His quest exposes all sorts of class divisions and contradictions in Japanese society, which makes this a film that viewers who are interested in Japan will have to see.  Along the way Abe runs afoul of an arrogant baseball player (Shinichi Tsutsumi of One Missed Call) and the two engage in a ferocious competition that dominates the second half of the film.