Japanese actress Keiko Kitagawa is playing a swordswoman in her new movie After the Flowers, which is scheduled to show in March 2010. Don’t have much clue what the film is about; love its promotional pics for Keiko though…
Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has found himself a new job… as a voice actor for an upcoming live-action Ultraman movie.
The full title of the film is Giant Monster Battle: Ultra Galactic Legend The Movie, to be precise lol.
Koizumi will lend his voice as the Ultraman King, an ancient Legendary Hero in the Ultra family. The film will open in Japan on December 12.
Koizumi is one of the most of popular postwar Prime Ministers in Japan. He retired in 2006, and the political arena has been in chaos ever since. The current PM Yukio Hatoyama, amazingly, is Koizumi’s 4th successor in just over three years.
[via Animenewsnetwork and Japanprobe]
“Departures” (おくりびと, Okuribito) is a multiple award winning Japanese movie and winner of the best foreign language film at the 2009 Oscars.
Directed by Yojiro Takita and starring Masahiro Motoki, the movie follows the story of a nokanshi whose job is to prepare the death for encoffinment. Other main leads include Ryoko Hirosue and Tsutomu Yamazaki etc.
Winners of the 3rd Asian Film Awards presented in Hong Kong on Monday (Mar 23)…
Best film – “Tokyo Sonata” (Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands)
Best director – Hirokazu Kore-Eda, “Still Walking” (Japan)
Best actor – Masahiro Motoki, “Departures” (Japan)
Best actress – Zhou Xun, “The Equation of Love and Death” (China)
Best newcomer – Yu Shaoqun, “Forever Enthralled” (China)
Best supporting actor – Jung Woo-sung, “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” (Korea)
Best supporting actress – Gina Pareño, “Service” (Philippines)
Best screenwriter – Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Max Mannix, Sachiko Tanaka, “Tokyo Sonata”
Best cinematographer – Jola Dylewska, “Tulpan” (Kazakhstan and co.)
Best composer – Joe Hisaishi, “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” (Japan)
Best editor – Kim Sun-min, “The Chaser” (Korea)
Best special effect – Craig Hayes, “Red Cliff” (China)
Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film “Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea” is Japan’s highest grossing domestic movie in 2008, while “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” tops the international list.
The 21st Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off Saturday (Oct 18) with Japanese prime minister Taro Aso among the ~300 guests that graced the opening event at Roppongi Hills [via Japantoday]
The theme of TIFF 2008 is “Ecology = Preservation of Earth’s Environment”, and the organiser replaced the usual red carpet with a green carpet made from recycled plastic bottles to exemplify the theme, which I doubt could bring any meaningful effect.
A total of 315 films from around the world will be shown during the nine-day event. Chinese movie “Red Cliff”, directed by Hong Kong director John Woo, was selected to kick start the screening; would be cute if the stars wore some green outfit during the green carpet to echo the theme lol.
The main cast of Red Cliff at TIFF 2008… (L-R) Vicki Zhao, Chang Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, director John Woo, Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi and Lin Chi Ling (Image from Udn)
Sinking of Japan (日本沈没; Nihon Chinbotsu) was a a 2006 remake of 1973 film Japan Sinks, based on a fictional novel by Sakyo Komatsu. The new movie was directed by Shinji Higuchi and starred Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Kou Shibasaki etc.
The story is about Japan sinking into the sea due to tectonic plates’ motions… and time is running out for the Japanese as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis began to devour the soil.
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