Top British actor Gary Oldman (50) has been in Tokyo for the last few days filming location scenes for the movie “Rain Fall.” A Japanese adaptation of the first book in the John Rain series by thriller writer Barry Eisler, the movie stars Shiina Kippei (43) in the title role of the Japanese-American assassin. At a pre-production event at the Toei Studio in Higashi Oizumi yesterday, Shiina said he could hardly believe he was working alongside an actor that he admired so much. They talked about scenes they shot in city locations such as Ginza and Shinjuku as Oldman’s character, CIA nemesis William Holtzer, pursues Rain through the capital. Also attending yesterday’s event were actress Hasegawa Kyoko (29), actor Emoto Akira (59) and director Max Mannix. The movie is scheduled to open during Golden Week next year.
Singer Saiji Hideki (53) found himself drowned out by the noise of Shibuya yesterday. On a rooftop in the popular Center-gai shopping street, he was taking part in a publicity stunt for online dating site Match.com. Due to the 20m height of the roof and the usual high noise level, only a few passersby even noticed that someone was “shouting out love” from the rooftops, and almost no one realized it was one of Japan’s top stars (yes, he is in the photo!). The gathered TV cameras and reporters were enough to cause a crowd to form, blocking the street. But the “guerilla” stunt didn’t have police approval and the authorities moved in and issued a stern warning to Media Concierge, the company that staged the event. Saying that he’d had a bad feeling about the event from the start, Saijo referred to a similar stunt in Shibuya by Go Hiromi back in 1999 that led to six people being prosecuted. He added that his fear of heights had made yesterday’s experience even worse. He never even got past the intro of his famous hit, a cover of the disco classic “YMCA.”
• Young actress Kuroki Meisa (19) has been romantically linked with handsome musician Ken, according to today’s issue of weekly magazine “Friday.” The two are said to have got together in New York, where Ken is based and he was recently spotted spending the night at Kuroki’s Tokyo apartment. He and his American musical partner perform as the unit 2Soul and have created hits for artists such as Hirahara Ayaka (24) and Ai (26).