We are only one spot away from completing our lists of the 20 to Watch Between 25-30, so I thought it was time to show you some of the names that didn’t make it. Just like in my first list of people that didn’t make it, I seem to have an overload of actresses, and never enough guys.
In no particular order~~~
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I thought I would never EVER say this, but this is too much Yu Aoi.
The TBS website for the upcoming drama Unubore Deka (Conceited Detective) just announced guest-stars, and Yu Aoi will be appearing on the 2nd episode. Also guest-starring, actress Kanako Higuchi (ep03), and Kyoko Koizumi.
Mika Nakashima stars on the show alongside Tomoya Nagase, who plays the deluded detective.
A 30-year-old single detective (Nagase Tomoya), who is under the illusion that he is popular with females is called ‘Unubore’ by friends. He is an ultra romantic and susceptible to conceitedness. He has such a strong desire to marry to the extent that he has bought an apartment for his newlywed life. He falls in love with female criminals at first sight each time. While the sheer desire to meet wraps around him, he will get proof that the female is the culprit. And so, he will thrust both the arrest warrant and marriage papers at her, proposing with the words, “If you marry me, I won’t arrest you.” If that still does not work, he will hold out an engagement ring and his handcuffs. In the end, the criminal will choose to be arrested and his heart will be broken. He will cry as he puts the handcuffs on her…
via DramaWiki.
To be honest, the premise sounds BLAH.
But Nagase is funny… at least he was on Tiger & Dragon, but that was a different monster. However, I will probably give it a go… after all, if I don’t like it, it’s only going to be two episodes. [added to the calendar]
Let’s play 6 Degrees… Mika Nakashima starred on Worst by Chance — and Yu Aoi made a short appearance there. Tomoya Nagase was on Tiger & Dragon with Yu. Kanako Higuchi played Aoi Miyazaki’s mother on Atsuhime… Miyazaki is besties with Yu. And Kyoko Koizumi starred on the stage piece Gakuya with Yu.
Sorry for the lack of comment activity yesterday, there was a weird mixed up with me, my server, and my ISP… which was fixed NOT by Telefonica, but my server providers~~~ They’re the best. You should all work with them.
Anyway, a lot of stuff… besides the World Cup,
whose Opening ceremony I missed, because I couldn’t wake up for them…
Toy Story 3 screening in the morning! So I’m making this short~
First~ as you may (or not) have noticed, I have added a Yu Aoi Event Calendar to the right, below the Ads. That’s to help us all to keep track of what’s going on and when. As you can see, Flowers opened today.
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Holler if you just said “What?”!
You might be asking me why I would put Natalie Portman as #3, who is virtually known by everyone, and is the role model of virtually 95% of late teens/early 20s young actresses around. We admitedly find Kristen Stewart’s fangirl-y-ness kind of cute and amusing [1][2]. However, if we decided to put Natalie Portman as our #1, then that would be a little bit boring, right?
Plus, this time we are choosing quality over quantity. ;P
So~~~ on our list of 20 Actors to Watch, here it is: Doona Bae on #2.
Born in Seoul, South Korea on October 11th 1979, this 30-year-old actress is best known as archer Park Nam-Joo in the monster film The Host (Gwoemul) by Bong Joon-ho, as well as playing activist Cha Yeong-mi in Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance by Park Chan-wook.
Born to famous stage Korean actress, Kim Hwa-young, it seemed that Bae was born with acting in her veins. However, she always felt that acting was only for people of extraordinary talent, so she kept away. One day in 1998, after graduating from university, Bae was scouted by a model agency, and one year later she was already debuting on the KBS TV drama School — which earned her the KBS Drama Award for Best New Actress, while making her big screen appearance with a brief role on The Ring Virus, the Korean remake of the Japanese horror RINGU.
In year 2000, she was cast as Hyeon-nam in Barking Dogs Never Bite, directed by Bong Joon-ho due to her willingness to appear without makeup, which many other South Korean actresses refused to do. This earned her another award as Best New Actress, at the Blue Dragon Awards. She followed it with two films that were received positively by critics, first in 2001 with Take Care of my Cat by Jeong Jae-eun, for which she earned Best Actress by the Korean Critics Association, the Korean Film Directors’ Society (Chunsa Film Art Award), and the whole South Korean entertainment industry with a PaekSang Arts Award. And in 2002 with Park Chan-wook’s Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, for which she earned a Best Actress at the Director’s Cut Awards, chosen by Korean Film Directors, and would lead to a future collaboration.
After two weak films in 2003, Bae decided to take some time off from acting, in which she took up photography, and participated in the stage production of Sunday Seoul, co-written by Park Chan-wook.
In 2005, she went across the sea, and starred in the Japanese cult hit Linda Linda Linda, playing a South Korean exchange student in a Japanese girl rock band trying to play at the school’s festival — for which she recorded an EP titled We Are Paranmaum under the name Paranmaum — by Nobuhiro Yamashita, which also became a favorite of the film festival circuit. The year after it, she had a supporting role in Bong Joon-ho’s South Korean biggest box office success The Host.
Bae also appears on a few music videos, and has released Photo essays for London, Tokyo and Seoul. Finally, in 2009 she played an air sex-doll in the Japanese drama Air Doll by acclaimed director Hirokazu Koreeda. For the role, she earned Best Actress wins in festival circuits, as well as nominations at the Asian Film Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards.
What’s next for Doona Bae? We have no idea. But if she’s making us wait another 3 years for a new movie on the big screen, and it’s as GOOD as Air Doll was when we waited those 3 years after The Host. Well, it’s all worth it.
that is fascinating.
For one thing, Chris Lee doesn’t have the best voice, she doesn’t have the best dancing, or the best lyrics in her album. However, she writes her own music and lyrics — she seemed to have done so in her self-titled album — , she dances, she even directs her own music videos [one of them Youth of China], and has begun her acting career — in the awarded Hong Kong production of Bodyguards and Assassins, for which she was named Best Newcomer of the Year by the Hong Kong Directors Guild. To top it all off, she’s tall — at least, taller than her Asian counterparts — has an amazing face, and stands out from a crowd by being Chris Lee in a room full of other women.
Multiple-talent threats are often easy to hate because they think they do it all, but in reality they don’t really excel at anything. A few singers who think they can act come to mind, or actors that think they can sing. And even though, Chris may not really excel in any, she’s so difficult to hate because she doesn’t have that superiority air that plagues self-professed artistes. Every time she’s on stage performing or receiving some award, she stands there with an air of a person that’s cool, but also with hints of humility.
It’s ping pong stuff!
Exclusive for Conran Shop (?) by Puma, and designed by Aruliden, the Chalk Ping Pong Table is actually a blackboard in the shape of a table! So you can doodle on it, of course… it’s for keeping scores, but you can doodle on it. And it’s designed in a way that you can put your ping pong gear in the table.
via TrendsNow.
Trivia bit?
This issue came out on March 2010. Yu also appears on the Anan covers for March 2009 and March 2008. And she’s got at least 5 Anan covers in total, though I dunno their dates.
How I noticed? I name my photoshoot files with name of magazine and date of publication, and if possible… photographer, though that usually happens with publications in English.
I am probably being terribly biased by saying that I do not mind them remaking What Women Want in China. Yes, Helen Hunt… and okay, Mel Gibson might have had “something” there, but it’s not like they will be butchering a classic.
But, HELLO? Gong Li? In a power suit bossing Andy Lau around?
As he listens to Beijing women think? Scary stuff right there. I can’t imagine what Chinese women think about, but I think a lot of scary stuff when watching people in the streets.
Adapted from Nancy Meyers’ romantic comedy (and directed) by Daming Chen, the film will begin shooting this or next week at a $5M USD budget — which is like Hollywood independent budget — and the film will hopefully be ready to hit screens by next V-Day (aka. Valentine’s).
Chen puts it best~
“I wanted to bring more strength out in the woman character to reflect what’s happening in China,” said Chen, an actor who most recently directed 2006’s “One Foot Off the Ground.” “Chinese women are leading giant businesses today and winning most of our Olympic gold. Gong Li has the presence to convey this strength.”
Bolding mine. I’m glad I’m not the only one noticing that. What’s up you guys?
via The Hollywood Reporter Asia.
Something to note, Fan Bingbing (28) was rumored to have joined the cast — possibly as a lead? — and this is what is remarkable about this casting news.
Fan, who starred opposite Lau in “Future X-cops” (2009) and “Battle of Wits” (2006), is “too young,” Chen said. “Seeing her again opposite Andy wouldn’t be fresh. Gong Li brings something fresh.”
More bolding of mine. When 28 is “too old” in Hollywood.
Gong Li is 44. China casting > Hollywood casting?
Maybe this time~
Yay! We’re getting closer and closer on the #1 actor (and actress) between the ages of 25-30 that we should keep an eye out for until they turn 35. Before naming our top spots, however, we will talk about some of the names that didn’t make the lists for one reason or another~~~
In the meantime, on the #2 spot of our list of actors to Watch, none other than Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Born in Los Angeles, California, on February 17th 1981, this 29-year-old actor is best known for playing Tom Hansen on last year’s indie favorite (500) Days of Summer. However, he probably shot to pop culture fame for playing Tommy Solomon on the show 3rd Rock from the Sun through 1996-2001.
Discovered at an early age, Gordon-Levitt started acting on commercials, series and made-for-tv films. He could be seen in a couple of episodes of Family Ties (Michael J. Fox), as well as Dark Shadows, until he made his big screen debut in 1992 with role as extra on Beethoven (his character was “Student #1”). Later that same year, he played the role of Young Norman on A River Runs Through It by Robert Redford, starring Brad Pitt. The following years, he would continue his work on television with roles on The Powers that Be, Roseanne, and a guest appearance on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
It was finally in 1996 when he was offered the role of Tommy Solomon, an extraterrestrial pretending to be a teen alongside John Lithgow, Kristen Johnston and French Stewart… his alien family on Earth. Suddenly, he was a heartthrob appearing on teen magazines and being treated like a celebrity. In 1999, Gordon-Levitt was offered one of the male leads on the Shakespeare teen comedy 10 Things I Hate About You alongside Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles and Larisa Oleynik. He also participated on the Disney animated film Treasure Planet, and finally on Manic with Don Cheadle.
Sometime around the end of 3rd Rock from the Sun, Gordon-Levitt decided to quite acting and enrolled in university, only to drop out in 2004 to focus on acting again. However, he made a conscious decision to “be in good movies” so since then, he’s appeared in a string of underrated independent films, including Mysterious Skin in which he plays a gay prostitute victim of sexual abuse, and Brick by Rian Johnson (The Brothers Bloom). He even co-starred on the terribly received Havoc alongside fellow the 20 to Watch Anne Hathaway, and Shadowboxer by Lee Daniels (Precious) starring alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren, and Mo’Nique.
By year 2008, he had already participated on The Lookout with Jeff Daniels, Matthew Goode, Isla Fisher and Carla Gugino, Stop-Loss by Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), Miracle at St. Anna by Spike Lee (Inside Man, 25th Hour), and Killshot by John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) starring alongside Diane Lane, Mickey Rourke, Hal Holbrook, Rosario Dawson and Thomas Jane.
In 2009, Gordon-Levitt was nominated for a Golden Globe, and an Independent Spirit Award for Male Lead for his participation on (500) Days of Summer, which was wildly received by critics. And he tried his luck on a film with more commercial flare when he played Cobra Commander on the live-action adaptation of G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra alongside Sienna Miller, Dennis Quaid and Byung-hun Lee.
What’s coming up for him this year? How about Hesher by Spencer Susser, starring next to fellow the 20 to Watch Natalie Portman, as well as Elektra Luxx starring Carla Gugino and Malin Åkerman, and Inception by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight) alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine and fellow the 20 to Watch Ellen Page.
Top it all of with a series of animated shorts, Morgan M. Morgansen’s Date with Destiny and Morgan and Destiny’s Eleventeeth Date, directed by Gordon-Levitt himself… and well, we’re sold!
