Category Archives: Entertainment News

Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. (43) was in Tokyo yesterday to promote the movie “Iron Man,” attending a press conference at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. The movie has been a smash hit worldwide, putting Downey back on top in Hollywood after drugs and prison had almost put an end to his career. The last time he was in Japan was before all that, when he was promoting his Oscar-nominated role in “Chaplin” in 1993. When asked why he went for the role of a superhero, the actor regarded as one of the best of his generation said, “I got tired of making movies that nobody saw. And I figured that after 25 years of making movies, I was bound to have one good year.” That he is, with the Ben Stiller-directed comedy “Tropic Thunder” also currently enjoying box office success in the U.S. “Iron Man” opens in Japan on September 27, while a sequel is already scheduled for release in April 2010.

• Singer-songwriter Oda Kazumasa (60) is to be the oldest ever solo artist to play a concert tour of Japan’s domes. Currently on a 29-city national tour, he announced to fans in Nagoya this week that he will start at Tokyo Dome on November 26-27. By that time, he will be 61 years and 2 months old, beating the record set by the then 60-year-old Paul McCartney in 2002. Oda last performed at Tokyo Dome in February 1989 when his band Of Course held their farewell concert. Since then he has maintained a consistently successful solo career, with a string of hits including “Love Story wa Totsuzen ni” and “Kotoba ni Dekinai.” The dome tour will begin shortly after the November 5 release of his 46th single, “Kyou mo Dokokade.” The tour will also include shows at Nagoya Dome (December 6), and Kyocera Dome Osaka (December 20). Combined with his current tour, Oda will perform to over half a million people this year.

• Last night, Oshii Mamoru’s “The Sky Crawlers” was the last of the three Japanese entries to be screened in the competition at the Venice International Film Festival. The movie has been far less of a commercial success at home than “Gake no Ue no Ponyo,” the summer’s other big anime release from Miyazaki Hayao and a favorite for the Golden Lion. But it received an enthusiastic standing ovation from the Venice audience, who enjoyed the mix of beautiful imagery and philosophical themes. Some said however that they had trouble following the story. Oshii, who attended along with actress Kikuchi Rinko and actor Kase Ryo, said, “I was touched by the long ovation. I had a good time. Now we just wait for awards announcement.”

• NHK is to air a documentary that offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at Japan’s best-selling rock band. “B’z” is to air on October 6 and will feature long interviews with guitarist Matsumoto Takahiro (47) and singer Inaba Koji (43). The show is also the first time the duo have allowed TV cameras backstage. B’z have sold over 80 million CDs over a 20-year career and recently became the first ever Asian artists inducted into the Hollywood Rock Walk.

• Less than a year since her debut, singer Nishino Kana (19) is to be the opening act on Cyndi Lauper’s upcoming Japan tour. Still a student at university, Nishino released her debut single “I” in Japan and the U.S. in February. Though she recently performed a mini concert in Tokyo as part of a PR visit, Lauper (55) will start her first Japan tour in 12 years at the Grand Cube Osaka on September 23. The following night, Nishino will be warming up the audience at none other than the venerable Nippon Budokan.

The Japanese movie “Okuribito” (Departures) has won the top prize at the 32nd Montreal World Film Festival. One of the 12 big film festivals worldwide, Montreal is the biggest in North America with a competition category and its top award is aptly called the Grand Prix of the Americas. Okuribito won in a field of 32 entries from around the world, making director Takita Yojiro (52) the second Japanese winner in three years – Okuda Eiji’s “Nagai Sanpo” (A Long Walk) took the top jury prize in 2006. But neither he, the cast or any of the movie’s staff were on hand to receive the prize. Star Motoki Masahiro (42) was already back in Japan filming an NHK drama when he heard the news. “I learned from this film that the themes of life and death, and the ties that bind them are universal and beyond culture,” he said. In a moving and often humorous drama of human dignity and family bonds, “Mokkun” plays an out-of-work cellist who leaves Tokyo to return to his hometown to become an undertaker, ritually cleansing and placing the deceased into coffins at funeral ceremonies. “Okuribito,” which also stars Hirosue Ryoko (28), opens in Japanese theaters on September 13.

Meanwhile, director Kimizuka Riyoichi and writer Suzuki Satoshi won a share of the screenplay award for their work on “Dare mo Mamotte Kurenai” (Nobody to Watch Over Me), a serious drama starring Sato Koichi (47) as a police detective whose mission is to protect the sister (Shida Mirai) of a juvenile arrested on suspicion of murder. Sato’s father, actor Mikuni Rentaro (85), was a two-time major award winner in Montreal in the 1980s.

• Musician Daigo (30) is enjoying a high profile these days. The grandson of former prime minister Takeshita Noboru (1924-2000), he is also the vocalist of rock band Breakerz. Their song “Shakunetsu” (literally “red hot”) is to be used as the closing theme for the Japanese dub of the Hollywood comic book adaptation “Wanted.” Daigo also dubbed the lead role of Wesley Gibson, played by James McAvoy (29), who was on the PR trail in Tokyo on Monday. See a photo and read more in our Japan Forum thread “Stoopid is the new Cool in Japan”.

Critics and movie fans alike are raving about Japan’s entries at the Venice International Film Festival. “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), the latest anime feature from Miyazaki Hayao (67), had its screening on Sunday and received a five-minute standing ovation. Afterwards, in a scene such as organizers said they’d never seen before, the “maestro” was mobbed by autograph hunters (photo). Of the 21 movies entered in the competition, nine had been screened as of Sunday and Ponyo had received the best newspaper reviews so far. Four of the major papers gave it four stars, while Il Manifesto gave it the maximum five. And the Hollywood Reporter website has described Ponyo as the only “masterpiece” so far in an otherwise “lethargic” festival. Up until Monday’s reviews, the best-received film had been Kitano Takeshi’s “Akiresu to Kame” (Achilles and the Tortoise), so the chances of a Japanese movie taking the Golden Lion have to be considered good.

• Former bikini model Inoue Waka (28) has been chosen as a last-minute replacement for Hatano Hiroko (32) in the TV Asahi drama series “Salaryman Kintaro.” On August 19, just days before filming was scheduled to start, Hatano announced her pregnancy and marriage to J-League soccer star Suzuki Keita (27). She has a long history with the drama, making her debut as an actress on the first series in 1999. There have been four series based on the popular manga, all on the TBS network and starring Takahashi Katsunori (43), with the last airing in 2004. The switch to a different network, and with Nagai Masaru (30) as the new leading man, is very rare. Inoue and Nagai have worked together before, co-starring in the 2006 TV Asahi series “Kuroi Taiyo.” Meanwhile, the theme song for the series will be a tune by popular duo Yuzu. Their connection with Kintaro goes back to 2000, when the manga’s creator Motomiya Hiroshi (61) did the jacket design for their single “Aa Seishun no Hibi.” In a further coincidence, Yuzu member Kitagawa Yujin (31) will have another role in the autumn drama season, co-starring with Horikita Maki (19) in the Fuji TV series “Innocent Love.”

• Amuro Namie‘s latest hits collection, “Best Fiction,” is on top of the Oricon album chart for the fifth straight week. So far sales have reached over 1.25 million, putting it at least 70,000 ahead of the year’s next best seller, “Exile Catchy Best.” It’s the first album in almost 11 years to achieve the defeat – a Glay hits album did it at the end of 1997 – and the first in 25 years by a solo female artist (the last was Nakamori Akina’s “Memoir” in 1983).

• NTV’s annual weekend telethon did as well as expected in the audience ratings. Overall, it had an 18.6% rating, tied with last year for the show’s second-best ever result. As usual the high point was the emotional arrival at Nippon Budokan of the celebrity marathon runner. As comedienne Edo Harumi completed her grueling 113km run, the rating jumped to a peak of 41.1%. It was the highest ever for a female runner and third highest overall, behind last year’s run by veteran comedian Hagimoto Kinichi (67) and lawyer (now politician) Maruyama Kazuya (62) in 2005.

Young actor Yagira Yuya (18) was rushed to hospital early Friday morning after a drug overdose at his family’s Tokyo apartment. Though his condition was initially serious, his life was not thought to be in danger. Initial media reports said he had taken about 100 tranquilizers and speculated that it was an attempted suicide. Yagira apologized and wrote a clarification on his blog yesterday. “The incident followed an argument with my family. In a fit of anger I took a larger than usual dosage of my prescription tranquilizers. As a synthroidnews.net I felt ill and asked for an ambulance to be called.” He left the hospital later the same day and is said to be recovering well. Yagira made international headlines in 2004 when he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes film festival at the age of 14 for his performance in “Dare mo Shiranai” (Nobody Knows) and he has made a movie a year since. He had written in his blog earlier this month that he had been in poor health since last September’s release of the movie “Houtai Club,” and that his public exposure had suffered as a result.

• The weekend saw the opening of the 65th Venice International Film Festival, and a surprise announcement from anime director Miyazaki Hayao (67). At a packed press conference the night before Sunday’s screening of the latest Studio Ghibli feature, “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), he revealed that he is now a grandfather. His son Goro, who directed the 2006 Ghibli film “Gedo Senki” (Tales from Earthsea), became a father on August 11, just a week before Ponyo opened in Japan. The movie was the biggest hit of the summer, breaking the ¥10 billion mark in its first month. It’s one of three Japanese movies competing for this year’s Golden Lion, along with entries from Kitano Takeshi and Oshii Mamoru. Miyazaki has been recognized at Venice before, receiving the Osella award for technical achievement in 2001 for “Hauru no Ugoku Shiro” (Howl’s Moving Castle) and an Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion in 2002.

Meanwhile, Kitano has already returned from Venice. He told reporters at Narita Airport that he was returning for the scheduled recording of a TV show and that producer Mori Masayuki will be attending the Venice awards ceremony. Asked whether “Akiresu to Kame” (Achilles and the Tortoise) was likely to win him a second Golden Lion, he said “It was certainly well received. And the critics liked it. All the feedback was good but I’m trying not to keep my hopes up.”

• Another name can now be added to the list of Japanese celebrity grandfathers, that of Hollywood star Watanabe Ken (48). His son, actor Watanabe Dai (24) announced on his blog yesterday that a baby boy was born the day before. The new arrival came just a week after Dai celebrated his first movie starring role, in the historical baseball drama “Last Game.”

• The big TV event of the weekend was NTV’s annual 24-hour telethon. Female celebrities stole the show, with comedienne Edo Harumi completing a 117km run and staggering into Nippon Budokan in time for show’s finale. Pop quartet Speed got back together for the first time in more than four years, and the “Madonna Japan” Olympic softball gold medalists also appeared on the show.

• Edo’s fellow Yoshimoto Kogyo comedian Hazama Kampei (58), a keen runner for many years, announced that he has an even bigger project in the works – running around the world. “I’ll be heading east, so if I return from the east, you’ll know I’ve given up!” He will cross the Pacific and Atlantic by yacht, but otherwise will run the entire 36,000km across North America, Europe and Asia. His “Earth Marathon” will start in Osaka on December 17 and is expected to take about two and a half years – an average of about 40km per day – during which time he will not return to Japan. As the run is part of Yoshimoto’s centenary celebrations in 2012, they may be expecting it to take more than three years. Hazama has run NTV’s marathon three times in the past, aiming for 200km the first two times (in 1992-93) and running 600km from Kobe to Tokyo over the course of a week in 1995 following the major earthquake in Kobe.

It looks like R&B singer Che’Nelle is getting a serious marketing push. Currently the poster girl for popular lingerie brand Peach John, she performed a mini concert in front of the 109 building in the middle of Shibuya yesterday. She and her back dancers wore Peach John as she performed “First Love,” the song that is currently used in the company’s TV commercials, and “I Fell in Love With the DJ” from a just released special edition of her album “Things Happen For a Reason”. It’s been a year since the album was a hit here, spending two weeks at the top of the Oricon foreign artist chart, and “…DJ” is described by EMI as a “mega hit” and a “girl’s anthem.” Yet the local media can’t seem to agree on Che’Nelle’s background, with some saying she’s from Australia, others calling her an American and none seem to have any idea of her age. She was actually born in 1983 in Malaysia to a Chinese Malaysian father and Indian-Dutch mother, and her real name is Cheryline Lim. She and her family moved to Perth, Australia when she was ten.

She certainly has her young female fans in Japan, where she is called the “R&B Diamond.” Many fans gathered yesterday in front of 109, the fashion mecca where Che’Nelle says she often shops, and no doubt they’ll be heading to Studio Alta in Shinjuku this afternoon, where she’s scheduled to make an appearance on the live “Waratte Iitomo” variety show.

V6 member Okada Junichi (27) and actress Aoi Yu (23) are the latest celebrity couple, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Friday.” The pair were recently spotted out shopping together and having dinner at Aoi’s apartment in Tokyo. They were photographed sharing an umbrella, which in Japan is considered the very symbol of a romantic relationship. Management for both stars have refused to comment on the story but Aoi’s agency said they have been friends since working together on the 2005 TBS drama series “Tiger & Dragon.” Sources say they have had an on-again, off-again relationship since then. One of the established Johnny’s Jimusho boy bands, V6 play the National Gymnasium in Tokyo tonight as part of their “2008 Vibes” concert tour. But in addition to his pop career, Okada is also gaining a solid reputation as an actor and is considered a bright prospect for the future. Aoi made her movie debut in 2001 but moved into the spotlight with an acclaimed performance in the 2006 movie “Hula Girls,” which won her several awards.

Canadian superstar Celine Dion (40) is to provide the Japanese language theme song for the upcoming movie “Maboroshi no Yamataikoku.” A bilingual version of the song “A World to Believe In,” a duet with local singer Ito Yuna (25), was released as a single by Ito in January. The original was included on Dion’s album “Taking Chances,” but she has recorded a new, totally Japanese version. Meeting with Japanese reporters this week in Montreal (photo), where she is currently on tour, she said she felt it was both an honor and a great responsibility for her to provide the “voice” of one of the most iconic of Japan’s historical figures. “Japanese is a beautiful language,” she said. “I learned the lyrics and their meaning in great detail. But the most important thing is how they sound.”

In the movie, Yoshinaga Sayuri plays the dual roles of a woman helping her blind husband search for Japan’s lost ancient kingdom of Yamataikoku and the legendary shaman queen Himiko who ruled over it. Though her appearance as Himiko is brief, it is the marketing focal point of the movie. This brief but key climactic scene will feature the Dion song and no dialog, no doubt leading to tears in many a Japanese cinema. A Hollywood equivalent would be Jesus appearing at the end of “Titanic” as Wada Akiko belts out “My Heart Will Go On”! Read more about the movie and the queen Himiko.

Actress Fukaura Kanako died of cancer at a Tokyo hospital on Monday night, it was revealed yesterday. She was 48. An established supporting actress, she had roles in a wide variety of TV dramas and movies. According to her father, she was diagnosed with sigmoid colon cancer about five years ago and had been in and out of hospital and underwent surgery several times. But had continued working right up until what was to be her final hospitalization at the beginning of this month, after it was found that the cancer had spread to her lungs. She went into a coma on August 24 and never awoke. Her final work had been the narration of the documentary about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima that was broadcast on August 6. She began her acting career on the stage while a student at Meiji University in 1980. She started working more on TV and in movies from 1989 and her career included roles in dramas such as “Ie Naki Ko,” “Nurse no Shigoto” and “Shomuni” and movies like “Tasogare Seibei” and “Battle Royale.”

• TV Asahi and network vice-president Hayakawa Hiroshi have sued the publisher Kodansha at the Tokyo District Court. The suit, which seeks ¥200 million in libel damages and a published apology, is related to an article published in the “Shuukan Gendai” magazine in June 2007 that claimed Hayakawa was the recipient of illegal business entertainment.

As he departed Japan yesterday to attend the upcoming 65th Venice International Film Festival, Kitano Takeshi (61) made the first public mention of his next movie project. He’s off to Venice for the seventh time, with his latest movie “Akiresu to Kame” (Achilles and the Tortoise) entered in the main competition. Asked if he was nervous, he said, “It’s been, what 10 years now. I was nervous with ‘Hana-bi’ (which won the coveted Golden Lion in 1997) but I’ve been to lots of different competitions and festivals in the last ten years. So it’s nothing new to me anymore.” The festival takes place from August 27 to September 7. Once that and the opening of the new film on September 20 are out of the way, he plans to get stuck into his next project. At Narita Airport yesterday, he said it will be a samurai drama but completely different from his 2003 hit “Zatoichi.” That film was a huge commercial and critical success – it won the Silver Lion director’s prize at Venice – but Kitano’s other work in the decade before and since has been a frustrating diversion into arthouse and the downright bizarre. He’s not one to pander to public tastes and he continues to insist that he doesn’t care about the movie market, but it may be time for him to come out with another commercial success or risk tarnishing his reputation further.

Meanwhile, asked about the career of Yamamoto Mona, the announcer who can’t seem to keep away from married men and is represented by his Office Kitano agency, Kitano said he has no plans to get her career back on track this time. He supported her through a similar incident a few years ago but this time says, “We represent her and if necessary we’ll discipline her. But it hasn’t reached that point. The whole thing became such a big deal, it’s best to wait until things calm down.”

• The audience rating figures are in for the recently completed Beijing Olympics. The highest rating was for the August 8 opening ceremony on NHK, watched by 37.3% of households. Sunday’s closing ceremony drew a rating of 25.1%. The only sports event that drew a rating over 30% was when the Japan women’s softball team won the gold medal in a major upset over a U.S. team that was previously unbeaten for 22 games. The highly anticipated women’s marathon suffered from the pre-race withdrawal of 2004 gold medalist Noguchi Mizuki due to injury and the fact that Tosa Reiko pulled up in agony half way through the race. NTV’s coverage of the event, the only non-NHK broadcast in the top 10, drew a rating of 28.1% but no doubt that figure dropped considerably after a tearful Tosa pulled out.

Southern All Stars brought another chapter of their long career to an emotional close yesterday. They left many of the 70,000 fans in tears after the last of four shows at Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, and what could possibly be their last concert performance. Japan’s most popular band and in their commemorative 30th year, they said back in May that they’ll be taking an open-ended break from 2009. They currently have no official plans to perform again this year, but frontman Kuwata Keisuke made vague reassuring comments suggesting they would return in the future in some form. After a set that included 46 songs and was performed in the rain, Kuwata and his wife, keyboard player Hara Yuko, shed a few tears themselves as they thanked the fans for their many years of support. The band’s latest single, “I Am Your Singer,” is currently on top of the charts.

• Johnny’s Jimusho announced yesterday that SMAP‘s upcoming nationwide dome tour will start with six nights at Tokyo Dome. The September 24-26 and 28-30 shows will be most ever at the venue by a Japanese artist, beating rockers Glay who played five nights there in 1999. A new album will go on sale on the day of the first show. “Super.Modern.Artistic.Performance” features collaborations with Burt Baccarach and the Black Eyed Peas’ Will.i.am. The group usually tour in the summer but have been busy this year with Olympic-related projects for TBS, including the network’s Olympic theme song “Kono Toki, Kitto Yume Ja Nai”.

• A couple of veteran rockers recently announced upcoming visits to this country. The “Godfather of Heavy Metal,” Ozzy Osbourne (59), will be here in October for his first Japan show in six and a half years. Fittingly, the October 27 venue will be the venerable Nippon Budokan. And Jackson Browne (59) will have a show in Osaka and two in Tokyo in late November. He turns 60 in October, while Osbourne has his “kanreki” (60th birthday, when Japanese people traditionally wear red) in December.

• Arriving a bit earlier will be Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. He’ll be in Tokyo on September 2 to promote “Ironman,” the superhero flick that has relaunched his once glittering career. He was last in Japan at the height of that fame in 1993, when he was promoting his Oscar-nominated role in “Chaplin.” Clearly, Japan’s policy of not allowing convicted drug offenders into the country is a thing of the past.