Singer Hamasaki Ayumi (26) made a surprise guest appearance yesterday at the premier of the new movie “Shinobi.” Starring Nakama Yukie (25), currently one of the hottest actresses in Japan, the movie features Ayu’s “Heaven” as the theme song. The singer’s surprise appearance on the stage of the Marunouchi Piccadilly movie theater in Yurakucho, waering the tiniest of mini skirts, sent the audience into a frenzy. Her new song is due for release as a single on September 14, while the movie opens on the 17th.
• The recent Fuji TV 2-part drama “Tsumiki Kuzushi Shinso” did as well as expected in the ratings, managing a respectable 23.5% rating on the second night. A second TV dramatization of a book that has sold over 3 million copies over the last 30 years, it starred Tachi Hiroshi (55) and Sugita Kaoru (40) as the parents of a delinquent daughter, played by Adachi Yumi (23). The original TV series was a social phenomenon when it aired on TBS in 1983, with the final episode achieving a remarkable 45.3% audience rating. The drama dealt with darker aspects of family life that had hardly been touched upon before. It was also made into a movie that same year.
• NHK has announced the title of 2007’s taiga drama, the annual extended series that focuses on historical figures. The series will be titled “Fuurinkazan,” a phrase that is translated as “as fast as the wind, as quiet as the forest, as daring as fire, and immovable as the mountain.” The central figure in the series is Yamamoto Kansuke, a general and master military tactician under the command of legendary warlord Takeda Shingen during the Sengoku Jidai (warring period). The series is based on the writings of Inoue Yasushi (1907-1991) to mark the centenary of his birth.