Movie director Ichikawa Jun died last week of a brain hemorrhage at a Tokyo hospital. He was 59. Sources say that up until last Thursday night, he had been working with staff editing the movie “Suutsu wo Kau” (Buy a Suit) for the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. He later was out dining alone when he collapsed. Ichikawa made his name in the TV commercial industry, wining a top award at Cannes in 1985. He made his movie debut with “BuSu” in 1987 and won his first domestic award with “Tsugumi” in 1990. 1997’s “Tokyo Yakyoku” (Tokyo Lullaby) won him a director’s award at the Montreal World Film Festival. Over two decades he made 21 movies, many critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. He pulled off a rare big-screen adaptation of a story by best-selling author Murakami Haruki with “Tony Takitani” in 2004. It picked up three awards at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and was entered at the Sundance Film Festival.
• Japan’s biggest rock band “came of age” yesterday, celebrating their 20th birthday. Twenty years to the day after they released “Dakara Sono Te wo Hanashite,” B’z (profile) played a 26-song set for 70,000 fans at the Nissan Stadium in Yokohama, kicking off with “Bad Communication,” the song that became their breakthrough single. Just like their 15th anniversary concert five years ago, the day was somewhat spoiled by heavy rain. The concert brought an end to their six-show anniversary tour.
• Kurosawa Akira’s classic movie “Rashomon” is to be remade in Hollywood. The project is planned as part of the “AK100 Project” in 2010, the 100th anniversary of Kurosawa’s birth. No director or stars have yet been named for the movie, but it is to be a joint Japanese-U.S.-Singapore project. The 1950 Oscar-winning original is still regarded as one of the best and most influential movies ever made. (Kurosawa Akira profile)
• Johnny’s Jimusho idol Yamashita Tomohisa (23) has graduated from Meiji University a bit later than planned. A member of the pop group NEWS, he was scheduled to graduate in the spring but was six credits short. He announced at the March opening of his movie “Kurosagi” that he would have to repeat a year. He spent the summer studying while also starring in the Fuji TV drama series “Code Blue.” He took part in the fall graduation ceremony in Tokyo last Friday.