Johnny Depp has a rival in Hong Kong. Japanese movies don’t tend to fare too well in that particular market, but the manga adaptation “Death Note” had an impressive opening day that was almost on a par with the latest in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series. Starring popular young actor Fujiwara Tatsuya (photo, 24), it pulled in over a million Hong Kong dollars on August 10, far more than any Japanese movie of recent years. And on a per-screen basis it did even better than the Hollywood blockbuster. The success isn’t so surprising in light of the fact that the original manga sold over 12 million copies, and the Chinese translation also did well in Hong Kong. Several companies are said to be sniffing around Nippon TV, producers of the project, and a Hollywood remake is definitely on the cards. The movie is the first of two parts, with the second scheduled to open in October. (More about the movie in an earlier story)
• Actor Maeda Kouyou (38) has remarried, this time to comedienne and fellow divorcee Unabara Tomoko (34). The pair tied the knot yesterday, Maeda’s birthday. He is a former member of the Johnny’s Jimusho group Otoko Gumi, which debuted in 1989 and broke up in 1993. He married actress Nakamura Yumi in 199, but they split in 2003. Nakamura married an American 16 years her senior in April. The Osaka-based Unabara was married to a TV producer from 2000 to 2003.
• The career of actress Kinoshita Ayumi (23) is coming along nicely. Best known for her role as Deka Yellow in the Deka Rangers TV series, she has her first starring role in the upcoming movie “Master of Thunder”. The movie also sees action legends “Sonny” Chiba Shinichi (67) and Kurata Yasuaki (60) facing each other for the first time. At a recent PR event for the flick held in the geek mecca of Akihabara, a fan of Kinoshita got so excited that he was arrested after a fight with a security guard.