Actor Takenouchi Yutaka (36) has landed his first movie starring role in six years. Directed by Togashi Shin, “Ano Sora wa Oboeteru” is only the second starring role for the popular actor, who last starred with Kelly Chan in 2001’s romance “Reisei to Jonetsu no Aida”. That movie role won Takenouchi a Japan Academy Award. The years since then have seen him working on TV dramas, most recently alongside hugely popular Korean actress Choi Ji Woo in last year’s “Rinbukyoku” on TBS. “Ano Sora…” is based on the novel “Wenny Has Wings” by American writer Janet Lee Carey, an award-winning author of books for children. The story has been described as “a powerful, emotional story about learning to cope with grief and loss.” Takenouchi and Mizuno Miki (33) play the happy parents of two children living in a small city in Japan who are hit by tragedy. Togashi said of Takenouchi, “The role calls for a certain naivety, and he seemed to fit the part perfectly.” Filming begins at the end of this month.
• Hollywood star Catherine Zeta Jones (37) arrived in Japan for the second time yesterday. She’s in Tokyo to promote the Scott Hicks-directed movie “No Reservations”, which opens in theaters on September 29. The Japan premiere will be held tomorrow and Zeta Jones will give a press conference on Wednesday. The last time she was here was in January 2006 to promote “The Legend of Zorro”.
Okinawan rock trio Mongol 800 have taken part in their first TV documentary. The three Urasoe High School friends took the music world by storm in 2001 when the independent label album “Message” made No.1 on the Oricon charts and racked up a phenomenal sales total of 3 million. But despite their huge success, they refused to appear on TV and even turned down an invitation to the annual New Year’s Eve Kohaku show on NHK in 2002. It wasn’t until they were in the editing room in July working on a DVD project that they became interested in the visual side of their work. Once again it was NHK who approached them about filming their July-August tour of southern Japan. “Monpachi”, as they are known to fans, toured 10 locations in Kagoshima and the outlying Okinawan islands. Playing in small venues such as hotel reception rooms and public halls, they had to deal with blackouts and turbulent tropical weather. The documentary will air in the 10pm “Premium 10” slot on September 21.
The eldest son of actor Okazaki Jiro was arrested yesterday for attempted murder. Okazaki Rei (28) gave himself up to police in central Tokyo and was held on suspicion of having stabbed a 52-year-old movie producer at a nearby production company office. The victim was stabbed twice, in the thigh and groin, with a 10cm mountaineering knife. The attack was related to a dispute between the two that has been ongoing since Okazaki was fired from the company six months ago. He visited the office to ask for work but the producer continued speaking on the phone. Okazaki attacked the man because, “I thought he was ignoring me.” Real name Kuraoka Hiroyuki, Okazaki has appeared mostly in so-called “V-cinema”, or direct to video, crime movies. The elder Okazaki (63) had a small part in the classic 1982 Sci-Fi movie “Bladerunner”.
Actor Hagiwara Kenichi (57) is in trouble with the law yet again. It was revealed by the police yesterday that the actor commonly known by his nickname “Shoken” was spotted speeding on August 10 in Tokyo. A speed gun showed he was doing 97km/h in a 60km/h zone. He presented himself to police on September 6 and said he had been hurrying to a party at his home in Yokohama. Hagiwara caused a traffic accident in 2004 and was fined ¥400,000. Later that same year he was found guilty of attempted blackmail in connection with a canceled movie role and given an 18-month jail sentence, suspended for three years.
Several stars of the Japanese pop world had babies over the weekend. Aikawa Nanase (32) announced yesterday that she had her first child, a baby boy, on Sunday. She plans to return to work after taking maternity leave. Also intending to continue her singing career is Kiroro vocalist Tamashiro Chiharu (30), who had her second baby also on Sunday. She and her pianist partner Kinjou Ayano (29) both got married in 2005 and had their first babies around the same time. Meanwhile, Kobukuro vocalist Kuroda Shunsuke (30, photo left) became a father for the first time on Saturday, when his wife had a baby boy. Kobukuro are an easy duo to spot – at 193cm, Kuroda towers above his musical partner Kobuchi Kentaro (30).
Sex and violence seem to have won the day at the Venice International Film Festival. The prestigious Golden Lion went to Ang Lee for the second time, for “Lust, Caution”, which features long and often violent sex scenes that are rumored to have been real. The Silver Lion was awarded to Brian De Palma for “Redacted”, which features a reenactment of the violent rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by U.S. soldiers in 2006. Of the Japanese contenders, Miike Takashi’s “Sukiyaki Western Django” was considered a strong outsider after its official screening received a rapturous standing ovation. But in the end the quirky mix of jidaigeki and spaghetti western was passed over in favor of Taiwanese director Lee’s sexually explicit spy thriller. The win comes just two years after Lee won with “Brokeback Mountain.” Another Japanese entry that missed out was Aoyama Shinji’s “Sad Vacation”, which opened the festival’s Horizons section for cutting edge cinema.
Comedian Ochi Yosuke (35) has repeated his world-dominating guitar solo showmanship, winning the World Air Guitar Championship in Oulu, Finland for the second year running. One half of the little-known comic duo Dainoji, Ochi’s win last year propelled him to fame and a year’s worth of regular TV appearances. The Yoshimoto comedian made the most of his stage experience to add a comic touch to the usual striding, guitar hero bravado as he mimed to the Offspring’s classic “Come Out and Play”. The panel of four judges gave contestants scores out of six, based on stage persona, technical skill and a quality known as “airness”. Ochi gets to bask in the glory of being just the second two-time winner, and he also received a custom-made Flying Finn electric guitar worth $3,400. He arrived back in Japan on Finnair on Saturday morning, and got a hero’s welcome at Narita Airport. Reporters and cameras from all the networks were there to greet him, unlike last year when his feat was met at home mostly by puzzled looks. Ochi says he now has his sights on a first-ever three-peat.
Indie duo Def Tech are breaking up after a highly successful but very short run. In their first year, 2005, they proved that major commercial success is possible in Japan even for an act not signed to a major record label. The pairing of Japan native Micro (27) and Chinese-born Hawaiian Shen (26) were introduced in 2001 by Jesse, vocalist of the rock group Rize, and formed Def Tech in January 2005 (other occasional members were Playa T and Lafa Taylor). Signed to the Hawaiian production company Vice Versa Entertainment, they created a new genre for themselves, dubbed “Jawaiian Reggae” (Japanese + Hawaiian + Reggae). The song “My Way”, taken from their eponymous debut album, was used in a TV commercial and sold over 2.2 million copies. They were the third best-selling artists of 2005 and were invited to appear on NHK’s annual Kohaku Uta Gassen on New Year’s Eve. But a nationwide tour in 2006 exposed musical differences between Micro and Shen, and the latter returned to Hawaii. In November 2006, Micro announced at Shen’s wedding reception in Tokyo that Def Tech wouldn’t break up, but the reunion never happened. The decision to make the split formal was made at the beginning of this month. Shen is the son of renowned applied linguist JD Brown, with whom he often visited Japan in his youth. He is planning to make his major label debut next year. Tokyo native Micro, whose real name is Nishimiya Yuki formed the Primary Color Recordz label under the Universal Music umbrella in February 2007.
It seems that talento and former news announcer Yamamoto Mona (31) is back with her old boyfriend. Today’s issue of weekly gossip magazine “Friday” has photos of her in a romantic clinch, this time not with married politician Hosono Goshi (36) but with a famous game software creator. Yamamoto’s career was just taking off a year ago when her romance with the 40-something “M-san” was reported by Friday. But in September 2006,