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
Aug. 24 was 50th anniversary since Kenji Mizoguchi passed away, and an international symposium event was held in Tokyo to commemorate him. Ayako Wakao and Kyoko Kagawa, both regular actresses of Mizoguchi films, appeared in chic kimonos.
A special film festival to show Mizoguchi's works will also be held in Ebisu Garden Cinemas from Sep. 9 till Oct. 20. Mizoguchi is said to be one of the world-class Japanese directors but least-known in Japan, so the both actresses expressed their excitement that the festival is held to provide Japanese young fans to know more about Mizoguchi.
Another beautiful kimono shot is here, with a younger generation actress Rie Miyazawa, who appeared in the kimono show of the top kimono brand Suzunoya. In response to the reporters' question about her possibe "all-white kimono" (=wedding kimono) with her boyfriend Takuji Mikida, a jewry designer, Miyazawa says "I am not interested in it. I will wear Furisode (kimono for unmarried young women) forever."
Source: Cinema Topic Online, Sanspo
Here's a topic about yet another time-travel movie. Too many of these recently.... Taiwan-Japan joint project "Tripping", directed by Yiwen Chen and starring Rena Tanaka and Bo-Ling Chen is opening this weekend in Japan.
The film is a fantasy adventure about a Japanese girl living in Taiwan and time travels to the past and falls in love with a thief. Tanaka was in a Chinese TV drama last year and had no problem with Chinese scripts. Ah, yes, of course there is kung-fu in it, I don't know how much though, and Tanaka fights with Chinese zombies.
An event was held in HMV (giant music store) in Shibuya on Thursday, where Tanaka showed off her newly-learned Chinese sword actions. Here are some pictures of the event. (Click the right arrow to see the next pic.)
Source: MSN-Mainichi
As was previously reported, "Fearless"/"Yamato" star Shido Nakamura was arrested for driving under alcoholic influence last month, and several days after the first report, the woman who was in the car with him in late night Tokyo was revealed as an actress Aya Okamoto.
Okamoto appeared on stage for the first time since this tabloid report for the press conference of a movie "Metro ni Notte" (literally "Riding on Subways"), based on a fantasy novel by Jiro Asada and directed by Tetsuo Shinohara. Okamoto plays the role of a girlfriend of the main character Shinji played by Shinichi Tsutsumi. The couple one day was walking down the stairs for a subway and time-travels to 1964, and finds out Shinji's father's secrets and his hidden emotions.
Okamoto, of course, did not answer numerous questions by the reporters related to the incident.
"Metro ni Notte" will be released in Japan on Oct. 21.
And by the way, Nakamura must be releaved that at least he did not utter any "unappropriate words" at the time of arrest like his Australian counterpart. A totally drunk female friend on the back seat? Big deal!
Source: SANSPO, Cinema Topic Online
Ryuganji reports the follow-up of casting info of "Argentine Hag" ("Argentine Babaa"). Maki Horikita ("Always - Sunset on Third Street") will join the cast.
See Ryuganji for more details.
Source: Panasonic VIERA site, SANSPO
A press conference was held for the animation film "Brave Story" on June 5, and the voice actors appeared on stage, along with Director Koichi Chiaki. Among them, Takako Matsu ("The Hidden Blade") was the birthday girl (6/10), and they all celebrated her with a birthday cake.
Matsu, who does the animation voice-over for the first time, says "my ears reacted too much to my own voice, so I guess it will take a few more years to get used to this. It was tough, but I enjoyed it."
Other voice actors include Takako Tokiwa, Yo Oizumi and Eiji Wentz. Wentz and Oizumi are planning to play leading roles in an popular manga-based monster story "Gegege no Kitaro", with which Ryuganji has LOTS of issues.
Source: Cinema Topic Online, SANSPO, Ryuganji
Japan's popular entertainment media rocked when the news of Kyoko Koizumi 's new romance rumor appeared on a tabloid photo magazine "Friday" this week. Koizumi - totally unrelated to Japan's prime minister - is a former idol 20 years ago but currently an established actress, 40 years old, divorced 2 years ago from actor Masatoshi Nagase ("The Hidden Blade"), and was the star in "Hanging Garden" which brought her Blue Ribbon Award this year. The opposite of her is 20 year old up-and-coming pop idol Kazuya Kamenashi, a member of the rock group KAT-TUN.
Now, an insider blogger Mr. Orochon explains, why didn't Janny's Jimusho, Kamenashi's agent, block the news from being published? They are notorious for tightly controling their clients' privacy, or even not letting their photos exposed on the Web (I had a hard time finding his photo on the Web). Normally this type of rumor is considered damaging, so why did they let it leak out?
Mr. Orochon speculates that clue is in "Korean boom". At the height of the boom, the most popular Korean star in Japan, Bae Yong Joon, was so puplar among mid/older women that his fans spent fortune just to visit Korea and to buy his memorabilia. Note that these older women has MUCH more money than the young students who would normally flock to KAT-TUN-type young idols.
Koizumi is in the same age group with those rich women, and is well accepted by them as an independent, cute and charming role model. So, Mr. Orochon speculates, Kamenashi camp may have thought that by connecting him with Koizumi, former Yong Joon fans would sympathize with Koizumi, fantasize their own romance with 20-year younger heartthrob (!?), and get more interested in Kamenashi after all.
Dunno what the truth is, but sure sounds valid to me. (lol)
Source: Zakzak, Nandeka Flamenco
Koizumi's "Hanging Garden" (Region 2) and Kamenashi's photo book
Takako Matsu, the star actress of Yoji Yamada's "The Hidden Blade", appears on a street corner in Tokyo to give away Suntory's "MALTS" beer to mostly "salary-man" (middle-class businessmen) crowd on March 14. Suntory is airing the new CM, in which Takanori Jinnai plays a salary-man on a bullet train, opens a can of MALTS beer, warps into a mountain with a clear water stream, and Matsu treats him with the beer.
The beautiful villain in a popular super-hero series "Kamen Rider" ("Masked Rider"), Sei Ashina was chosen to play the mysterious village girl in Italy/Canada/Japan joint project film "SILK", among 800 audition participants.
"SILK", directed by Francois Girard and starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley, as well as Koji Yakusho and Miki Nakatani from Japan, is the story of a French man Herve who travels to Japan, seeking the best silk worms. Ashina's village girl、the "ultimate beauty", strongly attracts Herve at the first glance and makes him decide to come back to Japan, despite of his beautiful wife Helene (Knightley).
Director Girard selected Ashina not only for her appearance but also her Kimono movements and inner depths, reports SANSPO. Ashina says, "I am spending the best time I ever had in my life with this filming. Director tells me to stay natural, so I am trying not to get too excited and stay calm, to be like myself."
The filming is currently done in Nagano, Japan, and will also take place in Italy, France, Egypt, Canada and Russia until the end of the year, and is aiming to enter Cannes Film Festival next year.
Source: SANSPO
For more information about SILK, especially in relation to Koji Yakusho, see Pymmik's English website for Koji Yakusho.
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