Japanese Entertainment News

Started by bmwracer · 25 Feb 2004 · 3,505 replies

Japanese Entertainment Page 32 of 176

7 Oct 2004, 02:32 #621
bmwracer wrote:
That's one of the things I love about Japan. :hehe:


I agree...
7 Oct 2004, 02:36 #622
bmwracer wrote:
That's one of the things I love about Japan. :hehe:


So true.
7 Oct 2004, 17:52 #623
pcmodem wrote:Silly Japan. What's the media going to do next, give out awards for eating pizza?

Didn't America beat them to it with the hot dog eating contest? :hehe:
7 Oct 2004, 19:26 #624
MixxDreamer wrote:wow another harisu heheh but good for her, another proud woman unlike someone... *hint-hint* :hehe:


:rofl: :hehe:
7 Oct 2004, 22:56 #625
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October 7, 2004

The waning popularity of baseball's Yomiuri Giants continues. Never having strongly contended for the Central League pennant didn't help, but this season's 12.2% average audience rating for night games is the lowest ever since Video Research started analyzing the figures in 1965. That year, the Giants won the Japan Series and the figure was 23.3%. In 1987, when they won the pennant race, it reached 27.1%. This year's ratings and the team's failure to advance to the postseason is all the more disappointing for fans as this year the team had spared no expense to put together arguably the most impressive lineup of power ever seen in Japan. • "The Kano sisters (photo) once got \500,000 each just for two hours. All they had to do was talk about the movie in front of the media." - Movie distribution company spokesperson, on how much some celebrities get paid to turn up at events such as movie premieres and brand-name store opening parties. (Shukan Post magazine)
8 Oct 2004, 23:40 #626
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October 8, 2004

Ditzy pop star Kahara Tomomi (photo, 30) not only spells her name differently (it used to be Kahala) but is with a new record company and back in the charts. Her latest single "Kimi ga Ireba," with Universal Music, entered the Oricon singles chart at No.15, her 23rd chart entry. It is the first cover of a Korean song to make the charts in 21 years. Kahara has had an up and down career that peaked under the Svengali-like eye of producer Komuro Tetsuya in the mid-90s. The two also had a brief romance, and the breakup led Kahara to problems with her weight, sleeping pills and a rumored suicide attempt. • Actress Mizuno Maki (34) is four months pregnant, a funny coincidence as she plays a pregnant woman in the latest series of the TBS police drama "Kochira Motoikegami-sho" that starts next Monday. She married LDP politician Gotoda Masazumi (35) in March.
9 Oct 2004, 15:10 #627
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October 9, 2004

The Tokyo District Court ordered the magazine publisher Bungeishunju to pay actress Nishida Hikaru \1.1 million compensation for libellous articles and advertisements. Nishida's lawyers had sought \24 million, following an article which appeared in the Shukan Bunshun magazine in April 2003 suggesting that Nishida and the president of a cosmetics firm were having an affair. The magazine published photos of the two taken at the company's shareholder meeting, and also ushed the story in its advertisements for the magazine. Married in 2002 and now living in the U.S., Nishida's image has long been that of the typical "girl next door."
11 Oct 2004, 22:15 #628
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October 10, 2004

Pop duo Puffy have started their second U.S. tour, kicking it off at Webster Hall in New York. About 1,000 fans turned out to see Ami and Yumi, who are also promoting a new show set to start on the Cartoon Network from November 19. "Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi" features the pair as animated characters, and the soundtrack goes on sale on November 16. Ohnuki Ami (31) spoke to the audience in English saying it was great to be back in New York two years after their last tour. They play Los angeles and San Fransisco on Sunday and Monday. They have already slated another U.S. tour for next spring. • meanwhile at home, we have just had the biggest typhoon in several years. Typhoon #22 dumped huge amounts of rain on Tokyo yesterday but couldn't stop Devilman! The new live-action movie version of the popular manga and anime opened on Saturday, and 600 people came to the Toei 1 cinema in Marunouchi to see the director and cast greet the audience after the first showing.
11 Oct 2004, 22:16 #629
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October 11, 2004

Today is Taiiku no Hi (Health/Sports Day), a national holiday
A couple of singers who had their heyday in the 90s showed that they still have plenty of fans. Amuro Namie (27) turned up in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya area for a series of PR events yesterday. Her arrival sparked chaos in the huge crowd in front of the 109 building and forced police to cancel her 5-minute appearance after just 2 minutes. Another afternoon event was cancelled altogether. She did turn up at the local HMV to perform her new single "Girl Talk/The Speed Star," also part of the PR tie-in with a cosmetics brand. • Suzuki Ami (22) has kicked off her first tour in four and a half years. She will play at six college festivals, and started with Nihon University in Tokyo yesterday. "Amigo" was a big star in the late-90s but disputes with her record label and a series of court cases put her career on hold for several years. She made an official comeback in April with her first single in over three years. She is still unsigned to any record label, but Avex president Matsuura Katsuhito was seen at yesterday's event.
12 Oct 2004, 23:20 #630
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October 12, 2004

The official soundtrack for the hugely popular Korean soap opera "Fuyu no Sonata" (Winter Sonata) has stacked up sales of over a million albums, a first for a soundtrack. The previous best was 832,000 for the Fuji TV drama series "Long Vacation," that starred the always popular Kimura Takuya. To be fair, the FuyuSona sales figure is actually for three separate versions of the album, the first of which has been on sale since July 2003. The series has aired several times on NHK and has made a household name of its stars Choi Ji Woo and especially Bae Yong Joon, known simply as "Yon-sama". He is now a huge star in Japan, particularly among housewives, and has appeared in several TV commercials. He is one of the flagbearers for a Korea "boom" in music, movies and TV.
13 Oct 2004, 01:17 #631
bmwracer wrote:especially Bae Yong Joon, known simply as "Yon-sama". He is now a huge star in Japan, particularly among housewives, and has appeared in several TV commercials. He is one of the flagbearers for a Korea "boom" in music and TV.


domoto koichi once asked on domoto kyodai why bae yong jun was caled yon-sama instead of by his surname [bae-sama].. i've wondered too ^^;; :hehe:
13 Oct 2004, 15:44 #632
bmwracer wrote:Amuro Namie (27) turned up in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya area for a series of PR events yesterday. Her arrival sparked chaos in the huge crowd in front of the 109 building and forced police to cancel her 5-minute appearance after just 2 minutes. Another afternoon event was cancelled altogether. She did turn up at the local HMV to perform her new single "Girl Talk/The Speed Star," also part of the PR tie-in with a cosmetics brand.


Amuro Namie.... :inlove:

I just ordered a bunch of her CDs from CDJapan! :D
Got my Rina calendar today and I should be getting those CDs by tomorrow or the next day! :D :woot:

Namie is so~ hot! :love_eyes: :love_eyes: :love_eyes: :bonk:
13 Oct 2004, 16:34 #633
arashinokoto wrote:

domoto koichi once asked on domoto kyodai why bae yong jun was caled yon-sama instead of by his surname [bae-sama].. i've wondered too ^^;; :hehe:


Me too.. :crazy: :hehe: :hehe:
13 Oct 2004, 22:04 #634
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October 13, 2004

The Takarazuka theater troupe held a sports day to celebrate its 90th anniversary, the 20th such event in its history, at Osaka Castle. The all-female troupe, which has hordes of fanatical - and mostly female - fans, last held an "undokai" in 1984. In 1998, it added a fifth sub-troupe, so this year a total of 520 current members and students at the Takarazuka school took part. Even the actresses who normally play only male parts wore skirts, a rare sight for fans. the overall event was won by the Moon Troupe, with top star Ayaki Nao taking the MVP award. • There were a couple of press events yesterday for tear-jerking dramas featuring couples. Matsuda Seiko (photo, 42) and Funakoshi Eiichiro (44) play the parents of a child with Down Syndrome in a TV dramatisation of a true story. It airs on NTV on October 26. And Takeuchi Yuko (24), who stars alongside kabuki actor Nakamura Shido (32) in the new movie "Ima Ai ni Yukimasu," says she was moved to tears when she read the original novel.
14 Oct 2004, 15:24 #635
bmwracer wrote:The Takarazuka theater troupe held a sports day to celebrate its 90th anniversary, the 20th such event in its history, at Osaka Castle. The all-female troupe, which has hordes of fanatical - and mostly female - fans, last held an "undokai" in 1984. In 1998, it added a fifth sub-troupe, so this year a total of 520 current members and students at the Takarazuka school took part. Even the actresses who normally play only male parts wore skirts, a rare sight for fans. the overall event was won by the Moon Troupe, with top star Ayaki Nao taking the MVP award.


Cool. Hopefully I can check that out next year when I go to Japan! :D

But the only question is that do they always hold that event at ‘åâé?I
14 Oct 2004, 22:26 #636
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October 14, 2004

Big things are expected for the latest album from smooth balladeer Hirai Ken. "SentimentaLovers," his first original album in two years, is set to go on sale on November 24. It includes the biggest hit single of this year, "Me wo Tojite" (Close Your Eyes), which sold over 900,000 copies. All of Hirai's previous three albums ("The Changing Same" - 2000; "Gaining Through Losing" - '01; and "Life Is..." - "02) have been million sellers and the new title is expected to achieve at least the same level of sales. • Natsukawa Rimi's hit single "Namida SouSou" has become the fourth-longest chart entry of all time. Currently at No.78 in the Oricon charts, it has stayed in the Top 100 for 123 weeks, ranking second among female solo artists. It first went on sale in April 2001. The No. 1 long-seller is Nakajima Miyuki's "Chijo no Hoshi," which charted for 181 weeks.
15 Oct 2004, 12:55 #637
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October 15, 2004

Singer songwriter Utada Hikaru (21) has been doing the rounds in the U.S. media. She made an interview appearance on CNN's entertainment show "The Biz" on Wednesday. The show was also braodcast on the Japanese channel CNNj. The interview, in English, was conducted in a studio in New York, where Utada was born and spent her youth. Her debut U.S. album "Exodus," which she released on the Island/Def Jam label under just her family name, went on sale on October 5. Among her comments from an interview with the Washington Post: "When I dress girlie in New York, I always feel like I look like a hooker just because I'm Asian."
Washington Post article: "Leaving the Girl Behind"
Interview with Dan Wong, with sound files and song samples
15 Oct 2004, 13:04 #638
Cool, I hope her English album be released here in Brazil too !!!!! :mrgreen:
15 Oct 2004, 13:20 #639
bmwracer wrote:More entertainment news from Japan-zone.com - Your Guide to Japan and Japanese Culture: :D

October 15, 2004

Singer songwriter Utada Hikaru (21) has been doing the rounds in the U.S. media.


Yeah, Utada Hikaru's record company is doing a marketing blitz, I've seen her poster in borders and along the streets in SF.

Her mom was also a famous singer in Japan.
-PCM
15 Oct 2004, 14:17 #640
Saw some stuff on her on FCI news this morning.

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