Monthly Archives: September 2008

Critics and movie fans alike are raving about Japan’s entries at the Venice International Film Festival. “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), the latest anime feature from Miyazaki Hayao (67), had its screening on Sunday and received a five-minute standing ovation. Afterwards, in a scene such as organizers said they’d never seen before, the “maestro” was mobbed by autograph hunters (photo). Of the 21 movies entered in the competition, nine had been screened as of Sunday and Ponyo had received the best newspaper reviews so far. Four of the major papers gave it four stars, while Il Manifesto gave it the maximum five. And the Hollywood Reporter website has described Ponyo as the only “masterpiece” so far in an otherwise “lethargic” festival. Up until Monday’s reviews, the best-received film had been Kitano Takeshi’s “Akiresu to Kame” (Achilles and the Tortoise), so the chances of a Japanese movie taking the Golden Lion have to be considered good.

• Former bikini model Inoue Waka (28) has been chosen as a last-minute replacement for Hatano Hiroko (32) in the TV Asahi drama series “Salaryman Kintaro.” On August 19, just days before filming was scheduled to start, Hatano announced her pregnancy and marriage to J-League soccer star Suzuki Keita (27). She has a long history with the drama, making her debut as an actress on the first series in 1999. There have been four series based on the popular manga, all on the TBS network and starring Takahashi Katsunori (43), with the last airing in 2004. The switch to a different network, and with Nagai Masaru (30) as the new leading man, is very rare. Inoue and Nagai have worked together before, co-starring in the 2006 TV Asahi series “Kuroi Taiyo.” Meanwhile, the theme song for the series will be a tune by popular duo Yuzu. Their connection with Kintaro goes back to 2000, when the manga’s creator Motomiya Hiroshi (61) did the jacket design for their single “Aa Seishun no Hibi.” In a further coincidence, Yuzu member Kitagawa Yujin (31) will have another role in the autumn drama season, co-starring with Horikita Maki (19) in the Fuji TV series “Innocent Love.”

• Amuro Namie‘s latest hits collection, “Best Fiction,” is on top of the Oricon album chart for the fifth straight week. So far sales have reached over 1.25 million, putting it at least 70,000 ahead of the year’s next best seller, “Exile Catchy Best.” It’s the first album in almost 11 years to achieve the defeat – a Glay hits album did it at the end of 1997 – and the first in 25 years by a solo female artist (the last was Nakamori Akina’s “Memoir” in 1983).

• NTV’s annual weekend telethon did as well as expected in the audience ratings. Overall, it had an 18.6% rating, tied with last year for the show’s second-best ever result. As usual the high point was the emotional arrival at Nippon Budokan of the celebrity marathon runner. As comedienne Edo Harumi completed her grueling 113km run, the rating jumped to a peak of 41.1%. It was the highest ever for a female runner and third highest overall, behind last year’s run by veteran comedian Hagimoto Kinichi (67) and lawyer (now politician) Maruyama Kazuya (62) in 2005.

Young actor Yagira Yuya (18) was rushed to hospital early Friday morning after a drug overdose at his family’s Tokyo apartment. Though his condition was initially serious, his life was not thought to be in danger. Initial media reports said he had taken about 100 tranquilizers and speculated that it was an attempted suicide. Yagira apologized and wrote a clarification on his blog yesterday. “The incident followed an argument with my family. In a fit of anger I took a larger than usual dosage of my prescription tranquilizers. As a synthroidnews.net I felt ill and asked for an ambulance to be called.” He left the hospital later the same day and is said to be recovering well. Yagira made international headlines in 2004 when he won the Best Actor award at the Cannes film festival at the age of 14 for his performance in “Dare mo Shiranai” (Nobody Knows) and he has made a movie a year since. He had written in his blog earlier this month that he had been in poor health since last September’s release of the movie “Houtai Club,” and that his public exposure had suffered as a result.

• The weekend saw the opening of the 65th Venice International Film Festival, and a surprise announcement from anime director Miyazaki Hayao (67). At a packed press conference the night before Sunday’s screening of the latest Studio Ghibli feature, “Gake no Ue no Ponyo” (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea), he revealed that he is now a grandfather. His son Goro, who directed the 2006 Ghibli film “Gedo Senki” (Tales from Earthsea), became a father on August 11, just a week before Ponyo opened in Japan. The movie was the biggest hit of the summer, breaking the ¥10 billion mark in its first month. It’s one of three Japanese movies competing for this year’s Golden Lion, along with entries from Kitano Takeshi and Oshii Mamoru. Miyazaki has been recognized at Venice before, receiving the Osella award for technical achievement in 2001 for “Hauru no Ugoku Shiro” (Howl’s Moving Castle) and an Lifetime Achievement Golden Lion in 2002.

Meanwhile, Kitano has already returned from Venice. He told reporters at Narita Airport that he was returning for the scheduled recording of a TV show and that producer Mori Masayuki will be attending the Venice awards ceremony. Asked whether “Akiresu to Kame” (Achilles and the Tortoise) was likely to win him a second Golden Lion, he said “It was certainly well received. And the critics liked it. All the feedback was good but I’m trying not to keep my hopes up.”

• Another name can now be added to the list of Japanese celebrity grandfathers, that of Hollywood star Watanabe Ken (48). His son, actor Watanabe Dai (24) announced on his blog yesterday that a baby boy was born the day before. The new arrival came just a week after Dai celebrated his first movie starring role, in the historical baseball drama “Last Game.”

• The big TV event of the weekend was NTV’s annual 24-hour telethon. Female celebrities stole the show, with comedienne Edo Harumi completing a 117km run and staggering into Nippon Budokan in time for show’s finale. Pop quartet Speed got back together for the first time in more than four years, and the “Madonna Japan” Olympic softball gold medalists also appeared on the show.

• Edo’s fellow Yoshimoto Kogyo comedian Hazama Kampei (58), a keen runner for many years, announced that he has an even bigger project in the works – running around the world. “I’ll be heading east, so if I return from the east, you’ll know I’ve given up!” He will cross the Pacific and Atlantic by yacht, but otherwise will run the entire 36,000km across North America, Europe and Asia. His “Earth Marathon” will start in Osaka on December 17 and is expected to take about two and a half years – an average of about 40km per day – during which time he will not return to Japan. As the run is part of Yoshimoto’s centenary celebrations in 2012, they may be expecting it to take more than three years. Hazama has run NTV’s marathon three times in the past, aiming for 200km the first two times (in 1992-93) and running 600km from Kobe to Tokyo over the course of a week in 1995 following the major earthquake in Kobe.