16-year old Korean actress Ara is a familiar face in her own country but an unknown in Japan. That is about to change as the Avex music label has arranged for her to appear on 53 billboards throughout Tokyo from tomorrow. The posters include only her photo, a URL and a vague line of catch copy, as Avex hope to stir up interest in this mysterious young beauty. The teenager is known as the “Queen of TV commercials” in South Korea and was chosen from almost 40,000 hopefuls who auditioned for the main female role in the upcoming Japanese-Mongolian movie “Aoki Okami”. An epic story of Genghis Khan that cost ¥3 billion and was shot entirely on location, it stars Sorimachi Takashi (Matsushima Nanako’s husband) and opens in theaters next March.
• Last Friday’s broadcast of the movie “Death Note” on NTV got an audience rating of 24.5%. The network says it is the second-highest rating of the year for their Friday movie slot, with the July showing of the Miyazaki Hayao anime “Howl’s Moving Castle” the highest at 32.9%. Read our Death Note feature article here.
• Actor Uchino Masaaki (38) and former top Takarazuka star Ichiro Maki (41) have a baby daughter. The couple married in July. Ichiro left the all-female troupe in 1996 and has performed on stages around the world. She and Uchino met when they played together in the musical “Elizabeth” in 2000. Ichiro appeared in the 1997 NHK taiga historical drama series, while Uchino is to play the lead role in next year’s production.
• Actor Ogura Ichiro (55) and former idol singer Tani Chieko (47) got married yesterday. They held a ceremony in the mountain resort of Karuizawa. It is the third marriage for Ogura. Tani debuted in 1977 but never had a hit.