I’ve got some pretty nice recommendations to share.
Archives For tekkonkinkreet
via Kawaii Joyuu
I guess the poll was for the release of Raiou… which was a bust. The film opened at #8, and has since then dropped out of the Top10. Where are the Masaki Okada fans when you truly need them?
From the Top10, 5 are dramas (Osen, Dr. Koto, Ryomaden, Tiger & Dragon, Unubore Deka) and two of those are recent. Considering her Ryomaden guest star has officially ended this Sunday, it boosted it to the Top5.
*goes rabid fan* Seriously, people! Honey & Clover over Hana & Alice??? O_O
This question should be, “which is the most popular Yu Aoi role?” For a “more proper” rank or a better guide on what you should be checking out — in case you’re a new fan — Check this Yu Aoi Ranked.
Also, Poll time!
Yu-chan will be gracing the cover of H Magazine… again. She was previously on the cover with Ninomiya for a Tekkon photoshoot… and then she was on the Futari no H cover. I have never been able to find high quality scans of that Futari no H shoot… so if anyone has, let me know.
Also, a quick reminder~ Uso. has officially been released. You can get it through HMV Japan… though I pre-ordered it, and they emailed me with a delayed message. BAW~
On the Futari no H link, they mention Travel Sand and Yoko Takahashi. They say Yoko and Yu make up a dream team. xD They do create magic together. You can still buy Travel Sand [YesAsia][HMV JP][Amazon JP
I think both books are pretty big sellers… it always goes out of stock, and if I recall correctly, my Travel Sand book (or is it my Dandelion one?) is already a second print.
So… casting over at the current NHK Taiga drama gets even more interesting with the announcement that Yusuke Iseya will be playing Takasugi Shinsaku, samurai friend of Ryomaden.
His first appearance will be in the episode scheduled to air on July 18th. It starts from the scene where Ryoma meets Shinsaku and other Choshu samaurai by chance at a restaurant in Nagasaki.
Suzuki Kei, the chief producer, explained: “Ryoma and Shinsaku both died young, had an unconventional fashion sense, dreamed of activity overseas, there were a lot of common features between them. We’ll be depicting them as ‘having the same soul,’ the friendship and intermingling of two people as soulmates.”
via Arama They Didn’t.
Bolding mine.
I gotta be honest with you, I haven’t kept up with Ryomaden, mainly because it just gets a really difficult time-slot here. It airs like at 6am, and then it re-airs at 1pm… Maybe NHK should really think about differing their transmission. But then I would be complaining about that too, right?
Six Degrees of separation! Well, not really… Yu Aoi — anyone knows when her character will show up? — played opposite Yusuke Iseya on Honey & Clover. Their names also appeared together on Tekkonkinkreet… and Tekkon is much cooler than HachiKURO xD
I just wanted to post this photo.
TheAuteurs has a nice post talking about some films that changed films in Japan in some way or the other…
Two major consequences of this have been: the diminishing status of the director in the creative process, who comes in as a hired gun, and: the banality and triteness of encountering performers on a daily basis, from movie to TV drama to variety show to advertising. The last decade launched the careers of countless “talentos”, young and cute boy-girl products, yet revealed but a handful of actors & actresses one might be eager to follow over the next ten years.
Wow, that statement sounds pretty negative xD almost making “auteur” films non-existent in Japan, and focusing on idol-pushing films that are more commercial than anything.
Like Acerk pointed out, a shout out to Shunji Iwai’s Lily Chou Chou film;
The film featured two outstanding young actresses, Ayumi Ito, discovered by Iwai for his 1996 Swallowtail Butterfly, and another Iwai revelation, Yu Aoi, who has since become one of Japan’s more original and refreshing performers. It should be noted that Iwai was among the first directors to hire TV drama stars as main actors in his films, to secure additional financing; he proved that when a director worked hard enough, he could get inspired work from talentos. This method has since been used by virtually every auteur in Japan.
Hello, and thank-you.
And more shout outs to Memories of Matsuko, and Tekkonkinkreet.
