Hoga News

"Sakuran" good start

Mika Ninagawa's "Sakuran" started in the top 10 last weekend, with 44.83mil. yen and 30,000 admissions, on 51 screens in Tokyo/Kanto area only.  The revenue is 125% of "Honey and Clover" (final gross 520 mil. yen) which was about the same scale opening in the same area.

Mr. Texas explains that the film is backed up by TV Asahi, and the opening area was limited to its broadcasting territory.  They will expand it to 129 screens this weekend.

Source:  Eiga.com, Movie Consultant Blog

"Retribution" and "Sakuran""Matsugane" open with high acclaims

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Retribution" opened last weekend in Japan, with the opening day stage appearance of the director, stars Koji Yakusho, Manami Konishi, Riona Hazuki, and Tsuyoshi Ihara.  See photos here.  In addition to these already "all-star" cast members, Joe Odagiri and Ryo Kase also appear in the film.

Kurosawa says, "I have made many horror films, but I wanted to make this one very different from any others.  I didn't care if it was scary or not.  It is made from a totally different point of view."

The film got the highest mark (5 stars) by a film critic on Nihon Keizai Shinbun.  I have not seen 5 stars on this newspaper before, at least during my short movie-fan life.

In addition, two popular movies also open this weekend.  One is Mika Ninagawa's cool women's period drama "Sakuran", starring Anna Tsuchiya.  See photos here from the stage appearance.

Another is "Matsugane Ransha Jiken" (literal translation "Matsugane shooting rampage") by Atsuhiro Yamashita ("Linda Linda Linda").  The film depicts a strange incident in a sleepy rural town Matsugane.  See photos here of the director, cast members Hirofumi Arai, Takashi Yamanaka, Tomokazu Miura and Yuichi Kimura.

Both movies are getting high marks in Nihon Keizai Shinbun.

Source:  Nihon Keizai Shinbun, Cinema Topic Online, Cinema Cafe

"Genghis Khan" got distribution in 60 countries, except China and US - woops!

The premiere screening event of "Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea" was held in Tokyo, inviting 5000 guests including some politicians and other celebs.  Main cast and staff, including director Shinichiro Sawai, executive producer Haruki Kadokawa, Takashi Sorimachi, Rei Kikukawa, Ara, Kenichi Matsuyama and many others, appeared on stage.  See a photo here, and the previous article about the film here.

There, it was announced that they sold the distribution to 49 countries at European Film Market in Berlin, in addition to other sales to 11 Asian countries.  Those countries include Germany, Russia, Brazil, Iraq, Iran and Korea according to SANSPO, but not China nor the U.S.

Kadokawa thinks it is probably difficult to sell to China, where historically Genghis Khan attacked and conquered, but they are still working on the U.S.  He is also puring 900 million yen for marketing, in addition to 3 billion production cost, both HUGE scale for a J-movie.  OMG, I am glad I won't be in Japan aroudn that time...  all the trains and buses in Tokyo will be painted blue, I guess...

Source:  SANSPO

Coming Eventually - "DORORO 2 & 3"

With the current version's success, as everyone expected, two sequences "DORORO 2" and "3" will be produced, both at the same time.  Both Satoshi Tsumabuki and Kou Shibasaki will continue to play the leading roles.

Producer Takashi Hirano states, "we targeted at making a Japanese version of 'Load of The Rings', so we were thinking of making it a trilogy."  While the current version's budget was 2 billion yen, including filming in New Zealand, this time they prepared 6 billion yen in war chest for both 2 and 3, and are also thinking of filming overseas.

Filming will start sometime next year and release will be sometime after 2009, pending the stars' schedule.  The U.S. distributor Universal Pictures (and UP Japan is one of the producing consortium) is considering to release in the US at the same time as Japan, the report says.

Source:  SANSPO

"Dororo" past 2.5 billion yen

"Dororo" continue to sit on the top of Japanese weekend box office ranking, despite of "Dream Girls" opening last weekend.  Its cummulative gross has past 2.5 billion yen by last weekend, and is expected to reach 3 billion mark by the next weekend.

Source:  Eiga.com

"Hula Girls" wins in 4 categories in Japan Academy

Mr. Texas' yesterday prediction was almonst perfect, except for Best Director category.  In Japan Academy Award presentation, held yesterday in Tokyo, "Hula Girls" won in 4 categories including Best Picture.  As Mr. Texas points out, it is one of the rare cases that an independent studio (other than Toho, Toei and Shochiku) wins the Best Picture, plus it is not even backed up by a TV station, and it is generally considered a good sign for more diversity in Japanese movie industry. 

Other categories were pretty much evenly devided among "Memories of Matsuko" (Toho), "Love and Honor" (Shochiku) and "YAMATO" (Toei), as you can see below.  Miwa Nishikawa's "Sway", which has been pretty strong in other major film awards, was totally shut out - probably because it is by the same studio Cinequannon as "Hula Girls".  VERY POLITICAL, isn't it!?  Anyway, here is a photo of the winners.

Personally, the biggest surprise was the Best Animation Feature Film category, which is established for the first time this year.  Instead of the biggest hit J-movie in 2006, from the most famed animation studio in Japan, AND backed up by NTV who broadcasted the presentation event - "Tales from Earthsea", of course -, relatively minor "The Girl who Leapt through Time" won the first crown.  See my previous articles about the animation battle last summer for more details about the film and the juicy gossip around Director Mamoru Hosoda.  Poor Goro Miyazaki is like a sandbag these days...

So here is the winners list:

• Best Picture:  Hula Girls
• Best Animation Feature Film:  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
• Best Director:  Lee Sang-Il  ("Hula Girls")
• Best Screenplay:  Lee Sang-Il, Daisuke Habara ("Hula Girls")
• Best Actor:  Ken Watanabe ("Memories of Tomorrow")
• Best Actress:  Miki Nakatani ("Memories of Matsuko")
• Best Supporting Actor:  Takashi Sasano ("Love and Honor")
• Best Supporting Actress:  Yu Aoi ("Hula Girls")
• Best Music:  Gabriel Roberto, Tsuyoshi Shibuya ("Memories of Matsuko")
• Best Cinematography:  Mutsuo Naganuma ("Love and Honor")
• Best Lighting Direction:  Takeshi Nakasu ("Love and Honor")
• Best Art Direction:  Toshiyuki Matsumiya, Naruyuki Kondo ("YAMATO")
• Best Sound Recording:  Nobuhiko Matsukage, Tetsuo Segawa ("YAMATO")
• Best Film Editing:  Yoshiyuki Koike ("Memories of Matsuko")
• Best Foreign Film:  Flags of Our Fathers

Please see Hoga Central Japan Academy page for the full list of this year's nominees and past winners.  (For the full list of winners/nominees since 2001, click the numbers in "compete list" column.)

Source:  Yomiuri Online and many others

<Addition 2/17>

Jason Gray has put up a link to his nice interview of the Best Director winner Lee Sang-Il on his blog.  Please also see the full list of this year's Blue Ribbon Awards winners here.

Japan Academy Awards prediction

Japanese Oscars will be handed out tomorrow, and the movie consultant Mr. Texas makes his own prediction as follows:

• Best Movie:  "Hula Girls"
• Best Director:  Tetsuya Nakashima ("Memories of Matsuko")
• Best Actor:  Ken Watanabe ("Memories of Tomorrow")
• Best Actress:  Miki Nakatani ("Memories of Matsuko")
• Best Supporting Actor:  Takashi Sasano ("Love and Honor")
• Best Supporting Actress:  Yu Aoi ("Hula Girls")

Among the above, he thinks (and I agree) that Movie, Actor and Supporting Actress are probably on the money, although he has a little bit reservation on Movie category, because historically there have been few cases that non-Big 3 studios (Toho, Toei and Shochiku) won in this category.  ("Hula Girls" is by Cinequannon, a smaller studio.)  In the context of such studio politics, I wonder if there will be any surprise winner with "Love and Honor" by Shochiku.

Other categories are not so sure, judging from the trend of other awards, he adds.  Previously I was thinking Miki Nakatani is almost a sure winner, but she has not been too successful so far, I don't know why.  Nakashima is not getting too many trophies either.  Hmmm...

Personally, I am disappointed that Miwa Nishikawa, director of "Sway", is not even nominated in Japan Academy, while she has won lots of other awards including Blue Ribbon.  It would have been nice to see a female director on the podium in Japan by now.

Source:  Movie Consultant Blog

More photos from Berlin - Anna Tsuchiya

I found another set of photos from Berlinale, in which Anna Tsuchiya and Mika Ninagawa walking on the red carpet in kimono with an oiran-style over-sized umbrella, for their film "Sakuran".

Mika Ninagawa also held a photo exhibition in Berlin.  Ninagawa is known as a professional photographer, and Tsuchiya has been posing as a model for her for a long time.  Here are some colorful photos from the exhibition.

Source:  CinemaCafe

"Genghis Khan" got 425 screens for opening

Haruki Kadokawa's hitorical spectacle of Mongolian hero "Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea" (I previously called it "Blue Wolf", direct translation of the Japanese title) will be released in 425 screens, the biggest ever among J-movies, on March 3.  The previous record was 408 made by "Bayside Shakedown 2" (2003), which eventually recorded the historical box office record of 17.35 billion yen.  The second place was last year's "Love and Honor" with 353 screens.

Kadokawa was planning to get around 350 screens, but when he took theater owners to Mongol to show them the filming of Khan's enthronement ceremony with 20,000 Mongolian extras, they were so impressed that they flocked to get this film at the opening.  Hmmm, so his marketing strategy is working!

The film is directed by Shinichiro Sawai, and the cast include Takashi Sorimachi, Rei Kikukawa, Ara (Korean actress) and many other well-known stars.  For my own interest, arguably the biggest rising Japanese star Kenichi Matsuyama ("DEATH NOTE" series) and ever-so-cute-and-great-acting Sosuke Ikematsu (that boy Higen at "The Last Samurai") are also in the cast.  There was a bit of info before that Koyuki is in it, but I cannot find her in the cast list.  Sorry to Koyuki fans.

You can see more info on its Website.  After you enter the site, in the bottom menu bar, click the far left  "映画情報", then in the subcategory bar that appears newly, the 3rd from the left "キャスト・人物相関図" for the cast list.  In the main menu bar, second from the left "予告編" is for trailers.

Seeing the trailer, I felt a bit strange that these Mongolian dressed people speak Japanese and act like Japanese dramas.  It is a new experience for me, although for Hollywood movies, it is not unusual to see this type of situation.  I am curious how I would feel when I actually see the film.

Another curious aspect for me is that this huge-for-J-movie budget (3 billion yen) film is not backed up by any TV station (although it has some other media partners such as newspaper, music label and FM radio), and the distribution partner is Shochiku, not mighty Toho (who has totally dominated the hoga distribution for some time).  After the success of "Love and Honor", Shochiku seems to be in the groove, and I am really excited to see different players play in different styles.  For your reference, Kadokawa's previous hit in 05-06 "YAMATO" was distributed by Toei.

See a related article on TWITCH as well.  They have the links to trailers as well.

Source:  Hochi

Rinko Kikuchi's next films

Variety reports that Rinko Kikuchi will join up Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody in their next film "The Brothers Bloom" directed by Rian Johnson.

See Variety article.

Before that, she will be in a Japanese comedy "Zukan ni Notte Inai Mushi" (literally "Bug that is not on encycｌopedia"), directed by Satoshi Miki and is scheduled to open in June this year.  Other cast members include Yusuke Iseya, Suzuki Matsuo and Miki Mizuno, and the filming is mostly done, with a small portion to be filmed after Kikuchi comes back home after the Oscar presentation.

Source:  Hochi