Talento Abiru Yu (18) has made her TV comeback after a couple of months away from the small screen. She caused a huge fuss when she admitted on a late-night variety show in February that she and friends had been involved in stealing on a regular basis from a store. The NTV network also took a lot of heat for airing a show with only the slightest warning that shoplifting was a crime. Abiru appeared yesterday on the TBS morning variety show “Akko ni Omakase,” where she apologized but still got a good dressing down from veteran singer and “God-sister” of the showbiz world Wada Akiko. She also appeared on a different show last Tuesday, but there was no mention of the incident.
• Actress and former idol singer Minamino Yoko (37) is making her “comeback” as a singer. “Nanno Box,” a DVD and CD box set to commemorate the 20th anniversary of her debut, includes the newly recorded track “Last Order.” her slight and wispy voice is said to have changed little and listening to the track will transport fans back to her heyday in the Heisei era. The box set includes her nine albums as well as various singles, B sides and video clips of her many TV commercials. It goes on sale June 22.
• Singer songwriter Yaida Hitomi (26) yesterday recorded her session for MTV “Unplugged” at the Tokyo FM Hall. She is the 4th Japanese to appear on the show, afer Chage & Aska, Utada Hikaru and Hirai Ken.
There will be a strong Japanese presence at the upcoming Cannes Film Festival. “Umoregi,” the latest feature from Oguri Kohei (photo), had both the official selection committee and the Director’s Week organizers fighting over it. They agreed to “co-sponsor” it and it will be shown as part of the Director’s Week lineup. The title “umoregi” means lignite, a rare fossil wood. Oguri’s “Shi no Toge” (The Sting of Death) won the Grand Prix and the International Critic’s Award at Cannes in 1990. Also: Kobayashi Masahiro’s “Bashing” is entered for the Palme d’Or competition section; “Operetta Tanuki Goten,” starring Odagiri Jo and Zhang Ziyi and directed by Suzuki Seijun, will get it’s world premiere; “Eli, Eli, Lema, Sabacthani,” starring Asano Tadanobu and directed by Aoyama Shinji; and newcomer Uchida Kenji’s “Unmei Janai Hito” has been chosen for the Critic’s Week.
Entertainer Pooru (Paul) Maki died early yesterday morning after jumping from the balcony of his Tokyo apartment. He was 63. Police found evidence of his having climbed onto the railings of his 9th-floor Nishi-Shinjuku apartment and are treating the death as a suicide. He is believed to have jumped at around 4:48am and was found by a taxi driver seconds later. He was taken to the nearby Tokyo Medical University Hospital but died about two hours later. The driver said, “I was driving when I heard a thud. His lower body was bleeding very badly and he was already unconscious.” Maki had two children but divorced his wife in 2000. He is said to have had a history of depression and recently had been undergoing treatment after seeing his career on the variety circuit dwindle away. He also took an overdose of sleeping pills back in 1983, though he denied that it was a suicide attempt. Real name Hanzawa Kazumichi, he was born into a Hokkaido Buddhist temple family in 1941. He started to study to become a monk at the age of 10, but gave it up at 17 and came to Tokyo. he went through dozens of jobs before becoming a comedian. He achieved fame in the early 1970s with something as simple as a finger snapping routine, which became his trademark. he set up his own theater group in 1979 and also was a regular on the TV variety circuit throughout the 80s and early 90s.
Only yesterday we reported on a major divorce story and also the return to the spotlight of singer Go Hiromi (49). Well, it turns out that Go himself is getting divorced. He announced yesterday on his official web site that he and his wife Nami (34) are to split, saying it was a mutually agreed decision. The couple married in November 2000. It was Go’s second marriage – he was married to former actress Nitani Yurie from 1987 to 1998. Nami is the daughter of a wealthy New York-based entrepreneur.
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“Engine,” the new Monday night Fuji TV drama series starring Kimura Takuya (32), got a flying start off the grid. It is the only drama series in the spring lineup to break the 20% viewer rating barrier, pulling in 25.3%. At the other end of the scale, the new variety show hosted by long-time News Station host Kume Hiroshi (photo, 60) has had a terrible start. Titled “A,” the NTV show seeks to use “live” Internet feeds to look at daily life in other Asian countries. But as the show was recorded a month ago, it failed to keep up with the recent problems developing between Japan and neighbors Korea and China. The first show, at 8pm on Sunday, only drew an audience rating of 9.3% despite the fact that the popular Kume was making his comeback after taking a year off.
Actor Kashiwabara Takashi (28) is back at work after a break for “self-discipline.” He started shooting on the movie “Juusankagetsu” (13 Months), the directorial debut by actor Ikeuchi Hiroyuki (28). The movie had been planned to start at the end of November last year. That date was put back to the New Year, but on December 30, Kashiwabara got into a fight over a parked car and punched the owner, a man in his 40s. He later apologized and shaved his head in the traditional sign of repentance. Ikeuchi said he would wait until his friend was ready to return to work.
Actress Adachi Yumi (23) has finally admitted a split from actor Kuroda Arthur (44). Rumors of a breakup have followed the pair over the last few months as the age gap and differing views on marriage and work put pressure on their 3-year old relationship. Adachi is said to want to continue to pursue her already nearly 20-year acting career, while the San Fransisco-born Kuroda was keen to get married. The traveled together to California last year in what some saw as an attempt to save a struggling romance. But sources say they didn’t seriously decide to split until the end of March. The breakup was mutually agreed and the pair remain friends.
Folk singer Takata Wataru died of heart failure at a hospital in Hokkaido on Saturday. He was 56. He played his last gig just two weeks ago and his health deteriorated the following day. He was one of the leading figures of the Japanese folk music boom in the 1970s.
World renowned theater director Ninogawa Yukio (66) is to take on a kabuki production for the first time. Known for his original and striking interpretations of the works of Shakespeare, he will put on a kabuki version of the Bard’s comedy “Twelfth Night” as part of the “Shichigatsu Daikabuki” (July Big Kabuki) at the Kabukiza theater in Tokyo’s Ginza. The idea came when Ninogawa cast kabuki actor Onoe Kikunosuke (27) in a 2000 production of “Greeks” alongside award-winning actress Terashima Shinobu (32). “Twelfth Night” will also feature the young actor’s father, Onoe Kikugoro (62), who has been designated a Living National Treasure.