Hoga News

Masayuki Suo's new film seriously applaused by lawyers

Masayuki Suo's next film, "I Just Didn't Do It" held a special screening for Japan Federation of Bar Associations members on Christmas Day, by an unprecedented special request by JFBA, with Director Suo and the actress Asaka Seto who plays the young lawyer in the film greeting the attendees.  The film depicts the tough court fight of a young man who falsely accused of groping a girl in a crowded train.  With the jury system just about to be introduced in Japan by 2009, JFBA wanted to show it as a great case study for their member attorneys, trainees and law students.  200 of them showed up, so Director Suo was a bit nervous how they receive it, but the lawyers all praised the film as realistic and clear depiction of the current problems in Japanese court system. 

My previous article about this film is here.

I watched this film at AFM in November.  I cannot judge the quality of the movie, as I am not an expert on that, but I was totally shocked by the problem that was presented in the story.  And even though the theme is so heavy and sober, with no dramatic scenes, I had no moment to be bored till the end, probably by the superb acting of the actors, at least partly - Ryo Kase ("Letters from Iwo Jima"), Seto, Koji Yakusho, Masako Motai and many others.  If you can also bear with the "fan" side of me for a moment, please also look to Koji Yamamoto who plays the buddy of the main character.  He was a little-known stage actor till he played the second biggest role in NHK's historical drama "Shinsengumi" in 2004, when his popularity just exploded.  I could not set my eyes off from him AT ALL during this long drama series.  He is definitely one of the hot upcoming Japanese actors.

Source:  Eiga.com

"Oh-oku" so-so debut, so-so result for Hoga this year

Toei+Fuji TV's holiday season ace "Oh-Oku, The Women Of The Inner Palace" recorded 179,000 admissions and 238 million yen, not so bad but not so good result, compared to Yukie Nakama 's previous aesthetic ninja film "SHINOBI" (111%) and Toei's last year's holiday hit war movie "YAMATO" (70%).  Fuji recorded a huge hit with all-star comedy "Suite Dreams" last holiday season (final gross 6.1bil. yen), and they were hoping to do a repeat of another 5 billion with this one, but Eiga.com estimates the final gross to be 1.5-2 billion yen.

See Kogyo Tsushin for the complete ranking list.

In the meantime, "Love and Honor" reaches to 2 billion yen mark, keeping the No. 2 position among the holiday cinemas after "Letters from Iwo Jima",　which also surpassed 2 billion.   With all the other high-profile J-movies, "NANA2", "Inugami Clan" and "Oh-Oku" in disappointing results, the year of "J-movie resurgence" is capped with a bit gray cloud.

In a few Nihon Keizai Shinbun (the top business newspaper in Japan) columns which reflect on 2006 Japanese movie industry, the analysts all agree that 2006 was a good year for the J-movies overall,  but that there are some signs that the industry is going into the same dilemma as Hollywood - over-supply of films, loss of creativity due to the risk-averse production decisions, and small-scale productions crowded out by many mega-million budget films dominating the theaters. 

As I pointed out previously, all these big holiday hogas are somehow sequels and remakes.  I hope that these disappointing results are not the beginning of the end already.  I still believe that it is a good thing for J-movies to earn lots of money, as a theory.  It allows actors/actresses to concentrate on movies more, rather than averting their attention to CM and TV appearances to make their living.  I have a feeling that more good actors/actresses are doing more movies and less TVs lately - such as Joe Odagiri, Satoshi Tsumabuki and Miki Nakatani (although I only get that feeling from Net news/blogs and I don't have much access to Japanese TV's, so let me know if I am wrong).  The term "movie star" has been meaningless in Japan, where movie was a side business for the top actors, but finally some of them are becoming more "movie star" rather than "TV talent".  The money also attracts good talents to the movie making, and it allows the time and budget for all the preparation and deliberate post production, including CG's.  This year's J-movie success has changed moviegoers' general image of "hoga" to positive, and that leads them to look into the smaller production hogas as well.  The whole pie is expanding, in short.  So, I do hope that the holiday season glitch is just a seasonal problem.

Source:  Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog, Kogyo Tsushin, Nihon Keizai Shinbun

<Addition 12/29>

Check out the situation in Korea at Korean Pop Wars.  Very interesting, in light of what I wrote above.

"Ooku" and "Tekkon Kinkurito" open

This weekend, Fuji TV's goegeous kimono period drama "Ooku" and a popular animation "Tekkon Kinkurito" are released in Japan.  Leading actress Yukie Nakama and other cast members, mainly women, appear on the stage for "Ooku", while voice actors Yu Aoi and Kazunari Ninomiya ("Letters from Iwo Jima") greeted the crowd for "Tekkon".

Source:  SANSPO  (1) (2)

Mainichi Film Awards announced

OK, here is yet another film awards announcement in Japan.  As a layperson, I am totally confused which one is which, but anyway, here are the list of nominations for Mainichi Film Awards, which are based on votes by about 80 film critics and film industry people.

• "Sway"
• "Memories of Matsuko"
• "Kamiya Etsuko no Seishun"
• "What the Snow Brings"
• "Hula Girls"

Source:  Mainichi Shimbun (1)  (2)

TBS losing streak with "Inugami Clan"

Last weekend saw a bunch of new film openings, but the highly-anticipated remake of "Murder of the Inugami Clan" by the same director Kon Ichikawa and the leading actor Koji Ishizaka, with all-star cast including Nanako Matsushima, officially flopped.

According to Eiga.com and Movie Consultant Blog, the weekend gross was 132 million yen at No. 8, and is expected to have final gross of 1.5 billion yen range, a huge disappointment for this year's latter half league winner TBS.  Mr. Texas points out that it is the second huge flop for TBS, right after NANA2.  They are hoping to gain back the momentum with "DORORO" next year.

Please refer to Kogyo Tsushin for the full top 10 ranking.

Source:  Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog, Kogyo Tsushin

Japan Academy Award Nominations

Hi, folks.  I am back in town - vacations are always too short for me.  I should quit being Japanese by now...

While I was away, Japan Academy Award nominations were announced.  Please see Kaiju Shakedown and Variety for some notables, as well as "why Takuya Kimura declined to be nominated".  "Love and Honor", "Suite Dreams" and "Hula Girls" have received multiple-category nominations.  The award presentation will be held on February 16, 2007.

And I just finished translating the full list of nominees on Hoga Central.  As always, I have trouble finding out how to pronounce some staff names (hard-to-read kanjis), so please let me know if you find any mistakes.

Looking at the list, there are some more notables for me other than what Variety reports. 

1. "Best Animation" category is introduced for the first time this year, which sounds a bit odd, considering Japan has been SO into animations for a long time, and US Academy Award has had it for some time by now.
2. "Hurray!!" for "Memories of Matsuko" also receiving quite a few nominations, including Best Director and Best Actress.  In the few other awards which were already announced, they did not win, but I believe both Tetsuya Nakashima and Miki Nakatani deserve a high attention.  Even though these highly competitive categories go to someone else, I believe they at least deserve the music, art and costume related awards.
3. "Hurray!!" for Joe Odagiri, Teruyuki Kagawa (both for "Sway") and Masako Motai ("Kamome Diner") nominations for single-theater (art-house), but international profile films.  "Sway" went to Cannes, and "Kamome Diner" is a story in Finland and was screened there.
4. "Darn!" for zero nominations (I mean, ZILCH!) for "Umizaru 2: Test of Trust".  I understand it is considered "mass/money oriented, low-in-art-quality" films by cinephiles and critics, but I LIKE IT and people liked it.  It is the biggest hit J-movie so far this year, with 7 billion yen gross.  In the past years, at least the leading actors for the similar category films "Bayside Shakedown" series (Yuji Oda for "BS 2" and Yusuke Santamaria for "The Negotiator") were given the honor of nomination, but Hideaki Ito is nowhere to be found in the list!
5. There is also a concern about one of major studios (Toho/Shochiku/Toei) dominates every year, so is this year Shochiku's turn, after last year's Toho?  Hmm....
6. In the previously announced awards, Ken Watanabe dominated the leading actor category.  Surprisingly, he has never been played the leading role in a feature movie before "Memories of Tomorrow", and he has been excluded in domestic award circuits, even though he is probably the most internationally recognized Japanese actor.  So I wonder if Japan Academy voters want to give Mr. Watanabe the first domestic recognition this time around, particularly in the face of a potential of US Academy nomination of "Letters from Iwo Jima"?
7. For international movie fans, "Hotel Rwanda" in Foreign Film Category may sound a little odd - it was such a long time ago when this film was nominated in the US Oscars.  Yes, it was released in Japan for the first time this year, powered by a highly publicized grass-roots internet campaign organized by a young man, who firmly believed that such a great film should be shown to Japanese people.  He formed a fan group, and gathered many net-signatures by the people who agree with him, and eventually the popular press also picked up this campaign - and finally the film was picked up by a small foreign film distributor.  In a totally different sense from "Train Man: Densha Otoko", it was another Internet fairy tale in Japanese film industry.

Well, I guess it's enough for now...  I will try to catch up with the film guides of the nominated films on Hoga Central.

Source:  Nippon Academy Awards Official Site

"Inugami Clan" and "Long Walk" open

This weekend, Kon Ichikawa 's classic remake "Murder of the Inugami Clan" and Eiji Okuda's Montreal winner "A Long Walk" are opening in Japan.

I don't have much time to report any more details, as I will be out of town from tomorrow.  Will be back around Christmas time.  See you in a week, everyone!

Source:  Cinema Topic Online (1) (2)

Rinko Kikuchi nominted in Golden Globe

Again, Rinko Kikuchi is nominated in supporting actress category in Golden Globe Award for "Babel".  "Letters from Iwo Jima" made it to the foreign language film category, along with Clint Eastwood in best director.

See HFPA website for the complete list of nominees.

"Hula Girls" wins big in Nikkan Sports Awards

I just noticed that Nikkan Sports Awards were announced last week.

"Hula Girls" won big, particularly in female department.

• Best Picture:  "Hula Girls"
• Best Director:  Kichitaro Negishi ("What the Snow Brings")
• Best Actor:  Ken Watanabe ("Memories of Tomorrow")
• Best Actress:  Yasuko Matsuyuki  ("Hula Girls")
• Supporting Actor:  Takao Osawa ("Metro ni Notte")
• Supporting Actress:  Junko Fuji  ("Hula Girls")
• New Face:  Yu Aoi  ("Hula Girls")
• Foreign Film:  "Brokeback Mountain"
• Ishihara Yujiro Award:  "YAMATO"
• Ishihara Yujiro New Face Award:  Junichi Okada  ("HANA", "Kisaragi Cats Eye World Series")
• Special Award:  Shohei Imamura

Source:  Nikkan Sports

As a side note, according to Cinequanon official Website, "Hula Girls" admissions has suprassed 1 million and grossed over 1.2 billion yen by the end of November.

Source:  Cinequanon

"Sukiyaki Western" update

Ryuganji has put up an interesting quote of director Takashi Miike regarding "Sukiyaki Western: Jango" on his blog.  With amazing cast line-up such as Hideaki Ito, Koichi Sato, Yoshino Kimura and Kaori Momoi, I am anxious to see this one.  Here is a photo of the members on the set.

"Sukiyaki Western: Jango" is slated to open in Japan in fall 2007.

Source:  Ryuganji, Cinema Topic Online