Hoga News

Martin Scorsese's "Silence" - who would play the Japanese role?

As many of you may know, Martin Scorsese just announced in Cannes that he will work on a new film "Silence" based on a novel of Japanese author Shusaku Endo.  The story is about a priest who was persecuted in 17th century Japan, where Christianity was banned strictly.

There is an important Japanese peasant role in this film, and there seem to have been much discussion about who would play this role.  I have some opinion about it, but it is TOO personal (as it relates to some of my favorite actors), so I posted my opinion on my PRIVATE blog.  My first choice would be Teruyuki Kagawa.  See below for more details.

Michi's random private blog

By the way, congrats to Naomi Kawase, who won the Grand Prix at Cannes!  I haven't seen her film - and usually Cannes quality film is not totally comprehensive to a layman like me - but anyway, I am particularly happy that a Japanese female director was honored in such a prestigeous stage!!

"BABEL" Japanese press conference clip

"BABEL" is just about to be released in Japan, and a video clip of its press conference featuring Rinko Kikuchi, Koji Yakusho, Director Alejandro Inarittu and Satoru Nikaido is on MSN Japan.

See MSN Japan

It probably will be available for the coming couple of weeks or so.  By the way, the background music of this Japanese "BABEL" trailer is its Tokyo theme, my favorite Ryuichi Sakamoto 's classic.

"Letters from Iwo Jima" weekend result

As I reported yesterday, Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" started at the top of box office last weekend, and the actual result is on Eiga.com.

Through Saturday and Sunday, attendance number was 373,000, and gross was 493 mil. yen.  The result is 86% of "The Last Samurai" (2003, final gross 13.7 bil. yen) and 263% of "Flags of our Fathers".  The number is the best so far among the holiday movies this season, according to Eiga.com.

Warner Brothers' Japanese market strategy seems to be working here - both "The Last Samurai" and "Letters" not only take up a Japan theme, but also is considered to be paying respect to Japan-side point of view, therefore are strongly supported by Japanese moviegoers (compare them with "Memoirs of a Geisha", for example).   Another example "DEATH NOTE" series is the first successful case of a Hollywood studio directly produces a Japanese movie (in partnership with NTV) for the local market.

Source:  Eiga.com

"Iwo Jima" buzz in the US

"Letters from Iwo Jima" continues to pile up the accolades, as the winner of Los Angeles Film Critics Awards today, after NBR last week.

With 200 million yen first day earnings in Japan in their bags, Ken Watanabe, his wife Kaho Minami and Tsuyoshi Ihara flew to New York for a special screening and a reception for "Letters", appearing along with director Clint Eastwood.  (See photo here.)

Hollywood Elsewhere writes an interview with Ken Watanabe here.

Source:  The Envelope.com, SANSPO, Hollywood Elsewhere

"Letters from Iwo Jima" and Rinko Kikuchi in National Board of Review award

"Letters from Iwo Jima" by director Clint Eastwood won the Best Film award at National Board of Review, while Rinko Kikuchi won the Breakthrough Performance by an Actress award.

"Letters from Iwo Jima" features Japanese actors, including Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya.  Japanese press started to make a huge buzz of potential nomination of Ninomiya and Kikuchi in the coming up Academy Awards.

See CNN for the full list of the winners.

Another "letter story about Iwo Jima" on Fuji TV

Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima", starring Ken Watanabe, will be released in Japan on December 9, the day when the Pacific War started.  On the evening of the same day, Fuji TV will air a TV special drama, "Iwo Jima: Senjo no Yubin Haitatsu" (literally "Iwo Jima:  mailman in the battle field").

The planning of the drama started totally independently by producer Kazuki Narita of Fuji TV, when he read the non-fiction story about General Kuribayashi.  Narita says, "I was thinking of a drama featuring General Kuribayashi, but I gave it up once when I heard the same story would be made into a feature movie.  Then I thought, 'but who actually delivered the mails to the island', and restarted the project from that point of view."

After some research, they found out about a young pilot Masayoshi Nemoto, so the drama will depict Nemoto and his boss Toshinosuke Ichimaru.  Nemoto will be played by Atsushi Ito ("Umizaru") and Ichimaru by Tatsuya Fuji (probably known best for "In the Realm of Senses" internationally, but wow, he was in "Umizaru" too!!??  I don't remember...).  It sounds like the budget is relatively big for a TV drama.

I have talked many times on this blog about TV stations air related TV programs before movie releases for the movie promotion purposes, but it will be a reverse case - Fuji is trying to piggyback this drama on someone else's movie.  It will be an interesting case to see how people take this "voluntary collaboration."

Source:  Yomiuri Online

"Letters from Iwo Jima" world premiere held in Tokyo

Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima", the Japanese-language companion piece of "Flags of Our Fathers", was shown at the world premiere in Tokyo on November 15.  Along with Eastwood, the leading actor Ken Watanabe, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase and Kazunari Ninomiya appeared on stage to greet 6,500 audience.  See some photos here.  (Note that Ninomiya, who probably was the biggest target of 500 fans gathered outside of the venue, does not appear on any of the photos because he belongs to Johnny's Jimusho, just as in the case of Takuya Kimura.  I personally don't know how he looks like.)

Audience heartily applauded when Eastwood stated, "the film depicts how meaningless the war is.  I would like to dedicate this movie to the young people who participated in the war."  Watanabe said, "I hope you can shre the same agony, sarrow and a little bit of joy that we experienced while shooting the movie."

And as a sidenote, Shido Nakamura, who usually gets the second spot in the cast list, was not present, because he recently made a decision not to participate in any promotional events for the film, due to the series of scandals including drunk driving and divorce matter.

"Letters from Iwo Jima" is schedule to open in Japan on December 9, and in the U.S., Warner Bros. has just decided to move up the release date to December 20 in NY, LA and possibley SF, instead of previously announced February 9, 2007.  Variety reports that the purpose is to make it eligible for Oscar consideration.

Source:  Cinema Today, SANSPO, Nikkan Sports, Variety

<Addition 11/18>

A few more pictures from the press conference are here, of Clint Eastwood, Ken Watanabe and Tsuyoshi Ihara.

Source:  CinemaCafe

Story about "Letters from Iwo Jima" script on LA Times

One of my fan friends pinged me this morning about an interesting article on LA Times on "Letters from Iwo Jima", the companion piece of "Flags of our Fathers" and is showing the Japanese side of the battle, scheduled to open this weekend in the U.S.

The article tells how Clint Eastwood got on board of both "Flags" and "Letters", how the novice Iris Yamashita got to write the script of "Letters", and what this project signifies for both Americans and Japanese.

"Letters from Iwo Jima", starring Ken Watanabe and Shido Nakamura, among others, is scheduled to be released in Japan on December 9, and in February in the U.S.

Please see the article here.  You may need to register (free registration) to read the story.

Ken Watanabe's photo from "Letters from Iwo Jima"

Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima", the sister film of "Flags of our Fathers" will be shown in Japan as the world premiere on Nov. 15.  The story is based on the real letters that Lt. Gen. Tadamichi Kuribayashi sent to his beloved families back in his home country before the battle.

Here is the star Ken Watanabe's photo, playing Lt. Gen. Kuribayashi, and supporting actors include Ryo Kase ("Soredemo Boku wa Yattenai")  and Shido Nakamura ("Fearless").

"Letters" will be released in Japan on Dec. 9, after "Flags" starting on Oct. 28.

Source:  CinemaCafe

"Abduction" press conference in Japan

A documentary film about a Japanese girl who was abducted by North Korea three decades ago, "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" by directors Patty Kim and Chris Sheridan, is scheduled to be released in Japan, finally, from November 25.  A press conference for the film was held in Tokyo on Oct. 5 together with a limited screening, the 42nd birthday of the abduction victim Megumi Yokota, inviting her parents.

Megumi's father Shigeru Yokota stated, "I thought it would be impossible to see this movie in Japan when I first heard it was being made.  I feel a bit embarrassed at the scene where we get into quarrell to each other, but it is so impressive that the film is shown to public on her 42nd birthday."

The film is already shown in the U.S. on a limited bases.

Source:  Cinema Topic Online

<10/11 addition>  Trailers can be viewed here.  Thanks to logboy.

http://www.megumiyokota.com/trailer.html