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Japanese Entertainment News & Info HERE! [part IV]
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Hanako Nanjo expecting first child
Tue, November 23, 2010 (1:15am EST)
Actress Hanako Nanjo (30) shared two pieces of happy news over the weekend. The first is that she is an expectant mother, currently five months pregnant and due to give birth next spring. The second is that she recently passed the national child care certification exam.
Nanjo got married in September to a man not in show business (37) after several months of dating. She said that she learned she was pregnant at the end of September, just after the couple returned from their honeymoon in Okinawa.
Two years ago, Nanjo started an NGO called Muryo-Juku, which deals with child education. Through her work with that organization, she decided to begin studying for the certification exam last year, just three months prior to the test. She passed in 8 of the 10 subjects, and she cleared the remaining 2 subjects in this year's test. She was notified of her certification on November 19.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Ryoko Hirosue announces pregnancy
Mon, November 22, 2010 (8:14am EST)
Ryoko Hirosue's agency announced on Monday that the actress is pregnant. According to the company's statement, Hirosue had not been feeling well, so she visited a hospital at the start of this month, where it was confirmed that she is in her 16th week of pregnancy.
Hirosue unexpectedly got married to candle artist Candle JUNE in early October, after dating for only seven months. It was widely suspected at the time that she might be pregnant, though nothing was officially announced until now. Hirosue already has a son from her previous marriage to designer Takahiro Okazawa, which ended in 2008.
Hirosue reportedly plans to continue working after the new child is born.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Karina, Kei Tanaka dating?
Tue, November 23, 2010 (6:59am EST)
 
The Daily Sports newspaper claims that actress Karina (26) and actor Kei Tanaka (26) are currently in a romantic relationship. The two have recently been seen on frequent dates at various restaurants.
According to the newspaper, Karina and Tanaka became friends when they first acted together in the 2006 drama series "Boku no Aruku Michi." They also worked together in the 2007 series "Ushi ni Negai wo: Love & Farm." Then this year, they played a couple in the film "Love Come" (released in September), and that resulted in their friendship turning into romance. It is said that the two began dating during the summer.
However, NTV reports that Karina's agency has denied the rumor, saying that it is "100% not true."
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Taiko Katoono wins 23rd Junon Superboy Contest
Tue, November 23, 2010 (7:46am EST)
The 23rd JUNON Superboy Contest concluded on Tuesday. This year's competition drew 15,132 applicants from across the country, but the final winner was 18-year-old Taiko Katoono from the Miyagi prefecture.
Organized by JUNON magazine, the contest was targeted at males between the ages of 13 and 22 who are not already signed with a management agency. The magazine's readers voted to determine 10 finalists, and 2 more from the rest of the candidates earned spots in the final round as well.
During the singing portion of the finals, Katoono sang a rendition of flumpool's "Kimi ni Todoke." He also impressed the judges during the acting portion of the competition. The judging panel consisted of comedy duo Peace, drag queen Mitz Mangrove, actor Ikki Sawamura, and model Tsubasa Masuwaka.
Several of the past winners attended the event as guests, including Teppei Koike, Yusuke Yamamoto, and Junpei Mizobata.
A few other awards were given this year:
Semi-Grand Prix: Mario Kuroba (17)
Photogenic Award: Noeru Iida (16)
Special Judges' Award: Daiki Yamazaki (15), Satoshi Tanoue (16)
Special Sponsors' Award: Souta Kouno (18), Junki Totsuka (18), Mario Kuroba (17)
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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TV Asahi's Emi Takeuchi ties the knot
Tue, November 23, 2010 (8:41am EST)
TV Asahi announcer Emi Takeuchi (34) is now married. It was first learned in May that she got engaged to an employee of a sports-related company (33). They finally registered their marriage on November 22, which is Takeuchi's birthday and is also known as "Good Couple Day" in Japan.
The couple reportedly plan to hold their wedding ceremony on December 19 at a reception hall in Tokyo.
Takeuchi has stated that she plans to continue working as a television announcer.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Mika Hazuki named 2011 Sapporo Beer Image Girl
Tue, November 23, 2010 (9:04am EST)
The 2011 Sapporo Beer Image Girl was revealed on Monday. Mika Hazuki (21), who started her career as a talento this year, will be the new face of Sapporo Beer.
The current Image Girl, gravure idol Kaori Nakamura (24), attended the presentation ceremony to pass on the symbolic sash to Hazuki.
As always, Hazuki's promotional activities will include posters, commercials, and appearances at special events.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Arashi's Masaki Aiba stars in "Bartender" drama
Tue, November 23, 2010 (5:59pm EST)
Arashi's Masaki Aiba (27) is confirmed to be starring in a drama adaptation of Araki Joh and Kenji Nagatomo's popular manga "Bartender," airing this winter. This will be Aiba's first lead drama role since last year's "My Girl."
"Bartender" has been serialized in Shueisha's Super Jump magazine since 2004, and its collected volumes have so far sold over 2.5 million copies. The protagonist is Ryu Sasakura (Aiba), a genius bartender who has won a European cocktail contest. Now back in Japan, he listens to his customers talk about their problems of work, love, and family, then helps them settle those problems through his cocktails. Other plot points include a potential romance with the story's heroine and showdowns against rival bartenders.
Aiba has been training since September with a professional bartender to learn actual cocktail-making techniques.
TV Asahi will broadcast "Bartender" in the Friday 11:15 time slot, starting in January. Supporting cast details are expected to be revealed soon.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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NHK announces official Kohaku performer lineup
Wed, November 24, 2010 (1:55am EST)
NHK has just announced the performer lineup for this year's Kohaku Uta Gassen. A total of 44 artists have been invited, with an even split of 22 on the Red Team and 22 on the White Team. 5 of them will be making their first appearance on the show, including Kana Nishino and AAA.
Some early news reports proved to be wrong: artists such as BIG BANG, KARA, and Masahiko Kondo did not make the final list.
Artists are listed in Japanese alphabetical order. The performance has not yet been announced.
Red Team:
aiko
Angela Aki
Ikimono Gakari
Sayuri Ishikawa
Kana Uemura
AKB48
Miyuki Kawanaka
Kumiko
Kumi Koda
Natsuko Godai
Sachiko Kobayashi
Fuyumi Sakamoto
Yoshimi Tendo
DREAMS COME TRUE
Mitsuko Nakamura
Kana Nishino
Ayumi Hamasaki
Perfume
Ayaka Hirahara
Nana Mizuki
Kaori Mizumori
Akiko Wada
White Team:
Arashi
Hiroshi Itsuki
HY
EXILE
NYC
Yuzo Kayama
Saburo Kitajima
Hiromi Go
Kobukuro
SMAP
TOKIO
Hideaki Tokunaga
AAA
Kiyoshi Hikawa
FUNKY MONKEY BABYS
Masaharu Fukuyama
flumpool
Takashi Hosokawa
Porno Graffiti
Shinichi Mori
Yusuke
L'Arc~en~Ciel
Kohaku Uta Gassen will run from 7:30pm to 11:45pm on December 31.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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SMAP shops add limited edition goods with theme “Are You SMAP?”
by Novaforever on November 24, 2010 at 8:20 am
It has been announced that SMAP original goods will be sold for a limited time at an official SMAP SHOP that will open for the end of the year. The store will be open from December 8th until January 10th in Tokyo’s Akasaka Sacas.
This year the store theme will be “Are You SMAP?“, and will have a similar feeling to last years theme of “Minna ga SMAP.” At the store, there will be outfits worn by the SMAP members and special comments from the members airing on televisions throughout the shop. The store will offer SMAP’s new live DVD, “We are SMAP! 2010 CONCERT DVD,” in a shop limited jacket, as well as aprons, lunch boxes, eco chopsticks, and kitchen gloves. All of these will be limited items only available at the SMAP SHOP.
As per tradition, the store will also be selling the store theme song for the year as a 390 yen single. In the past, the store has worked with Konishi Tasuharu, Nakatsuka Takeshi, and Nakata Yasutaka (capsule) for the remixed theme. This year, the chosen artist is DAISHI DANCE. He helped with the recording of “Are you SMAP?”, which will also only be available in the SMAP SHOP itself.
Fans interested in picking up all these limited edition items will have to go over to the SMAP SHOP venue personally. The store is only open for the holiday season and usually sees a lot of foot traffic. Tickets will be given out if the crowds get too heavy for the small shop.
Source: www.tokyohive.com |
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Kabuki star Ebizo taken to hospital; says he was beaten up
Thursday 25th November, 03:04 PM JST
TOKYO —
Kabuki star Ichikawa Ebizo was taken to a hospital Thursday after police received an emergency call from his home in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward reporting that he came home injured. The 32-year-old actor told police he was drinking with his friends at a restaurant in Nishi-Azabu on Wednesday night, where they met with a group of people. He went to another restaurant with the group, where he got into an argument and was beaten up, according to police.
Ebizo suffered injuries on his left eye and nose, and a broken front tooth, while he remains fully conscious, they said. The emergency call was made by his wife, television personality Mao Kobayashi. The two married in a high-profile ceremony on July 30, that was televised live.
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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Local improv comedians keep things fast, furious and funny
By David Labi
TOKYO —
TV changed Kenichi Tada’s life. Well, more like one particular show. The life insurance salesman was on a trip to the States when he caught an episode of improvisational comedy program “Whose Line is it Anyway?” When he returned to Tokyo, he ditched the suit and set about liberating his inner performer.
“In Japanese culture, people are so afraid of making mistakes that the idea of performing without a script terrifies them,” he explains. A “very accepting and supportive” workshop helped him overcome his own fears, and he now regularly performs with the Xpot improv group. Along the way, he quit the day job for a full-time career under the lights.
Was his family worried about such a radical move? “They’re still worried,” he sighs.
Tada is one of a small but growing community of improvisers in the capital, both Japanese and foreign. At the upcoming Tokyo Impro Festival, which he helped organize, 80 local performers will be doing their thing in both English and Japanese, alongside visitors from Los Angeles, Boston and Seoul. The main aim of the event, he says, is to reach out to a Japanese audience unaccustomed to on-the-fly hilarity, showing them that not everything in life must be scripted and prescribed. Simply put, it’s to “encourage people to experience improvisation for the first time.”
According to Tada, “energy, curiosity and the wish to try new things” are the key qualities needed to succeed in an art form that sits halfway between game, sport, and sheer, seat-of-the-pants entertainment. No two shows are the same in improv, though formats might be familiar. As in jazz, standards are played with different arrangements depending on the performers, the audience and the venue—all combined with the capricious whims of the Comedy Gods.
Ask Jun Imai, Japanese director of the bilingual group Tokyo Comedy Store, and he’ll tell you that there’s another key skill: listening. You can’t perform in a team if you aren’t attentive to everyone else’s antics. Someone who’s dominant, loud and funny might make for a great stand-up comedian, but in improvisation that won’t do.
Imai started off as a method actor, and it was famous casting director Yoko Narahashi who enlisted him in 1998 to interpret at classes by visiting improv guru Keith Johnstone. Working with this “inspirational figure” led Imai down the improv route himself, and it’s a path that he’d recommend to any professional actor. But why stop there? He believes it should be required for “all Japanese people, to help them open themselves up for productivity and creativity.”
“Japanese people are creative when they have something to adapt,” he continues. “Improvisation is pure creation from nothing, moment by moment. Every storyline is original.”
Having performed with his group at the Chicago Improv Festival, Tada believes the Japanese style is a little different from what you’ll find in the West. “Japanese improvisation often tells more of a story, bordering on straight theater,” he says. Audiences are also notably quieter here and less eager to participate than the loudmouth crowds in other countries. Creative solutions to this have included getting spectators to write down suggestions, or dividing performers into teams that the audience can vote on.
Still, Imai feels that the homegrown improv scene has a way to go yet. “Many groups have a tendency to stupidity,” he says of his Japanese counterparts. “Real improvisation requires truth, an honesty about what you are performing. People who don’t understand it haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen good ones—like us.”
The Tokyo Comedy Store organizes four different shows a month in Japanese at Shibuya venue Crocodile, including the Grand Prix, a kind of year-long improv premier league whose winner gets a fast-track into Hollywood auditions. Even more intriguing is the monthly “Private Life of a Drag Queen,” where both female and male performers improvise a transvestite’s daily grind.
Come the final Friday of the month, the group’s English-language performers take over. Their most recent show turned out to be quite a night: accents, impersonations, dances, sizzling repartee and an impromptu musical entitled “Plastic Surgery Street” all featured during three hours of entertainment. Musical interludes were provided by the Infinite Happiness Orchestra, a group consisting of clarinet, ukelele and a pretty-boy clown doing percussion in suspenders.
You can expect something entirely different at the next performance, but one constant is drag-queen compère Mitsubishi McQueen, a tall Aussie with astonishing legs, who was festooned with disembodied limbs for Halloween. And, at the center of the action, there’s resident improv troupe Spontaneous Confabulation, a team of seasoned pros directed by Chris Wells.
Talk improv in Tokyo, and Wells’ name will come up—usually within about four seconds. A resident of Japan for 16 years, he performed at the Tokyo Comedy Store’s first ever show and became co-director soon afterwards. Quite a few years, many performers and a couple of venues later, he’s now director.
Though he speaks fluent Japanese, Wells doesn’t often perform in the language. “Some things are very difficult to translate,” he points out. “For example, ‘Avast ye scurvy lads, hoist the mainsail.’ How can you do pirate in Japanese?”
The audience at the Crocodile shows is largely expat, which he admits “gives us a certain bond from the start. Plus they tend to be starved for live entertainment in English.”
This might slowly be changing, though. Having monopolized the English-language improv scene for yonks, the Tokyo Comedy Store was recently joined by a new face. Five years after founding the successful Pirates of the Dotombori group in Osaka, Minnesota native Mike Staffa recently launched a Kanto troupe, the Pirates of Tokyo Bay. The group, which counts performers from the U.S., Canada, France, Japan, England and Wales among its number, will debut at the Tokyo Impro Festival this month, followed by a show at Shibuya institution The Pink Cow the following night.
Staffa works for the online game company that brought you “World of Warcraft,” but he shuns virtual game-playing in favor of the on-stage variety. In Osaka, the Pirates are fully bilingual, alternating games in English and Japanese.
“The bilingual thing started when Nova… went bankrupt in 2007, and 500 expat English teachers left Osaka,” he recounts. “They were our audience base, so we had to change up. We started the bilingual show and soon we were the place for mixed couples to come on dates.” Though the Pirates of Tokyo Bay will perform purely in English at first, the plan is to start bilingual improv in the capital too.
So how do you get involved yourself? The Pirates are auditioning for new members every few months, while Wells organizes a weekly improv workshop at Our Space in Hatagaya, and a monthly session at The Pink Cow. Improv-A-Go-Go doesn’t have the professional sheen of the Tokyo Comedy Store, but if these guys are amateurs, they roll with the punches well. Newcomers are welcome to join in, too—just turn up an hour before showtime.
The crowd changes a little each time, but there are some mainstays. Jeremy Eaton, 41, works as a professional juggler at Disneyland and does a mean robot impersonation. Canadian Cleve Lendon has been taking lessons for three years and found improvisation to be life-changing, leaving him “less inhibited and less afraid of making mistakes.”
Wisconsin native Dan Hegedus agrees. “It’s a good way to be creative,” he says. “Tokyo is not a creative city. There is plenty of conformity despite the color.” And more than anything, improv represents a way to avoid “sliding down the gray gentleman slope.”
In other words: seize the moment.
* Tokyo Impro Festival 2010, through Nov 28 (International Night on Nov 27).
International improvisation summit features English- and Japanese-language performers in a variety of settings. Most performances 2,800 yen (advance)/3,000 yen (door). See website for schedule. Puk Pupa Teatro, Shinjuku. Tel: 03-3379-0234. http://tokyoimpro.jp/english.html
* The Pirates of Dotombori and Pirates of Tokyo Bay also perform at The Pink Cow on Nov 28.
Osaka-based improve comedy troupe clashes with its new Kanto sibling, Pirates of Tokyo Bay. Nov 28, 7 p.m., 1,500 yen. The Pink Cow, Shibuya. www.piratesoftokyobay.com
* The TCS Crocodile Show is held on the last Friday of every month at Crocodile: B1F, 6-18-8 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3499-5205. Nearest stn: Shibuya. www.tokyocomedy.com
* The Tokyo Comedy Store Improv Workshop is held 7-9 p.m. every Wednesday at Our Space: Toei Shoppoing Center 101, 2-1-1 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku. Nearest stn: Hatagaya. See www.meetup.com/tokyo-improv for details.
* Improv A-Go-Go usually takes place every third Thursday of the month at The Pink Cow: B1F, 1-3-18 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 03-3406-5597. Nearest stn: Shibuya. www.thepinkcow.com
This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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Anna Tsuchiya: 'No one could kill someone who looked like me'
Thursday 25th November, 03:22 AM JST
TOKYO —
Director Kinji Fukasaku’s cult 2000 film “Battle Royale” has been rereleased in 3D, with Anna Tsuchiya, 26, singing the theme song. Tsuchiya’s song is titled “Checkmate mash up Anty the kunoichi Volta Masters,” and was released on Nov 17.
Joined by one of the movie’s stars, Taro Yamamoto, Tsuchiya appeared at a screening this week, wearing a black miniskirt resembling one of the
junior high school students from the movie who get dragged into a survival game. “I think I’ve created a song that reflects the raw tension of the movie,” she said.
When asked by a journalist what she would do in the event of a real face-off, she answered, “No one would shoot a girl as cute as me.” Of her own high school days, she said, “I just hated it and would constantly think of ways to get out of going. Unfortunately, my mom was the chairwoman of the PTA, so I used to get busted immediately.”
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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'Gundam' film director speaks at Peking University
Thursday 25th November, 05:07 AM JST
BEIJING —
Japanese animation film director Yoshiyuki Tomino, known for the ‘‘Mobile Suit Gundam’’ series, has found that young Chinese ‘‘anime’’ fans remain enthusiastic despite a recent territorial row between Japan and China.
‘‘Anime possesses a tremendous power,’’ Tomino told some 600 students, some of them standing due to a shortage of chairs, at Peking University in Beijing on Tuesday, explaining the pleasures and difficulties of anime creation.
Wang Jing, a 23-year-old student, said she was ‘‘happy’’ to see Tomino and listen to his speech as she adores him. ‘‘Japanese animations give me inspiration,’’ she said.
The event was jointly organized by Peking University and Japan’s Meiji University School of Global Japanese Studies.
Previously, a series of events related to Japan had been canceled in China as Chinese sentiment toward Japan soured following recent maritime collisions between Chinese and Japanese vessels near the disputed Senkaku Islands.
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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AAA to make first appearance on NHK's 'Kohaku Uta Gassen' program
Thursday 25th November, 10:45 AM JST
TOKYO —
Pop group AAA, also known as Attack All Around, were chosen Wednesday to take part in this year’s 61st annual “Kohaku Uta Gassen” (Red and White Song Contest), the New Year’s Eve music program on NHK. It will be the group’s first appearance on the popular program.
Traditionally, the red team or “akagumi,” is composed of all female artists (or groups with female vocals), while the white team or “shirogumi” is all male (or groups with male vocals). The girls’ team will be led by Nao Matsushita, 25, while five-member band Arashi captain the white team.
AAA, which is managed by the Avex Artist Academy, consists of seven former dancers for Ayumi Hamasaki and Ami Suzuki. They made their debut five years ago. Band lead Naoya Urata, 28, said, “I’m pleased our song will be one of the few played on the last night of the year.” Vocalist Misako Uno, 24, said, “I think it’s the first time a girl will get to sing for the white team, so I feel privileged to have been granted that opportunity.”
The band’s producer, Tetsuya Komuro, 51, was arrested for fraud in 2008 and received a suspended sentence in 2009. His first comeback release after the scandal was AAA’s double A-side single “Aitai Riyu/Dream After Dream (Yume Kara Sameta Yume).” The single was released on May 5 this year, and went straight to the top of the Oricon charts. Komuro is also expected to make a “surprise” appearance on the show.
Other participants in this year’s contest include for the red team: Sayuri Ishikawa (33rd appearance), AKB48 (3rd time), Kumi Koda (6th), Ayumi Hamasaki (12th), Perfume (3rd), Akiko Wada (34th), Angela Aki (5th), Dreams Come True (14th), and three first-timers—Kana Uemura, Kumiko and Kana Nishino.
Participants for the white team include Hiroshi Itsuki (40th time), Exile (6th), Saburo Kitajima (47th), Hiromi Go (23rd), SMAP (18th), Kiyoshi Hikawa (11th), Shinichi Mori (43rd) and L’Arc~en~Ciel (4th).
The show will be broadcast on NHK from 7:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Source: www.japantoday.com |
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Charts: Masaharu Fukuyama, KAT-TUN
Wed, November 24, 2010 (8:32am EST)
Oricon's weekly sales rankings have been released, and as reported a couple days ago, Masaharu Fukuyama's album "THE BEST BANG!!" sold 381,000 copies to set this year's record for first-week album sales by a solo artist.
Mai Kuraki entered the charts at #3, with the latest Hexagon All Stars release right behind her at #4. Elephant Kashimashi ranked #8, slightly ahead of SCANDAL at #9.
On the singles chart, KAT-TUN's "CHANGE UR WORLD" was #1 with 231,000 copies sold. All 13 of their singles have been number-ones, and all of them have also sold more than 200,000 copies in their first week.
At #2 was SKE48's "1! 2! 3! 4! Yoroshiku," setting their personal record for first-week sales at 120,000 copies. Kobukuro took #3 with their newest single. Almost all of the other top ten singles this week were new, starting with AAA at #5, followed in order by Morning Musume, Maki Ohguro, FTIsland, and two "K-On!!" character songs.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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BIG BANG sues publisher over unauthorized magazine
Wed, November 24, 2010 (8:55am EST)
Korean group BIG BANG has filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against Oakla Publishing over unauthorized use of their image and name in a magazine. The group is seeking an injunction against the sale of the magazine, along with approximately 30 million yen in damages.
In October, Oakla released a special magazine titled "Saishun K-POP Star Tokubetsu Henshu BIG BANG." According to the lawsuit, Oakla did not obtain permission to use the images and names of the group's members. Because this is a commercial use of their identity, it would count as an infringement on their right to publicity.
Oakla was unable to comment by the time of the news report, due to the absence of the person in charge of the project.
This is not the first time that the publisher has been sued for unauthorized use of someone's likeness. Korean actor Bae Yong Joon also filed a suit previously with the Tokyo District Court, and last month Oakla was ordered to pay 4.4 million yen in damages.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Post Last Edit by whitedove at 26-11-2010 17:47
EXILE's ATSUSHI taken to hospital for stomach pains
Wed, November 24, 2010 (9:36am EST)
EXILE vocalist ATSUSHI (30) was taken to the hospital for stomach pains on Wednesday morning, it has been learned. He was diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis, and he is currently resting at home.
The cause of his illness appears to be some unagi from a meal delivery service that he ate on Tuesday night while at a recording studio in Tokyo. Early the next morning at the hotel where he was staying, he complained of stomach pains and experienced vomiting. He informed his manager, who had him taken to the hospital at around 5:30am.
ATSUSHI is likely to be back in action very soon.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Avex talks about TVXQ's revival and new K-pop contracts
Wed, November 24, 2010 (10:05am EST)
 
Avex made some announcements on Wednesday regarding its contracts with several Korean artists, particularly TVXQ. That group, which has been on hiatus since April of this year, will be resuming activities with only two of its five members - Yunho and Changmin.
Contract issues led to a fallout between TVXQ's members and their Korean management agency, SM Entertainment. Since April, the other three members of TVXQ - Junsu, Jejung, and Yuchun - have been signed with a different agency, and they have been performing under the name JYJ for several months. However, SM Entertainment stated that Yunho and Changmin "have not given up on the dream of TVXQ." As a result, they will revive the TVXQ name in 2011.
Details of their activities are still unknown, but they are expected to restart in January. According to Sankei Sports, one source has said that a new song is already in production for a planned CD release in Japan.
Besides TVXQ, Avex has had contracts with two other SM Entertainment artists, BoA and J-Min, for several years. On Wednesday, they re-announced that they have completed exclusive contracts with two more artists, SUPER JUNIOR and f(x).
It was already revealed several weeks ago that SUPER JUNIOR will be holding three concerts at Yokohama Arena next February to accompany their debut release.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Kana Tachibana to leave Dream
Wed, November 24, 2010 (10:30am EST)
Girl group Dream has announced on its website that member Kana will be leaving next year. According to the message, Kana stated, "Even though I've been granted my childhood dream of becoming a singer, that's not my goal. I still have a lot to study to become the person that I really want to be." She said that she wants to always continue singing, but she has decided that she needs to grow on her own, rather than as part of Dream.
Dream has a concert tour starting on December 4 and ending on February 11. Those will be her final performances as part of the group.
Dream started in 2000 as a 3-member group, and Kana is the only remaining member from that original trio. The group currently has six members, including Kana.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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Satoshi Tsumabuki stars in Katsuhito Ishii's "Smuggler" adaptation
Wed, November 24, 2010 (5:55pm EST)
Shohei Manabe's manga series "Smuggler" is being turned into a live-action film, and the cast was revealed on Thursday. Satoshi Tsumabuki (29) will star, supported by Masatoshi Nagase, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Hikari Mitsushima, Masanobu Ando, and Tatsuya Gashuin.
Katsuhito Ishii ("Funky Forest," "The Taste of Tea") is directing. Filming is already in progress and is expected to finish in early December.
Manabe, whose other works include "Yamikin Ushijima-kun," published "Smuggler" in 2000. The story revolves around a young man named Ryosuke (Tsumabuki) who is frustrated in his dream of becoming an actor, so he takes up a part-time job in a pachinko parlor. One day, he receives an offer that seems too good to be true, and he winds up falling into massive debt. As a result, he is forced to take on a job transporting illicit goods.
"Smuggler" is expected to open in theaters in fall 2011.
Source: www.tokyograph.com |
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