Monthly Archives: February 2004

“Innocence,” the new animated feature by director Oshii Mamoru, is to go on general release in the US later this year. The film is set to open in Japan on March 6th and in the autumn in ten US cities including New York. Oshii is best known for the 1995 classic “Ghost in the Shell”. The new movie deals with a similar SciFi theme – how people interact with robots and cyborgs. There is also the possibility that the movie will be entered in the competition section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Oscar-nominated actor Watanabe Ken (44) is to play a villian in the 5th Batman movie. Provisionally titled Batman: Intimidation, it will star Christian Bale as the masked avenger, Michael Caine as his butler and Watanabe as Ra’s Al-Ghul, the immortal head of an international crime syndicate. The movie is to be directed Christopher Nolan, the man behind the excellent “Memento.” Production is set to begin in London next month. Watanabe is waiting to see if he can clinch the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in “The Last Samurai.” Winners will be announced on Monday morning, Japan time.

Popular young actress Yuka (23) was recently photographed by gossip magazine Friday out for a romantic drive with equally popular young actor Tsumabuki Satoshi (23). The pair, who are both with the big Hori Pro talent agency, have been reported out at restaurants and cafes together, though a romance has yet to be acknowledged. Yuka has previously been romantically linked with V6 popster Okada Junichi (23) and Matsumoto Hitoshi (40) of the comedy duo Downtown.

Actress Mizuno Maki (33), once chosen in a poll as the woman men most want to marry, is engaged to lawmaker Gotoda Masazumi (34). The couple have known each other since they were university students but it was only six months ago that Mizuno broke up with an advertising executive she had been expected to marry. Her image as the ideal wife is often used in TV commercials, and was only enhanced when she started going to a Tokyo cookery school in 2001. Her agency say she is scheduled to work through this year and a wedding date has yet to be decided.

Abe Natsumi, who recently “graduated” from the pop group Morning Musume, is to make her debut in the lead role of a drama series. She will play the blind heroine in NTV’s Saturday night series “Koinu no Warutsu” (Puppy Waltz). With the much-hyped upcoming release of the movie “Quill,” seeing-eye dogs seem to be the theme of the year so far.• Soulful duo Chemistry are on a roll. Their 4th album has gone straight to No.1 on the Oricon chart, which puts them in a tie for 2nd for male artists with consecutive chart toppers following their debut. Suntory Whisky is using the track “Meaning of Tears” in its upcoming TV CM, the 8th commercial tie-up from the album.

Singer Koizumi Kyoko (photo, 38) and her actor husband Nagase Masatoshi (37) filed for divorce yesterday, their ninth wedding anniversary. The news was announced late in the evening on their respective fan web sites. They said that they remain on good terms but have become more like “cousins” than husband and wife. They also announced that have been separated for the last two years and there will be no alimony settlement. “Kyon-Kyon” was one of the top “idol” singers of the 1980s while Nagase is a highly regarded actor who appeared in the 1989 Jim Jarmusch movie “Mystery Train.”

The big winner at the 27th Japan Academy awards was the Takita Yojiro samurai movie “Mibugishiden.” Takita (48) won Best Director, star Nakai Kiichi (42) took the Best Actor award and the best supporting actor went to Sato Koichi (43). Terashima Shinobu (31) won her eighth domestic movie award, taking Best Actress for her role in “Akame Shijuyataki Shinjumisui.” Among the six Newcomer Awards – geared mainly to marketing young stars of the future – were the ubiquitous Ueto Aya (photo, 18) and Odagiri Jo (28), who co-starred in “Azumi.” The awards were held yesterday at the Shin Takanawa Hotel in Tokyo.

Actor Sanada Hiroyuki (43) won this year’s Yodogawa Nagaharu Award for his recent successful roles in “Tasogare Seibei” (Twilight Samurai) and the Hollywood hit “The Last Samurai.” The award is named after the famous movie critic, best known for the closing line of his TV show, “Sayonara, sayonara, sayonara!”

• Lucy Liu (36) is the latest Hollywood star to do a TV ad in Japan. She stars in the new spot for Suntory’s ‘healthy’ happoshu (malt liquor) “Diet Nama” that shows the “Charlie’s Angels” and “Kill Bill” star even able to run on water!

• The home of Kimijima International fashion brand owner Kimijima Takayuki (38) and his wife Towako (37) was burgled recently, according to the magazine Josei Sebun.

Nakano Minako (24), a hugely popular Fuji TV presenter, is romantically involved with handsome actor Ito Hideaki (28). The couple are said to have started going out at the end of last year. They were caught leaving Ito’s Tokyo apartment by a photographer for the gossip magazine Friday. Nakano is a former Miss Keio University and joined Fuji TV in 2002. Ito has starred in several TV series, including the current hit hospital drama “Shiroi Kyoto,” as well as the successful Heian Period movie “Onmyoji.”

Still remembered as one of the first teen beauty “talents”, Goto Kumiko (29), returned to Japan at the weekend with her husband, former Formula One driver Jean Alesi (39). It is the couple’s first trip to Japan together in three and a half years. They’re here to film a TV commercial together, having left their daughter Elena (7) and son Juliano (4) at their Geneva home.