Ken Watanabe's "Memories of Tomorrow" is currently shown in the U.S. on a limited basis, and I got an irresistible interview transcript of Ken, so I wrote an article on Hoga Central.
Ken Watanabe interview on Hoga Central
He talks about his love of this film, and how he perceive the serious illness like Alzheimer desease through his own experience.
Please enjoy!
Oops, this news did not make it in time for NY showing, but anyway, I just picked up a Japanese community paper with Ken Watanabe's interview regarding his film "Memories of Tomorrow". Ken plays the main role, a middle-aged businessman suffers from Alzeheimer desease, but more importantly, he is the executive producer and the man who actually started the project.
See page 9 of U.S. Frontline below:
U.S. Frontline May 4th week issue
The film was in NY from May 18-24, then will be shown in Los Angeles (Laemmle's Music Hall 3) June 8-14, then in San Francisco (location not decided) sometime in July.
So I changed the gear and now starting my "slow personal blog" mode. Sorry for not being able to have lots of update like before, but I will just go with the flow for now and write whenever/whatever I feel like.
Last week on SF Chronicle, there was a huge line-up of summer movies, and found out that two of my recent favorite Japanese flims, "Paprika" and "Hula Girls" will be shown in the U.S. I don't remember exactly the opening date - maybe Paprika in June and Hula in July or something like that.
I wrote a lot of thing about Hula Girls on "Hoga Central" main site, so please refer to it. As for "Paprika", I watched it recently and am planning to write an article with an interview with Director Kon, so please stay tuned. "Paprika" remided me a little bit of "Patlabor", one of the very few Japanese animation film that I like - with a unique mix of its sharp/cool graphics, mature humor with a bit of satire, clever use of modern technology in the story, and a huge robot destroying the town (the regular kind of fun that you expect from animation). Beautiful, beautiful graphics!!
Good thing lately is that once it has a US distribution, I can rent it from Netflix eventually, even though I miss the theatrical showing. Looking forward to it!!
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
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 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
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.
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.
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
Hitoshi Matsumoto is a big name multi-talented celebrity who marked an epoc as a comedian after "Beat" Takeshi Kitano did so, and he seems to be chasing Kitano in the next stage - film making.
Matsumoto's first film "Dai Nipponjin" (literally "Great Japanese") is supposed be a comedy, with Matsumoto wearing 4 hats as planner, screenwriter, director and main actor. But other details, including other cast, plot or even a genre, has been strictly kept secret. Now he finally announced 4 major cast members; Ryunosuke Kamiki (13-year old main actor in Takashi Miike's "Great Yokai War"), V-cinema star Riki Takeuchi, singer UA, and Matsumoto's collegue comedian Itsuji Itao ("Hanging Garden"). He also has revealed that it is "my own version of hero story" and "full of laughs, but no tears."
Now its release date is set on June 2, the exact same day as Takeshi Kitano's "Kantoku Banzai!". I am pretty sure it is planned by their marketing machine - but anyway, the two epoc-making comedians in Japan will meet in another stage again. Both are supposed to be funny movies - no tears, at least.
Source: SANPSO
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