It was announced this week that former TV personality Hozumi Yukari (35) died of heart failure last month. She was 35. A true wild child, she was best known as a model for the heroine of her father’s semi-autobiographical book “Tsumiki Kuzushi.” The bestselling novel about the internal battles of a family was also a hugely popular TV series in 1983. It was one of the first serious examinations of the problem of teenage drugs and violence. Her father, actor Hozumi Takanobu (72), spoke of the grief following his daughter’s untimely death saying “Her life was too short. I feel as if I killed her myself.”
Monthly Archives: September 2003
Gambatte Takeshi!
Film director/actor/comedian Kitano “Beat” Takeshi flew out to the Venice Film Festival on Sunday. His latest film, a remake of the classic ‘chambara’ (sword fight) hero “Zatoichi.” The role was immortalized by the late, great Katsu Shintaro. In the new version, a bleach blonde Kitano stars as well as directs. He hopes to repeat the success of 1997’s “Hanabi,” which won the festival’s Golden Lion award. The winners will be announced on the 7th, Japan time, while Kitano will fly back a day earlier for the Japanese premiere.
Congratulations!
Newly weds: Azuma Chizuru (photo, 43), once considered Japan’s most marriageable woman, has finally tied the knot. She married 41-year old casting coordinator Horikawa Yasushi, with whom she’d been going out for 8 years; TV personality Uehara Sakura (27) announced that she had married apparel company owner Endo Noriaki (31) and also that she was 2 months pregnant.
• New arrivals: Kabuki actor and living national treasure Nakamura Tomijuro became the oldest father in showbiz at the ripe old age of 74 when his wife Masae (41) gave birth to a baby girl; TV personality Nishimura Tomomi (32) and her husband, restauranteur and former “talento” Nishio Takumi (36) had their first child, a baby girl whom they’ve named Sasa.