Koji Yakusho and Kyoka Suzuki in a new film "Argentine Babaa"

Popular novelist Banana Yoshimoto's "Argentine Babaa" (literally "nasty old lady Argentina") will be filmized, starring Koji Yakusho and Kyoka Suzuki. 

Suzuki's main character is 50-year-old spooky woman who lives alone in an almost-abandoned building, and is nicknamed "Argentine Babaa" because she used to teach Argentine Tango.  She has a strange look and is dressed in rugs.  Although Suzuki is mere 38 years old, she will turn into a babaa with the make-up and costumes.  And Yakusho plays a widowed tumbstone craftsman who falls in love with her.

Director Naoki Nagao selected Suzuki, as "I wanted to have an actress with the most transparancy and the best acting ability in Japan, as it is a very difficult role."  Suzuki says, "it is my pleasure to be in a film of my favorite story."  She has been avidly practicing Tango, and even traveled to Argentina in July for that purpose. Yakusho states, "I believe it will be a picture-book-like heart-warming fantasy."

The film is scheduled to open next spring.

By the way, Koji Yakusho's another movie, "Sakebi", along with Jo Odagiri, also will be shown in Venice.

Source:  Sponichi, Pymmik's site

Original novel "Argentine Babaa"

Comments

[Dipti]

Hi My Self
Dipti
It's the beginning of "The Party" Competition at Filmaka! Make a
1-3 film on this theme and you could win funding to direct your
feature film! The competition is judged by esteemed international
filmmakers Werner Herzog, Zak Penn, Colin Firth, Paul Schrader, and
more! Each month there is a new theme and 15-20 filmmakers receive
$1500-$4500. Three of them go on to compete for feature funding at
the end of the year. Last year's final winner, Nuru Rimington-Mkali,
got $5 million to direct his film! Submissions are due January 12,
2009. Ready to take the first step? Go to www.filmaka.com/featurefilm
Regards.
Dipti

[dipti]

Filmaka offers funding to unknown filmmakers around the world and provides a chance to step up in to professional cinema and TV. Last year Filmaka commissioned over 40 web series to filmmakers across the planet, from Tokyo to Mexico City, and awarded $5 million in production funding to a Londoner, Nuru Rimington-Mkali, to direct his feature film. Filmaka has launched some new features to enhance its reach to professional film makers:-

1) Ability to compose a professional portfolio: You can now create an online portfolio by uploading samples of your work to the personal films section of your profile. Let industry professionals discover you through Filmaka now. Click here to upload the samples of your work http://www.filmaka.com/filmaka_upload_master.php
2) Filmaka Forums: Advertise your services to the biggest community of online professional film makers. Access http://www.filmaka.com/forums/ to post your casting calls, equipment needs and reviews and read reviews for the latest Hollywood releases.
3) More Exciting Branded competitions launched every fortnight: Filmaka has released more than two million dollars as prize money to its film makers through its branded competitions most recent ones being with Ford, Cisco, MSN, Red Bull, FX and SAB Miller.
4) Enhanced Community features: Filmaka members can now upload personal pictures, Bios, CV's and personalize there profiles to make them more elaborate and detailed for fellow film makers, producers and actors. Members can write reviews about fellow film makers competition entries, post private messages to each other and also embed there favorite videos in there profiles on other websites.
5) More Web Series: Filmaka has more than 25 web series in production with a new episode being launched every Monday and Thursday, watching webisodes was never more exciting, Every series has there own dedicated page with all actors, characters and directors profiles,bios,making ofs and pictures. To check more details check the Filmaka Channel homepage http://www.filmaka.com/filmaka_channel.php

Check out the most exciting professional film maker's database at http://www.filmaka.com . For more details contact the online support chat from the contact us page.

[Dipti]

Hi Myself
Dipti
It's the beginning of Pros And Con Games Competition at Filmaka! Make a
1-3 film on this theme and you could win funding to direct your
feature film! The competition is judged by esteemed international
filmmakers Werner Herzog, Zak Penn, Colin Firth, Paul Schrader, and
more! Each month there is a new theme and 15-20 filmmakers receive
$1500-$4500. Three of them go on to compete for feature funding at
the end of the year. Last year's final winner, Nuru Rimington-Mkali,
got $5 million to direct his film! Submissions are due November 6,
2008. Ready to take the first step? Go to www.filmaka.com/featurefilm

Regards
Dipti

[Jessica]

http://famous-people.t35.com/name20/vinessa-shaw.html

[Michi]

Jason, it is a good point. I don't know the answer to that, and I am actually not the right person to ask... Thanks for linking to my article about Yakusho. I, too, wish I could fly to Venezia.

[Jasong]

I have a couple convoluted Japanese lang./hoga questions:

When titles are listed as「叫（さけび）」or 「蟲師（むしし）」 for example, with the hiragana in parentheses, I assume that indicates the furigana above the kanji but is it officially part of the title in eirin and prodco records etc.? Never quite been sure about that. Also, in the case of 「蟲師（むしし）」, I take it the hiragana is there at all because the title is not a real word and people might not know how to read it, but in the case of 「叫（さけび）」, is it because they didn't include a び　after 叫, which also might confuse readers? I guess it was dropped for aesthetic reasons. Thanks.

Wish I could jet off to Venice!