Hoga News

Joe Odagiri's "Life Card" CM and a music video

Speaking of TV commercial, I found a funny TV CM clip featuring Joe Odagiri and Sachiko Sakurai for a credit card company.  Click "CM" box to see the first half, and then choose one of the cards to see what happens according to different choices in Odagiri's life.  You can see another one if you click the crimson-color long rectangle box below.

Source:  Life Card website

Also found on the net is his music video in collaboration with a jazz-punk band Katte ni Shiyagare, for their single release "Cherry the Dustman".  The first part is on this Sony Music website.  If you want to see the whole thing, search YouTube.  You may be able to find it.

Source:  Sony Music Online

Koyuki's wild look

Koyuki's photo for Panasonic plasma TV VIERA commercial was released, and she looks nice and sexy.

See the photo.

Her name "Koyuki" means "small snow", as her skin is as white as snow, but in this photo, she uses body make for the wild tanned look.

For Koyuki fans, you can see the TV commercial clip on Panasonic site HERE.  You can also download Koyuki's desktop photo here and screensaver here.

Source:  SANSPO

Kaori Momoi's director debut with "Faces of a Fig"

Kaori Momoi recently got to be known internationally by the geisha house owner role in "Memoirs of a Geisha", and has been the first-class actress for a long time in Japan.  Now this time, she is working on her first movie as director, a rare case in Japan for an actress to direct a movie, and a press conference was held featuring Momoi and Yamada.

"Faces of a Fig" ("Ichijiku no Kao") is about the human drama of a girl, played by a comedienne Hanako Yamada, and her family.  Not much info is on the Website, other than that the film will be released during the New Year holiday season in 2007.

Source:  Cinemat Topic Online, Official Website

<8/31 addtion>

Video news clip of the press conference is on MSN Japan Video news today.

Another Kabuki star's screen debut

Following the recent success of Shido Nakamura and Somegoro Ichikawa, another Kabuki prince Ebizo Ichikawa is playing the leading role of his first movie, "Deguchi no Nai Umi" (literal translation "Sea with no exit"), directed by Kiyoshi Sasabe and screenplay by Yoji Yamada/Motofumi Tomikawa.

The film is based on Hideo Yokoyama's novel about the pilot of "Kaiten", kamikaze-style suicide torpedos used near the end of WWII by Japanese Navy.  The story centers around his love, life and tragedy, smilar to last year's big hit "YAMATO", but Kaiten (in general) is less known than Yamato or Kamikaze.

A screening event was held on Aug. 28, in Ebizo's home ground, the main Kabuki Theater in Tokyo.  Ebizo impressed the audience with his classic and elegant greeting, common at the Kabuki theater stages.  In addition to Ebizo, supporting actors including Tomokazu Miura and Teruyuki Kagawa appeared on stage.  And in the audience, Cabinet Secretary and Prime Minister candidate Shinzo Abe sat with director Sasabe, who are from the same home town.

Here is the trailer of "Deguchi no Nai Umi".  See also my previous article (scroll down to 10/9/05).

MSN Japan video news shows the Kabuki-style greeting of Ebizo.  Click the photo of a bald-looking guy in a tux.

"Deguchi no Nai Umi" will open on September 16 2006.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online

"Kamome Shokudo" goes back to Finland

There have been lots of accesses to my "Kamome Shokudo" article from Finland in the past couple of weeks, so I was wondering probably the film was shown there, and sure enough, there was an occasion at Espoo Cine film festival on Aug. 23, with Director Naoko Ogigami appearing on stage.

The film is about a Japanese woman who opens a restaurant "Kamome Shokudo" in Helsinki, and people around her, and is an interesting collaboration between Japan and Finland, both in cast and staff.  The film is highly acclaimed and was quite popular, although on a limited release basis, particularly among women for its poetic style and heart-warming theme.  Its DVD is coming out on Sep. 27, and is already getting a high position in Amazon Japan sales ranking.

Here is the page from the Espoo Cine film festival.

Thank you Eija for your info on KineJapan.

"Kamome Shokudo" Region 2 DVD (Amazon says it is for Asian markets outside of Japan, so I think it should be Region 3 instead of 2??  It says that you can't watch it with Japanese domestic DVD players.  Strange.  Also, no mention about English subtitles.)

"UDON" starts at #3, "Rough" start for Toho

On the last weekend of summer vacation, "Superman" plunged to #4 position and "Tales from Earthsea" got back to the top of box office ranking, while "Pirates of the Caribbean" kept #2 position.  According to Eiga.com, "Earthsea" surpassed 6 billion yen, and "Pirates" 8.5 billion, both cummulatively by Aug. 27.

"UDON" by last year's big hit "Negotiator" trio, director Katsuyuki Motohiro, Producer Chihiro Kameyama, starring Yusuke Santamaria, is ranked #3 with 136,600 admissions and 185 million yen.  This result is 1/3 of "Negotiator" so the final gross is expected to be around 1.2-1.5 billion yen.

Another new release in the top 10 is a youth love/lifestyle film "Rough" at #6, starring Masami Nagasawa and Mokomichi Hayami, but its opening result was 94.8 mil. yen with 71,900 admissions and marked the worst starting record for Toho this year, according to Mr. Texas.  It is 50% of last year's "Touch" with the same writer and the same star Nagasawa, and is expected to settle around 500-700 million yen at the end.

Masami Nagasawa broke into the stardom with "Crying Out for Love, in the Center of the World" in 2004, and this big hit "pure love" film was remade in Korea, which also opened last weekend as "Center of my world is you", but it did not even make it to the top 10 with only 34.7 million yen.  At least in the movie world (I am not sure about TV dramas), "Korean boom" based on Korean actor/actress popularities is clearly over in Japan.  "The Host", internationally high-profile Korean action/fantasy drama featuring the moster Gwoemul, is opening this coming weekend in Japan, with a few more coming after that, and Mr. Texas thinks that the Korean films' real power will be tested with these "real stuff" rather than just pretty faces.

Source:  Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog (1) (2)

<Addition 8/30>

See Ryuganji for the full list of top 10 from last weekend

1% of Mongolian total population in a film - "Blue Wolf"

An interesting article about the filming of Kadokawa's epic about Genghis Khan, "Blue Wolf", starring Takashi Sorimachi, appeared on Yomiuri, probably in relation with PM Koizumi's recent visit to Mongol.  According to the article, for Genghis enthronement ceremony scene, total of 20,000 locals, including a few thousand from the Mongolian military, participated in the scene, and that represents 1% of Mongolia's total population. 

See the original article on Daily Yomiuri

Thanks George for your info.

Takashi Miike's "Big Bang Love" celebrates his birthday

Takashi Miike's manga-based boys love story "Big Bang Love, Juvenile A" opened August 26, two days after Miike's 46th birthday.  On the opening day stage appearance, leading actors Ryuhei Matsuda and Masanobu Ando celebrated Miike's birthday with a cake and flowers.

Answering a reporter's question about what he thinks of being loved by another man, Ando answers, "I respect such type of love, but I personally prefer women."

Source:  Cinema Topic Online

<Aug. 30 addition>

I found MSN Japan video news clip of the stage appearance.  Click the photo of Matsuda/Ando.

"Yureru" ("Sway") surpasses 150 mil. yen

Director Miwa Nishikawa's "Yureru", starring Joe Odagiri and Teruyuki Kagawa, and was shown at Cannes this year, reached 100 mil. yen gross at the 30th day since July 8 opening, and is expected to surpasse 150 mil. over this weekend, despite its limited showing only at 11 screens nationwide, according to Mr. Texas.  "Yureru" is getting a very good review among viewers, scoring 81.97 out of 100 points on Eiga Seikatsu user review average.

The film was released in Korea and so far has gathered 10,000 admissions since Aug. 10.

So I guess it is also heading to become another case of "limited release but hit" category, often seen this year in Hoga industry - such as "Kamome Shokudo", "Nezu no Ban", "Saga no Gabai Bachan", "Little Girl who Conquered Time", and "The Sun".

Source:  Movie Consultant Blog, Eiga Seikatsu

Jason Gray on "UDON", and "Captain UDON" appears on the stage

Jason Gray writes his first impression about "UDON", food comedy by Fuji TV's hit-maker team, director Katsuhiro Motoyuki and producer Chihiro Kameyama, and starring Yuske Santamaria from "The Negotiator".  Sounds like the film is as tasty as it looks on the trailer (with Jason's quote in it). 

See Jason Gray's blog.

Cinema Topic Online reports the first day stage appearance of "UDON".  The leading actor Yusuke Santamaria also leads the stage event with his comedy talks, while "Captain UDON" (what??) appears together with director Motoyuki (see the photo).  While most of the cast and staff do the comedy talks, one of the supporting actor Katsumi Kiba says, "I shed tears for the first time watching the movie today.  When I was a child, movie theaters were always full, and I was watching the screen on my father's shoulder, hanging onto dad's head.  I remember one day my finger got wet.  Today, I remember that day."

Source:  Cinema Topic Online

And one more thing...  "UDON" marketing team will serve another set of udon noodles in Los Angeles at American Film Market (AFM), held on Nov. 1-8.  In Cannes Film Market this year in May, they were successful in luring Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore distributors with Motohiro's brother's hand-made udon, so this time, they are targeting at attracting U.S. and European buyers with the same tactics.

Source:  SANSPO