Hoga News

Women's indy "Kamome Shokudo" records an amazing big hit

Japan-Finland collaboration "Kamome Shokudo - ruokkala lokki" (literal translation "Seagull Diner") is shown in two independent theaters since March 11, and has been recording an amazing box office since then.  At Cineswitch Ginza, its opening audience number broke the record of "Life is Beautiful" since its opening in 1997.  Single-theater gross in 16 days exceeded 34 million yen, much higher pace than "Crash" (31.2 mil. yen in 44 days), "Brokeback Mountain" (29.3 mil. yen in 23 days), and even "Star of Prefectural Government" (31.2 mil. yen in 30 days).  Totally shocked cineplexes are busy increasing the showing.

"Kamome Shokudo" is based on the originally-written story by a popular novelist Yoko Mure, director and screenplay by Naoko Ogigami, and starring Satomi Kobayashi, Hairi Katagiri and Masako Motai - all women team from Japan, together with Fin guys Markku Peltola and Jarkko Niemi.  The story depicts a gentle-paced and heart-warming adventure of a Japanese woman who opens a small restaurant in Helsinki by herself, and the people around her.  All three Japanese actresses are experienced in live theater acts, TV and movies, but none of them are any big pop stars.  The director is also a mid-30, relatively unknown young lady who studied film making in University of Southern California, so no wonder all the big cineplexes did not expect a hit.  Go girls!!

Source:  Movie Consultant Blog, Kamome Shokudo Official Site

Shingo Katori's "Saiyuki" will be made into a movie

Fuji TV's popular drama "Saiyuki", starring Shingo Katori (from the vocal group SMAP, along with Takuya Kimura) and Eri Fukatsu ("Professor and His Beloved Formular"), will be made into a feature length movie.  The news was announced as a surprise at the end of the final episode on March 27.  Fuji decided during the season to make it into a movie because the series was a big hit, recorded 23.2% average ratings through 11-episode series.

"Saiyuki" is a fantasy story based on a Chinese classic adventure travel tale.  Sanzo Hoshi (a Buddhist monk) travels from China to India in search of a special Buddhist bible, helped by Songoku (monkey), Chohakkai (pig) and Sagojo (kappa).  The main character, the super-monkey Songoku is played by Katori, the monk Sanzo by Fukatsu, Sagojo by Mitsuyoshi Uchimura, and Chohakkai by Atsushi Ito.  Those main cast will stay the same for the movie as well.  No other details about schedule or staff are annouced so far.

Source:  SANSPO, Movie Consultant Blog

Fuji has a good experience in making the hit TV drama series into feature length movies.  The biggest success is "Bayside Shakedown" series.

"SHINOBI" will come to America

Kaiju Shakedown reports that "SHINOBI", starring Joe Odagiri and Yukie Nakama, gets the US distribution by Funimation.

See Kaiju Shakedown

Sumo champion wants to appear in "Blue Wolf"

(Updated 5:30pm)

Kadokawa's next big budget movie "Aoki Okami" (literally "Blue Wolf") team held a press conference in Tokyo on March 29.  The story is about historical Mongolian hero Genghis Khan and will be produced in cooperation with Mongolian government as its 800th anniversary event.  The hero will be played by Takashi Sorimachi, and the film will be produced by Shinichiro Sawai.  Honcho Haruki Kadokawa declares that he will draw 100 million audience in the world.

The most famous Mongolian in Japan, the current top-ranked Sumo Yokozuna (champion) Asashoryu is quite enthusiastic about this project, and have given his treasure, "horse-head harp" (Mongol's traditional music instrument), to Kadokawa to encourage the project.  He is reported to be offering participation in this movie as a part of Mongol-Japan friendship effort.  Asashoryu first suggested a general on a horse, but Kadokawa refused, "the horse will get squashed!", but he implies he still is considering another type of part.  No final confirmation of his movie actor debut is announced so far. 

Source:  SANSPO  (upper right photo:  Asashoryu and Kadokawa with the horse-head harp)

It is also reported that Asashoryu was really excited about World Baseball Classic and has been a big supporter of Ichiro, so maybe Asashoryu was a bit influenced by him, too?

Video news from MSN Japan

I have found a few nice video news clips about movies in MSN Japan site.  They may disappear in a few days, so watch them while they are still up.

Joe Odagiri and Teruyuki Kagawa in "Yureru" press conference  (related article in Hoga blog)

Juri Ueno in "Warau Daitenshi Michael" (literally "Laughing Archangel Michael") (another Juri Ueno article in Ryuganji)

Tadanobu Asano in "Nice no Mori" (literally "Forest of Nice")

Rie Miyazawa in beautiful kimono for bottle tea CM

"Helen the Baby Fox" press conference, with Takao Osawa

Toei to produce another big war movie

Satoru Tokushige and Yosuke Kubozuka will star in Toei's another WWII movie, following up on the big hit "YAMATO" during the past holiday season.  The film, "Orewa Kimi no tamenikoso Shiniyuku" (literal translation "I will die only for you"), with 1.8 billion yen budget, will have Tokyo governer Shintaro Ishihara as the executive producer and screenwriter, and will be directed by Taku Shinjo.  (Note:  Governer Ishihara was originally a novelist before going into politics.)

The story is the real-world stories of Kamikaze squad members and will be told through the eyes of late Tome Torihama, who were looked upon by the members as "mother of Kamikaze".  The filming will start in Chiran city in Kagoshima today.

Satoru Tokushige, the hopeful of Ishihara Production (established by late Yujiro Ishihara, Governer Shintaro's younger brother and top movie star in the 60's), and Yosuke Kubozuka ("GO") will play the young Kamikaze members, and Tome will be played by Keiko Kishi.

All the main cast were asked to have their hair in the crew cut, and had the training at Japan Ground Self Defence Forces.

The film is scheduled to be released in summer 2007.

Source:  SANSPO

Joe Odagiri and Teruyuki Kagawa at "Yureru" press conference

Joe Odagiri and Teruyuki Kagawa play the co-leading roles in Miwa Nishikawa's "Yureru", whose press conference was held in Tokyo on March 23.

"Yureru" (literally "swing") is a story of two brothers.  Takeshi (Odagiri) and Minoru (Kagawa) get involved in an accidental death of their childhood friend, and the brothers' real selves gradually get revealed through the court proceedings.

Director Miwa Nishikawa is an up-and-coming female director, considered the prodigy of Hirokazu Koreeda ("Nobody Knows").  In the press conference, Odagiri, who just turned 30 last month, confesses "I want to get married, but I don't have the bride candidate," and Kagawa responds, just like his older brother, "well, I have been advising him to get married."

The film is scheduled to be released in July 2006.

Source:  Nikkan Sports, Cinema Topics Online, Zakzak

From the left:  Joe Odagiri's "Maison de Himiko", "Shinobi", "Racoon Princess", Teruyuki Kagawa in "Year One in the North"

Kurosawa School to open in Tokyo

Buddies of late Akira Kurosawa, including staff members and actors, are putting a school together to raise the talent in Japanese film industry, based on the Kurosawa spirit.  The new school, called "Kurosawa Akira Juku" ("Juku" meaning private tutoring school), is headed by actor Tatsuya Nakadai and scriptor Teruyo Nogami, and they have lined up the instructors from the Kurosawa-team such as Masanobu Deme (director), Takashi Koizumi (director), Masaharu Ueda (cinematography), Takeharu Sano (lighting), Kenichi Benitani (sound recording), Hisao Kurosawa (producer), and Kazuko Kurosawa (costumes).

The school's Director Nogami states, "the staff who experienced the crisp atmosphere in the Kurosawa are becoming fewer in numbers, and we would like to hand down his film-making spirit to the next generation before it is too late.  We hope to provide the hands-on knowledge on the film-making basics, something hard to get in this digital technology age."

The school will be located in Tokyo Geijutsu Center, currently under construction in Adachiku, Tokyo.  The class size will be 80 for the film production department and 30 for the acting department, and will be 2 year courses.  The applications will be accepted from April 12.

Source:  Nihon Keizai Shinbun, March 21, 2006

As a side note, Tatsuya Nakadai is not new to the acting instruction.  He has run the acting school "Mumeijuku", which has churned out many excellent actors including Koji Yakusho. 

Followings are some examples of Kurosawa-Nakadai collaborations.

"Hanging Garden" in Tribeca

Thanks, Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown, for nice words about Japanese films, and the news that "Hanging Garden" is showing at Tribeca Film Festival. 

"Hanging Garden" is by director Toshiaki Toyoda, starring Kyoko Koizumi.  Koizumi won Blue Ribbon Award Best Actress in 2006 for this film.

(May 26 release.  Region 2 DVD, with English subtitles.  Amazon Japan ships to overseas.  Click the link to order.)

"Gentleman Cop" leads Japanese baseball team to the world's #1!?

This is not about movies, but just is too funny and I cannot help writing this.

Japan won the World Baseball Classic tournament this Monday, and the whole Japan has been like floating on champain bubble since then.  Seattle Mariners' Ichiro was the captain of the team, and his transformation from a stoic, individualistic and press-unfriendly genius to a hot-blooded, big-mouthed and team-loving leader during the tournament was a total shock to the Japanese fans.  Many point out that it was a huge factor in putting the team together in a short period of time to win the championship.

Now, Japanese national soccer team wants the same thing to happen.  Hideo Nakata, most internationally known soccer player who usually plays in Europe, is considered as a similar character to pre-WBC Ichiro.  Japan Soccer Association Captain Saburo Kawabuchi, envious to their baseball collegue, points out "Ichiro definitely changed since he played a villain role in 'Furuhata Ninzaburo' TV drama in New Years."  (See my January entry about this long-lived comedy-touch detective drama written by Koki Mitani.)

So now they are going to make another TV drama with Nakata...?  And Japanese baseball was saved by "Furuhata Ninzaburo" (dubbed "Gentleman Cop")?

Source:  Excite News