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Weekly Album Ranking (from Oricon Chart as of 11/9/2006)
1) YUKI - Wave
2) Shonan no Kaze - Shonan no Kaze -Riders High-
3) Shikao Suga - Parade
4) Beyonce - B'Day
5) Hideaki Tokunaga - Vocalist2
6) aiko - Kanojo
7) Various Artistes - Beautiful Songs -Kokoro de Kiku Uta-
8) Kasabian - Empire
9) Various Artistes - The Very Best of Pizza of Death
10) Various Artistes - What's Up? R&B Greatest Hits |
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news: music
Sawajiri Erika (19) is the first actress in almost 12 years to make No.1 on the Oricon chart with her recording debut. She's using the name Kaoru Amane, her character in the TBS drama series "Taiyou no Uta", which is also the title of the single. She's also the first artist in almost 19 years to top the charts using a character name. Meanwhile, second on the chart is "Tarako, Tarako, Tarako", the theme song used in the latest Kewpie TV commercial. The song is sung by Kigurumi, a pair of elementary school kids who are the youngest artists ever to enter the charts in the Top 10.
Source: www.japan-zone.com |
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news: music
ORANGE RANGE have recorded the theme song for the upcoming TBS drama "Nichiyo Gekijo - Tetsuban Shojo Akane!" It's the hugely popular Okinawan band's third drama theme and 15th single, to add to the 4 albums and 3 DVDs since their debut in 2000. The new single, "Sayonara", is just their third love song and if it does as well as either of the previous two, million-seller "Hana" and "Love Parade" (half a million), it'll push their total sales over the 25 billion level. A remarkable achievement in a time when CD sales are in a prolonged slump. ORANGE RANGE are currently in the middle of a national tour.
Source: www.japan-zone.com |
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Top 10 Movies Weekly (as of 10/9/2006)
1) X-MEN: Final Decision
2) Gedo Senki
3) Pirates Of The Carribean - Dead Man's Chest
4) UDON
5) Miami Vice
6) Nihon Chinbotsu
7) Superman Returns
8) Back Dancers!
9) ROUGH
10) Guemuru Hangan no Kaibutsu
Note: In blue are Japanese movies. |
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news: movie
Actress Kimura Yoshino (30) is to make her Hollywood debut. She will star alongside Ishibashi Ryo (50) in the follow-up to last year's "Masters of Horror" series. That series of 13 one-hour horror movies featured some of the giants of the genre, including Dario Argento (Suspiria) and Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), with Japan represented by Miike Takashi (Killer1 and One Missed Call). This time around, Japan's representative will be Tsuruta Norio, the man behind "Ringu 0: Birthday" and "Yogen" (Premonition). "Dream Cruise" will feature Ishibashi as Ushijima and Kimura as his wife Yuri, in a tale taken from the short-story collection "Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara" (Dark Water). The title story was used for a movie of the same name. Ushijima is the client of Tokyo-based American lawyer Jack, to be played by an as yet unnamed Hollywood actor, who is also involved in an affair with his wife. Ishibashi has appeared in foreign movies before, including last year's Hollywood remake of "The Juon". Kimura has lived abroad and speaks good English. The movie is to start filming near Tokyo this autumn and is scheduled for release next year.
Source: www.japan-zone.com |
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September 20, 2006
Hitomi Kuroki
Actress Hitomi Kuroki is the "ideal mother" while bad-boy kabuki actor Shido Nakamura is the star "most likely to be a slack parent," according to a survey by marketing company Bright Way Co.
Almost 300 women aged around 30 voted Kuroki the top choice for "ideal mother," "most capable working mother" and "most likely to stay beautiful even after having children."
Kuroki followed up on receiving the top vote in the same three categories in a similar vote conducted last year.
Nakamura, meanwhile, was at the opposite end of the popularity scale where people were polled on how they thought stars would act as parents. He wasn't even in the rankings last year, but being caught while driving drunk in July appears to have affected his popularity. Though Nakamura apologized over the incident, it does not appear to have restored his standing amongst fans. (Mainichi)
Source: MSN-Mainichi
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/en ... a00m0et005000c.html |
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Sept 21, 2006
Lee Jun-ki Appears in Korea-Japan Joint Film
Actor Lee Jun-ki has been cast in the Korea-Japan joint production "First Snow" directed by Han Sang-hee, who earned a reputation for producing music videos by working with famous singers including Rain and Ivy.
The Japanese Sponichi Shimbun reported Wednesday that Lee had participated in the movie's first shoot in Kyoto on Monday, with rising Japanese actress Aoi Miyazaki playing opposite his character.
Lee plays a Korean university student who moves to Japan when his father gets a job there as an exchange professor. He has a brief but romantic fling with a high school girl (Miyazaki) with a complicated and difficult family background.
The film is co-sponsored by CJ Entertainment and Kadokawa Herald Pictures and produced by Guardtec, which also produced Lee's recent film "Fly Daddy Fly."
The two stars expressed their hopes in shooting the film. "I hope this film helps improve friendly relations between the two nations," Lee said. Miyazaki, who is appearing in a foreign film for the first time, said, "I will study Korean hard so that I can speak it naturally and act naturally."
The 21-year-old actress rose to stardom through her role in "Nana," which became a big hit in Japan last year. Despite her short career, she has been recognized for her performances several times. She received the best actress award at the Festival des 3Continents in 2002 and the young actress award at the Nikkan Sports Film Award.
"First Snow" will end shooting by the end of the year and be released concurrently in Korea and Japan next spring.
Source: KBS Global
http://english.kbs.co.kr/entertainment/news/1416561_11858.html
ps: whitedove... anyone... ada gambar tak... untuk Aoi Miyazaki? Thanks!
Edit: Ini Aoi Miyazaki, kan?
[ Last edited by katt at 21-9-2006 06:34 PM ] |
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Originally posted by katt at 21-9-2006 05:52 PM
Sept 21, 2006
Lee Jun-ki Appears in Korea-Japan Joint Film
Actor Lee Jun-ki has been cast in the Korea-Japa ...
gambo Aoi-chan lagi...
latest news:
Aoi Miyazaki won't be playing the part of Nana Komatsu aka Hachi in the next installment to Nana. The part will go to young actress Yui Ichikawa. |
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news: artistes
 
Koide Keisuke (22) and Saeko (19) are the latest young showbiz couple. The up and coming stars are not only popular actors but are also students at two of Japan's top universities. Koide, who made his breakthrough in last year's hugely popular NTV series "Gokusen 2", is a senior at Keio University. Over the past year he has appeared in a number of hit series, including Fuji TV's "Waterboys" and TBS's "Byakuyakou", and movies such as "Pacchigi!". He lived abroad while an elementary school student and is proficient in English and Chinese. Saeko, who is currently appearing in the movie "Back Dancers", started studying Human Sciences at Waseda University in April. The pair met when they played lovers in this year's TBS spring drama "Oishii Propose". They will be together again next month in "Nodame Cantabile", Fuji TV's adaptation of a popular manga, which will air in the prime Monday 9pm time slot.
Source: www.japan-zone.com |
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Weekly Single Ranking (from Oricon Chart as of 18/9/2006)
1) GLAY - Natsuoto/Hen na Yume ~Thousand Dreams~
2) Kaoru Amane - Taiyou no Uta
3) TOKIO - Sorafune/Do!Do!Do!
4) Kigurumi - Tarako Tarako Tarako
5) GAM - Thanks!
6) GYM - Fever to Future
7) Garnet Crow - Maboroshi
8) Haruka Ayase - Kosaten Days
9) Kaela Kimura - Tree Climbers
10) Se7en - I Wanna... |
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Weekly Album Ranking (from Oricon Chart as of 18/9/2006)
1) Koichi Dohmoto (KinKi Kids) - Mirror
2) Mihimaru GT - Mihimagic
3) Fukumimi - Fukumimi The Best Works
4) YUKI - Wave
5) Fergie from Black-Eyed Peas - Princess Fergie: The Dutchess
6) Shonan no Kaze - Shonan no Kaze -Riders High-
7) Various Artistes - Beautiful Songs -Kokoro de Kiku Uta-
8) Beyonce - B'Day
9) Shikao Suga - Parade
10) Hideaki Tokunaga - Vocalist2 |
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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
J-pop's popularity grows silently
Last Saturday, Melon-AX, a live music hall in Gwangjang-dong, eastern Seoul, was densely packed with 1,800 screaming fans of Japanese boy band ARASHI.
The most number of people that have ever gathered at the venue was celebrating the group's first official fan club meeting in Korea. The event, originally scheduled for 3 p.m., began nearly an hour later, but none of the girls, with their yearning eyes, seemed to care about the delay.
Finally the curtain rose, and the five members of the group bounded on the stage, greeted by shrill screaming from the fans. Meanwhile, one of the reporters seated in the front row of the second floor whispered: "Who the heck are these boys?"
Quietly but surely, Japanese pop musicians have been winning the hearts of young Koreans. The quintet - with well over 100,000 Korean fans in eight different fan clubs - is definitely in the frontline, but they are not the only ones.
Goto Maki, a former member of girl group Morning Musume, who visited the country earlier this month, has more than 130,000 enthusiastic "official" Korean fans registered with her fan club. Both ARASHI and Goto are scheduled to have their first concerts here in November (ARASHI on Nov. 11 and 12, and Maki on Nov. 19).
Another young, sexy female star, Koda Kumi, visited the city of Gwangju last Friday for the Third Asia Song Festival, exciting legions of her fans at the event.
"We were so surprised to see so many Korean fans coming to see us so early in the morning," said Ohno Satosh, the leader of ARASHI, looking back on their short visit to Incheon International Airport on July 31, which attracted some 2,000 fans.
Until now, Japanese entertainers have been working on becoming household names in Korea, rather than trying to earn benefits from their album sales. The situation, however, will be totally different once J-pop stars are allowed to sing and chat on local television shows, in their own language.
"It seems like, while we are blowing our own horns about the unprecedented success of Korean cultural products in Asia, Japanese pop culture has been accepted as part of a mainstream youth culture here," Chung Se-hoon, a graduate student of Kyung Hee University, told The Korea Herald.
"Our trade surplus with Japan in the pop music market can be reversed at any moment," pop columnist Kim Jung-hoon said in an interview.
So why do Korean teenagers go wild for Japanese boy bands like ARASHI, when there are so many boy bands of our own such as Shinhwa and TVXQ, who are as attractive as (and undisputedly taller than) their Japanese rivals?
"They know how to take care of their fans," said Park Bo-kyung, a high school girl at the fan meeting, of her idol. "It seems like all the members are really close to each other, which makes me like them even more," added another teenage girl who wished to remain anonymous.
During the event, which lasted for over an hour, in which the boy band sang two of their hit songs, "Wish" and the special version of "A.RA.SHI," they never sat for a moment, although they were asked to. "We cannot sit when our fans are all standing to see us," said Matsumoto Jun, the youngest member of the group.
At the end of the concert, Ohno asked their photographer to capture them with all of their Korean fans, causing exhilaration among the girls. "We'll come back in November for our first concerts here, but I want to take a few photos so as not to forget these meaningful moments," said Ohno.
One thing is sure: they are strong enough to overcome a language barrier and win lots of Korean hearts, which must be something for Korean entertainers who target the overseas pop music market to think about.
([email protected])
By Lee Yong-sung
Source: The Korea Herald
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SIT ... 27/200609270018.asp |
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Top 10 movies weekly ranking (as of 17/9/2006)
1) X-MEN: Final Edition
2) World Speed x 3 TOKYO DRIFT
3) Ultraman Mavis & Ultra Kyoudai
4) Deguchi no nai Umi
5) Gedo Senki
6) Sugar & Spice
7) Pirates of The Carribean - Dead Man's Chest
8) UDON
9) Miami Vice
10) Superman Returns
Note: In blue are Japanese movies. |
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news: movie
 
The movie sequel "Death Note, The Last Name" will open in theaters at the same time in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan, a first for an Asian movie. Since its release in June, "Death Note" has been a huge hit across East Asia, pulling in 2.8 billion yen at home and over 200 million dollars in Hong Kong, a record for a Japanese movie. It is also set to open in South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. The schedule for the sequel, as well as its world premiere in Hong Kong on October 28, were announced at a "guerilla" PR event in Tokyo yesterday. Star Fujiwara Tatsuya (24) drew screams from about 700 fans gathered in front of Shinjuku station. The event also featured a huge statue of Ryuk, the Death God, whose character is voiced by kabuki actor Nakamura Shido (34). Nakamura's recent drunk driving incident is just one of several casting a shadow over the project. The movie is based on a hugely popular manga illustrated by Obata Takeshi, who was arrested in June for possessing an army knife in his car. And cinematographer Takase Hiroshi died on September 7 from a stroke at the age of 50.
Source: www.japanzone.com |
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news: theater
For theater director Ninagawa Yukio (70), the role of Joan of Arc was made just for Matsu Takako (29), an actress he has wanted to work with again for many years. He has cast Matsu as the star of his latest production, "Hibari" (The Lark), in which she will play the 15th century heroine. The play was written by French playwright Jean Anouilh in 1953. Ninagawa and Matsu first worked together in 1995, when he cast the high school girl as Ophelia in his version of "Hamlet". Three years later, with Sanada Hiroyuki playing the Danish prince, they took the production to London. It helped cement Ninogawa's reputation as one of the world's leading Shakespeare interpreters. Over the last nine years, he has tried several times to come up with a suitable project for his favorite actress, but she has been constantly busy, including several theater runs alongside her father, Matsumoto Koshiro in "The Man From La Mancha", and a wide range of TV dramas. "Matsu-san is one of the very few Japanese actresses who can perform at the top level of international theater," he said. "This play and the role of Joan of Arc could have been written just for her." Hibari is scheduled to open at the Bunkamura Theater Cocoon next February.
Source: www.japanzone.com |
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Weekly Single Ranking (from Oricon Chart as of 25/9/2006)
1) Kaoru Amane - Taiyou no Uta
2) YUI - I Remember You
3) The Cro-Magnons - Tariho
4) TOKIO - Sorafune/Do!Do!Do!
5) Gorie - Koi no Pecori Lesson
6) Park Yong Ha - Kimi ga Saikou
7) GLAY - Natsuoto/Hen na Yume ~Thousand Dreams~
8) Kome Kome Club - Mata?Tana
9) Kigurumi - Tarako Tarako Tarako
10) You Yamada - Real You |
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Weekly Album Ranking (from Oricon Chart as of 25/9/2006)
1) SEAMO - Live Goes On
2) Mihimaru GT - Mihimagic
3) Fergie from Black-Eyed Peas - Princess Fergie: The Dutchess
4) YUKI - Wave
5) Aya Ueto - Best of Ueto Aya-Single Collection-
6) Shonan no Kaze - Shonan no Kaze -Riders High-
7) Hideaki Tokunaga - Vocalist2
8) Various Artistes - Beautiful Songs -Kokoro de Kiku Uta-
9) Fukumimi - Fukumimi Best Works
10) Crazy Ken Band - Galaxy |
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news: artiste/movie
Former X-Japan leader Yoshiki is to make his Hollywood debut. He has written the opening music and ending song to the thriller "Catacombs", produced by Gregg Hoffman, the man behind the 2004 horror hit "Saw". Based on a true story about the youth parties in the catacombs beneath 14th century Paris, it stars Shannyn Sossamon. "I don't usually like scary movies, but the artistry of this project appealed to me," said the L.A.-based former X-Japan drummer and pianist. He has worked on movies in the past, such as the anime "X" and the South Korean film "Boku no Kanojo wo Shokai Shimasu", but this is his first truly international project. The ending theme, "Blue Butterfly", is sung by Nina, an American vocalist with Yoshiki's band Violet UK. The unit has been around for several years, but planned projects - including a debut album scheduled for release a year ago - have yet to come to fruition.
Source: www.japanzone.com |
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news: movie
Yoji Yamada's final bow to the jidai geki
Written by Mark Pollard
Thursday, 28 September 2006
In advance of the release of his latest effort, TWILIGHT SAMURAI director Yoji Yamada has confirmed that he is done with making samurai movies. The announcement originally came in August at a press conference to promote BUSHI NO ICHIBUN, his third and final jidai geki.
The 74-year old veteran filmmaker has spent most of his career making comedies, but in 2002 shifted gears to take on Japan? long-enduring samurai movie genre with the release of THE TWILIGHT SAMURAI (TASOGARE SEIBEI) starring Hiroyuki Sanada. The period drama was very well received at home and abroad and was followed up with THE HIDDEN BLADE (KAKUSHI KEN ONI NO TSUME) in 2004. All three films were produced by Shochiku Co., Ltd.
 
BUSHI NO ICHIBUN, which follows the relationship between a young blind samurai (Takuya Kimura) and his wife (Rei Dan), is set to premiere at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival. The fest runs October 21st through the 29th. The film is scheduled to open in Tokyo on December 1st, 2006.
Kimura, a 33-year old TV star and member of pop music quintet SMAP, broke out on the big screen internationally in Wong Kar-wai? 2046 (2004). His ICHIBUN costar Rei Dan is a former member of the all-female Takarazuka theater troupe. Veteran actor Ken Ogata (SAMURAI REINCARNATION, IZO) also appears.
All three of Yamada? samurai films have been adapted from the works of novelist Shuhei Fujisawa. BUSHI NO ICHIBUN is based on the short story MOMOKU-KEN KODAMA-GAESHI.
The official site for BUSHI NO ICHIBUN is up, but text is in Japanese and the site appears incomplete. A teaser trailer can be found there, but it doesn? show anything of interest.
Source: http://kungfucinema.com/index.ph ... ;id=42&Itemid=9 |
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Post time 15-9-2006 04:51 PM
