Hoga News

I will stop updating Hoga News

I have not been able to update this blog and Hoga Central main site too much these days.  That is because I have become too busy in my real life, but as all of you know and I know, "busy" is another way of saying "this stuff has become lower in my priority".  And that is really true in my case.

Unlike many other folks who write English blogs about Japanese films, I am not working in the film industry, or professionally writing about it, and I have no intention of going into it.  Japanese film industry is too small to accommodate a half-outsider like me - after all, Japanese total box office (including both foreign and Japanese films) in 2006 was merely 200 bil. yen ($2bil. or so), and even including DVD sales, 2-3 digits smaller than telecom industry that I work as a professional.  And I cannot afford to devote so much time to study about the industry until I become movie professional.  I am sure I cannot make any money there.

So the reason that I started doing this activity 2 years ago, in addition to my personal interest, was because I thought movie/TV contents creation/distribution will be an exciting area to study in the near future, from net/digital industry point of view, which is a part of my coverage area in consulting work.  That exactly happened in the U.S. and many other international markets, with the explosion of YouTube, iTunes video distribution, and many other new forms of degital video contents on the net.   And even the traditional media creators have started to feel both threat and excitement in this new digital contents era.  Except for Japan.

Over in Japan, media people still see YouTube as a criminal act.  Nobody is seriously interested in net  distribution of media contents, and user generated video contents are far and sparce.  Not just industry people, but even among fans, nobody shares my interest in Japan.  Nothing interesting is going on.

As a result, still very few people are interested in what's going on in Japanese movies in English speaking world. There is no excitement.   So eventually I have lost steam.

Through the Hoga sites activities in the past 2 years, I have gotten to know many nice people who are interest in Japanese/Asian movies, and I even got to meet actors and directors.  I really appreciate your support and encouraging words, and without you, I even could not have continued until now.

I will continue to write in some publications, such as Keio newsletter, but am planning to shift my focus more on technology and US matters, instead of movies and Japan matters.

I hope something exciting happens in the future to spark my excitement.  Or maybe someday my work load become so light and I  become bored.  Until that time, Arigato and Sayonara for now!!

"Tokyo Tower..." opened at the top last weekend

Last weekend's box office ranking was Joe Odagiri's "Tokyo Tower - Mom, Me and Sometimes Dad".  In the opening day report, Shochiku said that its final result is expected to surpass "Love and Honor", but according to Mr. Texas, the number does not add up.

The weekend gross was 194 million yen, 90% of Odagiri's "SHINOBI" and 65% of "Love and Honor".  The press loves to pit Joe Odagiri, up and coming movie star, against King of J-drama Takuya Kimura, and said Odagiri will prevail in this movie, but it does not look that way.

The film is based on million-seller novel, but it is already made into a special one-time drama and a TV drama series, so Mr. Texas thinks people don't watch the same story 3 times, even though the success formula of "TV drama - to - movie" is still working in many, such as "Unfair".

Source:  Movie Consultant Blog

Rinko Kikuchi's new film will open on 6/23

Academy nominee Rinko Kikuchi worked on this Satoshi Miki's comedy "The Insects Unlisted in The Encyclopedia" right after the Oscar presentation, and it is announced that the film will open in Japan on June 23.

Miki is known for his so-called "datsuryoku-kei (low tention)" comedy films such as "In the Pool" and "Kame wa Igai to Hayaku Oyogu (literally "turtles swim faster than you expect").  In this new film, a magazine reporter played by Yusuke Isetani ("What the Snow Brings", "Memories of Matsuko") and his partner Suzuki Matsuo go traveling in search of "quasi-dead", in order to write an article on the world after death.  They meet a mysterious woman played by Rinko on the way. 

See some still photos here.  They REALLY look low tention to me..

Source:  CinemaCafe

"SUNSHINE" starring Hiroyuki Sanada opens in Japan

Danny Boyle's new SFX-human drama "SUNSHINE", which already opened in UK and some other territories last week, is opening in Japan this weekend.  With the appearance of Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada, media is running a big campaign featuring him, who plays the captain of the mission to save the sun, which is on the verge of dying.

There are lots of media coverage, and I cannot show all of them.  Here is an example from Pia:

Cinema Pia Interview

Please see Misty's Hiroyuki Sanada News for more coverages.  The film is scheduled to open in the U.S. in fall 2007.

"Tokyo Tower --" starts with good pace, and "Kiiroi Namida" opening

Best-seller-novel flimization "Tokyo Tower - Mom, Me and Sometimes Dad" opened Saturday, and there was the opening stage appearance as usual.  Director Joji Matsuoka, Joe Odagiri, Kirin Kiki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Yanako Uchida (real-life daughter of Kiki and plays her younger days) and Takako Matsu　 greeted the full-house audience.  See photos here, here and here.  This Joe Odagiri's fashion is relatively tame for him (or maybe I am getting too much resistance to his outrageousness), but aren't these people look so out of place from one another - I mean, in terms of what they wear...???

Anyway, the production studio Shochiku is happy with the opening day result and says it expects to surpass "Love and Honor" gross (4 billion yen) earlier this year.

Isshin Inudo's "Kiiroi Namida", a sort of idol movie starring members of Johnny's Office popular boys band Arashi, which includes Kazunari Ninomiya ("Letters from Iwo Jima"), also started on Saturday.  With their popularity in Asia in recent years, it was announced that the film will be shown in Korea in June.  As usual for any Johnny's idols, there is no photo associated to this article.  Too bad, folks.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online, SANSPO, Tokyo Tower Blog

Nikkatsu coming back to hoga with "Yatterman"

Nikkatsu used to be a major film studio for period dramas before WWII, then dwindled down to porn productions in 70's, and have been away from major films for some time recently.  But with the recent hoga-boom, they seems to have decided to come back to the production scene, Mr. Texas reports.

They held a line-up announcement event for the first time in 19 years, and their main ones are the live-action versions of "Yatterman" and "Gatchaman", both epoc-making hero animation series by Tatsunoko Production.  While no details are announced for "Gatchaman", for "Yatterman", they have signed Takashi Miike as director, lined up 1.3 billion yen budget, and is scheduled to release in the spring of 2009.

Source:  Movie Consultant Blog

Some new films info

I am a bit too busy these days on my day job, and cannot post news too often here.

Today, I don't have much time either, so I will post a quick note on a few new movies...

Yukihiko Tsutsumi's fantasy period drama "Taitei no Ken" (literally "Sword of the great emperor") opened last weekend in Japan, and the main characters appeared on stage, including one of the recent hottest actors Hiroshi Abe, who broke into the scene with Tsutsumi's "Trick" TV and movie series, Kyoko Hasegawa, Meisa Kuroki, Riki Takeuchi, the original novel writer Baku Yumemakura and director Tsutsumi.  See photos here.  I personally LOVE "Trick" series, with its very unique sense of humor, so I hope to watch this film pretty soon.

Another is about the press conference on the sequel of "Pacchigi!", 2005's hit youth film, staged in 1960's Korean community in Japan.  Director Kazuyuki Izutsu is the same but they have the new cast members, Toshiya Izaka and Yuri Nakamura for the main characters and is supported by strong members such as Takashi Fujii and Hidetoshi Nishijima.  See photos here.  The film is slated to open on May 19, 2007, in Japan.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online (1)  (2)

New films by Kichitaro Negishi and Isshin Inudo

Kichitaro Negishi, of "What The Snow Brings", 2005 Tokyo International Film Festival Grand Prix winner, has come up with a new film "Side Car ni Inu" (literally "Dog on a side car"), and a press conference was held with the heroin Yuko Takeuchi and the child actor Kana Matsumoto.  The film is based on a novel that depicts a strange but impressive summer memory of a girl, when her father's mistress appeared suddenly after her mother left home and started live together.  The film is slated to open this summer.  See photos HERE.

It sounds like a nice-family, feel-good movie, but Japanese gossip media were more focusing on Takeuchi's continued divorce negotiation with Shido Nakamura.  Entertainment journalist Masaru Nashimoto is quoted on Zakzak as saying, "they are on a dead rock with child custody matter.  Nakamura wants his son (who is about 1 year old) to take up the career of Kabuki.  Kabuki actors have to start training at around age of 3, so he wants to make sure his son is allowed to take Kabuki training soon, even though Takeuchi wins the custody."

Another movie I would like to introduce here is Isshin Inudo's "Bizan", starring Nanako Matsushima ("Ring").  My usual movie watching behavior is largely driven by actors, just as mass moviegoers do, but I can declare Inudo is my favorite director, whose film I would watch because of the director.  I love his past works "House of Himiko" and "Jose, Tiger and Fish".  "Bizan" is about the strain and restoration of the mother-and-daughter relationships, staged in famous Awa-dance (sort of traditional Japanese version of Rio Samba Carnival) region Tokushima.  Inudo got cooperation by Awa-dance teams and 14,200 dancers will appear on screen, and this dance scene is a huge climax of the film.  In addition to Matsushima, Nobuko Miyamoto, wife of late Juzo Itami and star of many of his movies, will play mother's role, after 10 years hiatus from the screen, as well as Takao Osawa.

See the press conference photo with a bunch of Awa-odori dancers.  The film is scheduled to open on May 12, 2007.

 

Oh, and by the way, Ryuganji is writing about Inudo's another new film "Kiiroi Namida" (literally "yellow tears") on his blog, and many more.  Check it out.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online (1), (2)

"Unfair", "Battery" and "Sakuran" good BO results

Cherry blossoms and spring break are in full bloom right now in Japan, and the box office ranking with kids/teen movies changed very little over the past weekend.

Toho's usual TV-to-Movie hit "Unfair The Movie" continues its third position in the ranking, and clinched 3 billion estimated final gross, according to Eiga.com.  Smaller scale, teen sports/family film "Battery" also is doing well, and already surpassed 1 billion yen mark by the 4th week since opening.

Please see the full top 10 list at Kogyo Tsushin site HERE.

"Sakuran" is also reported by Mr. Texas that it surpassed 600 million yen, a pretty good result for indie studio (Asmic Ace) on this scale of screen numbers.

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