It looks like the recent “one night only” reunion of J-pop idol group Speed was more like a setup. It was announced yesterday that the group are getting back together again for real, and have already been in the studio to record the theme song for an upcoming TV drama series. “Ashita no Sora” will be the theme for the NTV drama “OL Nippon,” which stars Arisa Mizuki and airs on Wednesday nights from October 8. The group had several million-selling singles in the late 1990s and in 1998 became the youngest ever artists to perform a concert tour of all of Japan’s four domes. They split up in March 2000 at the peak of their popularity and have temporarily reformed for charity events in 2001 and 2003. When they got together for a short medley of their hits on NTV’s 24-hour telethon last month, it was after an almost five-year break. The reason given was that member Imai Eriko (24) wanted her young son, who she revealed for the first time is deaf, to see her perform on stage. After the show, NTV were overwhelmed with telephone calls and emails from fans requesting the comeback of Speed. And surefire commercial success is as big a motivation as any group could want. “Ashita no Sora” is scheduled to be released as their 15th single on November 12. The song was written by producer Ijichi Hiromasa, the man behind many of their biggest hits. Their second single, “Steady,” became his first million-seller in 1996, a level of success that was matched by later Speed collaborations such as “White Love” and “My Graduation.”
• Renowned movie producer and publisher Kadokawa Haruki (65) is to get back into the directorial saddle. Fifteen years after his last effort, the cute dinosaur story “Rex,” he is directing the detective thriller “Warau Keikan” (The Laughing Policeman). Starring up and coming actor Ohmori Nao in his first major movie role, the film is based on the first of an ongoing series of novels by Sasaki Jou. The title is borrowed from one of the famous Martin Beck series of detective novels, which Kadokawa’s father’s company first published in Japan 40 years ago. Kadokawa was initially the producer of the big-screen adaptation, but took over behind the camera just three weeks before filming was due to start when Sasaki complained that the original director’s script had turned his drama into a “guns blazing” action flick.
Kadokawa is a larger than life figure in the Japanese movie industry. When he took over the family business in 1975, he saw the marketing potential of combining publishing with movies, and went on to produce over 60 films, many of them box office hits. He became what many people described as the savior of Japan’s struggling movie industry. That image was shattered in 1993 when he was arrested for smuggling cocaine from the U.S. and served two and a half years in prison. He returned to movies in 2005, as producer of the war epic “Yamato.”