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Oh, my gosh~ I just found this out while browsing Yu’s IMDb, and has left me incredibly disappointed with what used to be my English-based sources of Japanese cinema news- Yu’s shooting a movie, Geek, with Italy’s Giuseppe Tornatore, who’s obviously most known for his classic Cinema Paradiso.

Interlinea Film reports that the first section of shooting in Venice was done back in March, while shooting in Japan would be at a later date. I’ve seen people on Twitter posting about Yu Aoi at some recent shootings [1][2]. I wonder if it’s related to this.

Interlinea Film also attached this photo~

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Just taking the chance to dump all Over Fence images I’ve found in the last couple of weeks~ Cinema Cafe has recently published a couple of new stills from the film, which opens on September 17th.

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A few items on Yu Aoi’s upcoming film, which we are calling The Lonely Girl Has Gone, but it should be noted that IMDb has it listed twice— one as Japanese Girls Never Die, and the other as Haruko Azumi Is Missing. Therefore, there is no official English title for the movie, despite the book being listed with the name in YesAsia [1].

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According to Eiga.com, the film is set to close this year’s edition of the Shinjuku Cinema Qualite Film Festival (新宿シネマカリテの映画祭) in Tokyo, as part of the Qualite Fantastic! Cinema Collection 2016 (カリテ・ファンタスティック!シネマコレクション2016) presenting 71 films from 16 countries… including Taiwan’s Our Times [Trailer], which I totally recommend for a fresh rom-com.

The collection will be presented from July 16th to August 19th. In addition, there will also be presentations at Cine Libre Umeda (シネ・リーブル梅田) in Osaka between August 6th to the 26th, and Nakagawa Corona Cinema World (中川コロナシネマワールド) in Nagoya, Aichi, between August 6th to September 2nd.

I also ran…

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Last October I reported about Yu-chan returning to the leading-lady gig with Daigo Matsui’s AZUMI HARUKO wa Yukuefumei (アズミ・ハルコは行方不明). Twitter has just shown me a first still. There’s also a music video by Ishizaki Huwie (石崎ひゅーい) titled Flower Vase (花瓶の花, Kabin no Hana) attached to the press release on natalie.mu, but it’s geo-blocked :*(

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Did I tell you? I’m going to Japan next week! It’ll be less than 2 weeks, but I’m going! I’m mad excited and totally nervous. I feel there’s so much to do and so little time, all I’m hoping is that I don’t get lost. xD Anyway~

This just popped up in my searches~ Yu Aoi is doing another rendition of John Ford’s 1600s incest tragedy ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore, under the Japanese name Aware Kanojo ha Shofu (あわれ彼女は娼婦), which had already been presented back in 2006 with Eri Fukatsu, Shosuke Tanihara and Mikami Hiroshi [1][2]. The brother half of this story will be played by stage/voice actor Kenji Urai (浦井健治).

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The play was translated by Odajima Yushi (小田島雄志), and is being directed by Kuriyama Tamiya (栗山民也).

The play will begin on June 8th 2016 until the 26th.

You can check the varying schedules available at the New National Theatre Tokyo website.Prices ranges from 8,640円; 5,400円; 3,240円 and 1,620円.

You can check two interviews with both of them over at Spice [1][2].

7 years — SEVEN FREAKING YEARS! — after starring on Yuki Tanada’s One Million Yen Girl, Yu Aoi is finally going to star in a new movie as a lead. The lucky production? An live-action adaptation of Yamauchi Mariko’s (山内 マリコ) book AZUMI HARUKO wa Yukuefumei (アズミ・ハルコは行方不明), which translates to Azumi Haruko Is Missing, which will be directed (and most likely adapted) by Daigo Matsui (松居大悟).

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My Japanese is going to the gutter. lol

BUT! The internet (meaning me) is all excited about it! Actually, I see a lot of tweets on it, but I’m too lazy to read or google-translate them, so I will just pretend we’re all excited about this.

YesAsia has an “English title,” and lists it as Lonely Girl Has Gone.

I don’t know what the book is about, if you do- tell me. Other essential info? Apparently it started shooting in mid-September, and it’s set for a 2016 release.

Sources: Natalie, Yahoo JP. Big version of this photo on Eiga.

Tell me the truth- did you miss this enthusiastic me? All these up to date project announcements take me back years into fandom when we all used to talk about all things Yu! Anyway, the latest in one of the few project announcements in Yu Aoi’s repertoire [1][2] is that she’s set for Nobuhiro Yamashita’s latest film titled Over Fence (オーバー・フェンス), which is an adaptation of a story in the anthology Kogane no Fuku (黄金の服) by Sato Yasushi.

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The film also stars Odagiri Joe and Shota Matsuda.

Over Fence completes a trilogy based on Sato’s stories, beginning with Sketches of Kaitan City (海炭市叙景) and The Light Shines Only There (そこのみにて光輝く).

Sources: Eiga.com, Film Business Asia

For the latest volume of MEKURU Magazine [Facebook][Official Website], they are holding a special on Yu Aoi who will be turning 30! I’m not sure what’s gonna be in there (Japanese being rusty and all), but there’s gonna be an interview and (maybe?) photos by Kawashima Kotori (川島小鳥) [Portfolio], who apparently is an Ihei Kimura (木村伊兵) awarded photographer for his book Star (明星) [Amazon JP].

It’s titled Aoi Yu, Saisho de Saigo ni Ren’ai o Kataru (蒼井優、最初で最後に恋愛を語る) — you’ll have to forgive my des and nis translations.

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They’re totally selling it like a direct sequel to Travel Sand. xD

There will also be a poem by Shuntaro Kanikawa (谷川俊太郎) titled Aoi Yu (あおいゆう). Among other stuff I can’t make out, it’ll include 128 pages and will be listed at Y907 Yen. It’s available on Amazon JP and HMV JP.

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I haven’t caught up with Dr. Rintaro since the first episode, but Yu-chan’s name has been going around on Twitter. Apparently — according to Twitter/Google/Bing translation — Yu is one of the actresses/actors who smoke. You know Japanese magazine rags, though, all text no images xD If anyone is shocked/surprised/following this, please do let me know. Otherwise, disregard. If Yu is, in fact, smoking… for years, hats off. Gurl, how do you keep yourself so young? Genes, I tell you, GENES!

In other news… The Case of Hana & Alice is (finally) coming out on DVD/BR disc in August.

There’s also news that Yu-chan will be voicing a character (I suppose the female robot) in an upcoming Disney Channel Lilo & Stitch SP. Complete with Yu & Stitch photo [picture][link].

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… and finally~

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Feels like I haven’t posted a trailer in ages on here, but since it’s already been like a month- this is more of a personal note to watch this coz it looks so damn funny.

Cast: Vivian Sung (宋芸樺), Darren Wang (王大陸), Dewi Chien (簡廷芮) and Dino Lee (李玉璽).