Hoga News

"Nada Soso" opening day appearance

Hiroyasu Doi's "Nada Sosou" opened on September 23, with the stage appearance of leading cast and staff.  Satoshi Tsumabuki as the leading man, Masami Nagasawa as his stepsister, Kumiko Aso as his girlfriend, and Kyoko Koizumi as the sibling's mother. 

Nagasawa talked about Tsumabuki as "an actor with the warmth, almost like I get burned if I stay too close."  Koizumi said, "I believe the film is enjoyable for all the age group.  Once you watch it, you will cry even when you watch a spot CM on TV."

The first day attendance was quite good, and Toho studio is expecting 5 billion yen gross overall.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online, Sanspo

Shido Nakamura pays $2000 fine

The local court decided that Shido Nakamura ("Fearless") is to pay 200,000 yen fine for his drunk driving on July 12 this year.  (See here and here for more details.)  He paid the fine, and is now back to work on his Kabuki stage act that is scheduled for next month.

In the meantime, "Fearless" starring Jet Li and Nakamura appears as Li's opponent, opened last weekend in the U.S. with $10 mil. gross and at #2 in the BO ranking.  He should have stuck to tea, instead of alcohol, I guess.

Nakamura is also schedule to be in Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" starring Ken Watanabe.

Source:  SANSPO, Zakzak

Jason Gray's report on Tokyo FILMeX

Jason Gray writes about Tokyo FILMeX press conference today, with Kiyoshi Kurosawa to speak about "Retribution" ("Sakebi") and Mineko Okamoto for commemoration of late Kihachi Okamoto.

See jasongray blog.

"Hula Girl" starts at #4, "Salamandre" good start

Japan's Oscar entry "Hula Girl"'s opening weekend box office result was #4, a little disappointing for all the buzz.  Eiga.com reports that the result in the western part of Japan in particular was not very good, but on Eigaseikatsu website, users' review score average is still standing at the top of the chart, with 89.79 out of 100.

"The Pavillion Salamandre" starring Joe Odagiri opened in a single theater the previous weekend, and recorded the full-house for all the shows over three days, according to Mr. Texas.

Minoru Kawasaki's latest crazy comedy "Zura Keiji" (literally "wig detective"), featuring a detective with a wig, also opened on Sep. 16 in a late show also in a single theater, with a so-so result.  Kawasaki could not follow up on his success in "Everyone but Japan Sinks", parody of this summer's big hit flix "Sinking of Japan".

Source:  Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog, Eigaseikatsu

<Addition 10/5>

"Hula Girl" reviews are on Ryuganji

Obituary: Tetsuro Tanba (1922-2006)

See Ryuganji and Twitch

"Hula Girl" opens with high expectations

Helped by Oscar foreign language film entry decision, as well as general "Hawaiian boom" in Japan, "Hula Girl" directed by Sang-il Lee and starring Yasuko Matsuyuki, opened in Japan on Saturday, with a whole bunch of good reviews and high expectiations.

The story is a sanitized version of "Full Monty" - in a declining mining town in 1960's, the mining company decided to build a Hawaiian-theme resort to attract tourists, and the shy rural townsgirls have to take up on hula dancing to save the town.   A dance instructor played by Matsuyuki is invited from Tokyo, and struggles to make it happen.  The story is based on a true story about Joban Hawaiian Center (current name "Spa Resort Hawaiians") in northern Japan.

So far, the reviews that I read by both the film critics and fans are generally very good, sighting the well-told story and beautiful dance sequences, with the music by famed Japanese-Hawaiian musician Jake Shimabukuro.  The press also is exposing it well, mostly featuring the screen debut of a popular comedian Shizu-chan of a comedy duo Nankai Candies.  (Personally, she is my favorite, unusual female comedian in Japan, with over 6-foot physique, low voice and unique slow tempo style.)

Director Li stated in the opening stage appearance, "the power of human's life is wonderful, in any period of time and in any environment.  I tried to depict it together with people's beauty, strengths, and weaknesses."

One thing I like about this film is that teacher Naoto Takenaka is not in it.  Nothing against him (and in fact, I like him a lot), but it was getting too much of the same pattern in this type of "working hard to make it" hoga comedies, like "Swing Girls", "Water Boys", "Ping Pong", etc.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online (1), (2), Zakzak

Hiroyuki Sanada back to martial arts role (probably) in "Rush Hour 3"

It is reported that Hiroyuki Sanada will be in action/comedy detective film "Rush Hour 3" with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.  He is supposed to play a villain.

It is great to see him show off his martial arts skills in the big budget ($100 mil., according to Wikipedia) Hollywood film, together with Jackie.  I wonder if he will be in samurai mode (=sword) or ninja mode (=karate)....

"Rush Hour 3" is scheduled to be released in August 2007.

Source:  USATODAY, Comingsoon, Wikipedia

Tokyo International Film Festival full line-up announced

The full line-up of Tokyo International Film Festival was announced on Sep. 20.

See TiFF Webpage for the full line-up.

At the announcement event, director Yoji Yamada and leading actress Rei Dan appeared on stage, representing the opening-eve film "Love and Honor" ("Bushi no Ichibun"), also starring Takuya Kimura.  See the photo.

This year, the event venues have been expanded to both Roppongi Hills and Shibuya Bunkamura, to accommodate 60,000 general public attendants.  They are also planning an events in Akihabara as well, and expecting to attract 210,000 attendants altogether.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online, TiFF

"Train Man: Densha Otoko" coming to the U.S. this week!!

"Train Man: Densha Otoko" is opening in the US on Sep. 22, and I just wrote up a special interview of Seiji Horibuchi, the distributor of "Train Man", on Hoga Central.  See below.

"Train Man" interview on Hoga Central

Mr. Horibuchi is the savior of Hoga.  Not only he has brought "Kamikaze Girls" and "Train Man" here, but he also is pushing out "Linda, Linda, Linda" and "Taste of Tea" in the near future.  And he is even building a Japanese movie special theater in San Francisco Japan Town!!!  Can you believe it???

Read his interview, and buy his DVD's!!!  We have to support him!!!

Battle of the Titans, summer round - Fuji TV vs. TBS

The hit making machine Fuji TV, headed by the powerful producer Chihiro Kameyama, has shown signs of slowing down during the summer-early fall season, after the successful first half.  The rival TV station TBS, taking advantage of Fuji's slow down, is on the roll.

Fuji started 2006 quite nicely with a huge hit of "Suite Dreams" ("Uchoten Hotel"), starring Koji Yakusho and directed by Koki Mitani.  They followed it up with a lower budget but nice-size hit "Star Reformer", a love comedy starring Yuji Oda and Kou Shibasaki.  Then they hit a jackpot with "Umizaru 2: Test of Trust" reaching to 7 billion yen in total box office estimate.

However, their late summer hopeful "UDON", food comedy starring Yusuke Santamaria and directed by Katsuyuki Motohiro, the same team as 2005's biggest hit live-action hoga "The Negotiator", is not looking like the repeat of last year's success.  It was ranked #8 this past weekend, 4 notch down from the previous week, and may not reach even to 1 billion yen.  While it is not too bad in hoga standard, a bit disappointing considering the strength of the team.

Other newly opened Fuji TV's films, "Sugar and Spice", starring 2004 Cannes winner Yuya Yagira, is not living up to the expectation either, with #6 debut last weekend, and neither "Back Dancers!" at #8 the previous weekend.

On the other hand, TBS's "Sinking of Japan" has made more than 5 billion yen, although it is showing a bit of slowdown in September and may not be able to surpass "Umizaru 2".  Another nice-size hit by TBS earlier was "Memories of Matsuko" by "Kamikaze Girls" director Tetsuya Nakashima.

Next big Fuji TV's hopeful is goegeous women's period drama "Ooku" starring Yukie Nakama, which is schedule to open on New Year's holiday.  TBS also has a strong line-up, with "NANA 2", the sequel of last year's big hit "NANA", manga-based youth story, and "Murder of the Inugami Clan", remake of 1970's legendary hit, directed by the same director Kon Ichikawa and starring Koji Ishizaka.  "Namida Sousou", which I reported recently, is also a part of it.

You can see TBS's movie line up on their Webpage here, and Fuji TV's movie line up here.

Source:  Eiga.com, Fuji TV and TBS webpages