Monthly Archives: November 2005

Popular actor Takahashi Katsunori (40) is to team up with busty actress Inoue Waka (25) in the latest school drama on TBS. In the series, as yet untitled but sceduled to air on Thursday nights from January, Takahashi will play a passionate school teacher who goes up against the ice-cool school board chairwoman, played by ‘Wakapai.’ Takahashi is best known for his equally passionate acting in the role of Salaryman Kintaro, adapted from the successful manga of the same name. Inoue has managed to get beyond her pin-up girl image and establish herself on the variety show circuit, though she is still strongly associated with her TV commercials for credit company Promise.

• Ditzy actress Yamaguchi Moe (28) and Ozeki Shigeo (30), the president of IT company Zeel, are to get married this weekend. Sunday is Ozeki’s birthday and they are expected to register their marriage on that day. they have no plans for a wedding ceremony or reception, and will make an official statement on November 7. The couple met in the spring of last year when Moe did a report on Ozeki’s high-flying lifestyle for the TBS variety show “Sekai Bari-bari Value.” Ozeki runs an online cosmetics business and a restaurant in Tokyo and has an annual salary of several hundred million yen.

• Johnny’s Jimusho group V6 have been busy celebrating the 10th anniversary of their showbiz debut. Currently third in line in the Johnny’s hierarchy behind SMAP and Tokio, the group played a series of three concerts at the Yoyogi Gymnasium where they made their debut in October 1995. Their new album “musicmind” entered the Oricon charts at No.1 on October 31.

Sexy divas from the US and Japan are teaming up for an MTV live performance in December. Ashley Simpson (21) and local girl Koda Kumi (photo, 22) will perform at the “Cool MTV Christmas 2005” at Pacifico Yokohama on December 16. Simpson’s latest album is No.1 on the US Billboard Chart, while Koda’s broke through this year – her ‘greatest hits’ album “Best – First Things” was released in September and has sold over 1.2 million copies. The flamboyant Koda will not want to lose out in the glam stakes and is sure to be showing off her trademark low-cut, no-bra look.

• Taking the honors at the Tokyo International Film Festival was local production “Yuki ni Negau Koto” (What the Snow Brings). The festival closed on Sunday and the talk of the town was the Negishi Kichitaro-directed film, which took not only the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix, but also Best Actor (Sato Koji), Best Director and Audience Choice awards. It tells of a failed businessman who returns from Tokyo to his hometown in Hokkaido and the world of horseracing. Meanwhile the Special Jury Prize went to “Conversations With Other Women,” and the Best Actress Award was shared by British actress Helena Bonham Carter for her role in the same film and Jin Ya-gin in the Chinese feature “You and Me.” the award for Best Artistic Contribution went to another Chinese film, the strangely named “Loach is Fish Too.”