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I guess I deserve to take some time off. I will go to Japan for vacation tomorrow for a few weeks. I will try to update the blog whenever I can, but probably not so regularly. But finally - I can watch some long overdue hogas!!
So everyone - have a nice 4th of July weekend!!
Last weekend's top 10 ranking just came out, and again, hogas (Japanese movies) continue to hold 7 positions vs. foreign movies only 3.
One of the new entrants this week is "One Missed Call Final" at 4th, with 147.3 mil. yen. According to Mr. Texas, this result is 66% of the 1st and 68% of the second sequels. Final box office result of "OMC 2" was 1 billion yen, so "3" is very unlikely to reach 1 billion yen mark. The downward trend for Japanese horrors continues.
Another new hoga on the ranking is the social drama about an accountant's fight against the government, "Futo Fukutsu", based on the real story. It debuted at 11th the previous weekend, and got bumped up to 10th this weekend, with 44.5 million yen. Mr. Texas points out that its balance between the number of admissions and the revenue indicates that the movie is supported largely by seniors.
"Death Note", the top movie for the consecurive weeks, has surpassed 700,000 admissions and $1 billion sales, and continue to go strong.
See Ryuganji for the complete box office ranking.
For the foreign camp, strong films such as "Cars" and "M:I:3" are waiting in the wings, so next week's ranking will probably look different.
Source: Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog
A popular cell phone horror film's recent sequel, "One Missed Call Final", directed by Manabu Aso, opens on 6/24 with the leading cast stage appearance event.
This time, the story is staged in Korea, to where a group of Japanese students take a trip. The plot is basically the same as the previous two films, that the people receive messages, this time with a special ring tone and the photos of their death scenes that predict their death, and they cannot escape the fate unless they forward the messages to someone else. (Each time the new movie comes out, cell phone functions are getting better and the death message come with a new twist.)
The villain to send the death messages this time is played by a teenager Maki Horikita, who caught the mass attention by playing the cute young apprentice at Suzuki Auto in "Always - Sunset on Third Street". Her classmate, who tries to solve the mystery, is played by anothe teenage hopeful actress Meisa Kuroki.
On stage, Horikita states, "In this movie, I had to make the viewers feel that human emotions are sometimes as scary as the supernatural things." Kuroki replies, "I was happy to work with Maki. Doing a horror movie made me rethink the human nature."
The original story is written by an experienced TV script writer/music composer Yasushi Akimoto, and he says, "I wondered what the most scary thing is in this world and came up with the conclusion that the human relationships are, so I wrote this story."
During the photo session after the film showing, Horikita's phone started to ring with the death message tune, and everyone froze for a moment.
The film is already shown in Korea since 6/22 and is said to be getting a good result.
Source: SANSPO, Cinema Topic Online
Mr. Texas reports that the last weekend's top box office debut "Death Note" will be partially aired on TV already, starting from 6/26 in Tokyo area for 6 days, and from 6/27 in Kansai area for 5 days.
This special sample viewing includes the first 12 minutes of the actual movie, a summary version and a theater trailer and will be aired at late night period on Nippon Television (NTV), who is an investor to this movie. Yes, folks, this is again TV-movie collaboration case, and appearantly it is the first time that a part of the actual movie gets aired on TV during the movie is still in theaters. The studio explains that they are aimig to reach to a different segment of viewers outside of the original manga fans.
Source: Movie Consultatn Blog, SANSPO
Mr. Texas points out that the last weekend's box office top ten was dominated by hogas (Japanese movies), with 7 out of 10 (hogas: "Death Note", "Trick 2", "Umizaru 2", "Bart no Gakuen", "A Song to the Sun", "Memories of Matsuko", "Memories of Tomorrow" vs. foreigns: "Da Vinci Code", "Poseidon", "Inside Man").
See Ryuganji blog for the complete list.
He thinks that it is not only due to "hoga boom" in Japan, but also the effect of World Cup Soccer. It is said that Hollywood studios have decided to delay the openings of summer blockbusters until WCS finishes in the countries where soccer is popular. Well, it is an honor that they consider Japan as a part of that WCS craze group, but unfortunately for Japanese fans, Japanese team lost out in the first round and the fever is gone in Japan by now. To fill the gap, they decided to have small preview runs of "M:I:3" starting from this weekend, but anyway, there will be no large scale Hollywood opening for another two weeks or so.
Prepare to see more hoga domination for a few more weeks.
By the way, I noticed that I did not discuss about "Trick 2" when it started. It is another "TV-Movie" collaboration by Toho and TV Asahi, a kind of "X-files" style supernatural mystery thriller, starring Hiroshi Abe and Yukie Nakama. It started on 6/10 and marked 430 million yen, 181% of the original "Trick". The TV series started on 2000, and then made into a feature length movie 3 years ago. As you may already know, this type of "TV drama - Movie - Movie sequel" has become a cookie cutter success formula lately in Japan, as you can see in "Umizaru", "Bayside Shakedown" and many others.
Source: Movie Consultant Blog, Eiga.com
As Ryuganji reports today, the harbinger of 1980's Kadokawa pop novel/movie series, "Sailor Suite and Machine Gun" will be remade into a TV drama by TBS, starting October, with "Crying Out Love, in the Center of the World" star Masami Nagasawa as the new heroine.
The 80's original movie version featured Hiroko Yakushimaru, whose visibility recently revived with the hit movie "Always - Sunset on the Third Street" and her dominance in the award circuit last year. Japan Society New York, who just held the hugely successful screening of "Always" last week, is planning to show the "Sailor Suite" original movie in New York, as a part of its "Lolita in Full Bloom: 1980s Irresistible Heroines" series in November, 2006.
And by the way, Japan Society is looking for the organizations who are interested in showing the "Lolita" package in other places in the United States. There are 6 films in total, and all come with English subtitles and promotional materials. You can save a lot of money and hustle by piggybacking on their package, compared to doing it all by yourself. If you are interested, please contact me via e-mail at mkaifu@hogacentral.com.
Subway Cinema's New York Asian Film Festival started officially last weekend and still going on strong! Kaiju Shakedown writes an enthusiastic report on another standing-room-only screening of "Funky Forrest".
I have put up another special page for NYAFF to introduce the lineup of Japanese movies in NYAFF and links to purchase DVD's. Enjoy the show!!
I just put up the interview article of Takashi Yamazaki, director of "Always - Sunset on Third Street" on Hoga Central. He talks about his feelings about VFX, struggle to revive 1950's Tokyo, conspiracy theory about Japan Academy awards, and interesting stories about his cast, such as Koyuki, Hidetaka Yoshioka and many more!
See Hoga Central
In addtion to "Death Note", probably the first #1 hoga (Japanese movie) distributed by a Hollywood major studio (Warner), two more hogas appeared on the box office ranking last weekend.
At #5 is "Bart no Gakuen", starring Ken Matsudaira and directed by Masanobu Deme, the story of a POW camp in Tokushima during the WWI. Matsudaira plays the manager of the camp who respected the human rights of German POWs, a rare case in Japan back then. Judging from the information on the Website and its video trailer, it looks like a quite legitimate human drama, particularly with the scene where the Germans sing Beethoven's Symphony #9, thanking the people at the camp and the town. It has a similar taste with last year's hit "Year One in the North", by the same studio Toei. (I noticed that Suzuka Ogo, the little girl who played young SAYURI in "Memoires of a Geisha", is in both "Bart" and "North".)
To me, however, Matsudaira's image is fixed on his long-seller mega-hit song "Matsuken Samba" and his funky samba dance in sparkling golden Kimono and edo-period wig (see these photos). Mr. Texas reports that the studio used his new dance-song "AWA Odori" (in the same image line with "Samba") in the film promotion, but he thinks that this mismatch campaign is doing harm rather than good. I have to agree with him.
Moving on to #6, human/love story "A Song to the Sun", starring a popular singer YUI and directed by Tokuhiro Koizumi, depicts the life and love of a girl suffered from XP (a desease that causes too much sensitivity to the sun light). She cannot go outside during the day, so singing under the moon is her only sign of hope in her solitary life. And one day, she falls in love, but she knows that her remaining time is short.
Both new entries marked approximately 130 million yen during the weekend and are expected to reach 1 billion yen hit mark overall.
Source: Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog
"Year One in the North" Region 2 DVD
"Death Note" first part, horror/suspense film based on a manga with a huge cult-like following, starring Tatsuya Fujiwara, debuted last weekend in Japan and kicked "Da Vinci Code" out from the top position with 410 million yen gross, Mr. Texas reports.
Fujiwara plays an elite college student Light Yagami who boasts the top brain power and happened to pick up the "death notebook" that the god of death dropped in this world. People whose names are written on this notebook die, so he starts to punish the world's criminals with this super power. Another genius "L" is sent in by Interpole to catch him, and their intense brain battle begins.
This result is 121% of Fujiwara's "Battle Royale II" and 77% of last year's youth manga hit "NANA".
Source: Movie Consultant Blog, Eiga.com
"Battle Royale II"
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