From Tokyograph:

Yu Yamada cast as Nodame's rival
Wed, December 5, 2007 (3:19pm EST)

Actress Yu Yamada has been revealed as part of the cast of the upcoming "Nodame Cantabile" drama special, scheduled to air on January 4-5 on Fuji TV.

Yamada plays Son Rui, a Chinese prodigy who becomes rivals with Nodame. Although Yamada had no prior experience in playing piano, she recently took lessons and practiced on her own at home before the performance scenes were filmed.

Source: Sankei Sports

bmwracer wrote:

From Tokyograph: Yu Yamada cast as Nodame's rival Wed, December 5, 2007 (3:19pm EST) Actress Yu Yamada has been revealed as part of the cast of the upcoming "Nodame Cantabile" drama special, scheduled to air on January 4-5 on Fuji TV. Yamada plays Son Rui, a Chinese prodigy who becomes rivals with Nodame. Although Yamada had no prior experience in playing piano, she recently took lessons and practiced on her own at home before the performance scenes were filmed. Source: Sankei Sports

Yamada doesn't quite fit my idea of Son Rui. Let's see how that turns out.

thtl wrote:

Yamada doesn't quite fit my idea of Son Rui.

She doesn't fit my idea of an actress.

bmwracer wrote:

She doesn't fit my idea of an actress.

We'll all be supporting Nodame/Ueno Juri then! Especially for you!!

pinkroma wrote:

*knock knock* can i join you guys? i was able to watch this series last october since this was recommended in another forum i'm in. the first episode was too good it got me hooked instantly. i had trouble downloading the files at first since the filesizes were big. it was like i can only watch an episode every 2-3 days. i can't wait to see what will happen next so i just have to content myself with watching the low-res videos from cruchyroll. i really had fun watching this series and made me appreciate classical music. i have to admit i'm not a fan of classical music. i didn't even know what the role of a conductor actually is. all i know is that he's the person who waves his hands in front of an orchestra. anyway, i loved the live-action very much that i ranked it in my top three list. after rewatching for the third time, i can now say it's on the top of my list. this is probably the only series that i can watch again and again without getting bored. i even managed to watch he anime version (i prefer the live-action) and read the manga scanlations. i practically read every post here (in all 162 pages) that i even accidentally read the spoiler for volume 18. i did not notice the spoiler was for the manga and i've only read up to volume 17 ch 96. now i'm looking forward to watching the SP and wishing fuji tv is available in cable tv.

Aww, yay!! Nice to meet you! I'm a little new to this forum too, as you probably saw when reading. But it's a great forum and everyone's really awesome--so I hope you enjoy just as much as I do! I loved Nodame a lot too! I'm in a school of music (it's not as fun and cool as Momogaoka Ondai though... ), so the reason I liked it most was because of how it parallels with my day-to-day living! I'm saying a lot.

xiaoli75 wrote:

...role of a conductor actually is. all i know is that he's the person who waves his hands in front of an orchestra.

No worries! Conductors are the obnoxious loud-mouths music institutes use as a means of harassing their musicians. The conductor and the composer are a great duo in this. The composer writes pieces the musicians can't play, the conductor makes the musician do awkward things with the piece...and the musicians are left to rot in their own frustration (itsumo hetakuso!! - Chiaki ...).

though admittedly, it's kind of fun composing pieces that makes musicians whine and squeal...but being also a performer it's also ...what's word for it...I don't know. For me, I write pieces I can't play. So I make other people play them!! *wicked smirk* ...this time though, I feel bad for doing it to this one clarinet player...who's victim to other student composers...

xiaoli75 wrote:

We'll all be supporting Nodame/Ueno Juri then! Especially for you!!

Great...!

How's your practice going for the upcoming concours on Monday...?

^^thanks. studying music seems really cool. i wanted to study piano before but that didn't happen.

anyway, tamaki hiroshi looks like he lost a lot of weight in his recent pictures. and those new pictures bmwracer posted... awww! chiaki in white! so gorgeous!

i'm hoping there'll be that kiss scene also.

pinkroma wrote:

anyway, tamaki hiroshi looks like he lost a lot of weight in his recent pictures.

Other people have mentioned that as well...

Maybe he's getting too much exercise chasing Juri-chan all over Europe.

^aw! kawaii!!!

looks like nodame ate most of the food and i prefer her hair before. those pictures above remind me of the time they went to sakura's house to convince her to play again. wait... i can't remember if there's a paris scene like that in the manga. *off to read the manga again*

bmwracer wrote:

Great...! How's your practice going for the upcoming concours on Monday...?

I just got off piano now. The professor informed me a few days ago that the piece I was performing (the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No 2 in G Minor) is being performed by one of the studio pianists--and now I have to learn a new piece!!! So I'm pulling together a Schumann and hoping it'll be something performable by Monday...but it's strange, because last year I performed a piece for cello studio that two other cellists performed...not sure why piano's such a grand thing, but...

Thanks much!! Fingers crossed for me! The other piece is the Prelude out of the Well-Tempered Clavier book 1 (it's the Ave Maria prelude--Ave Maria is in Nodame at a point!!!! )

xiaoli75 wrote:

I just got off piano now. The professor informed me a few days ago that the piece I was performing (the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No 2 in G Minor) is being performed by one of the studio pianists--and now I have to learn a new piece!!! So I'm pulling together a Schumann and hoping it'll be something performable by Monday...but it's strange, because last year I performed a piece for cello studio that two other cellists performed...not sure why piano's such a grand thing, but... Thanks much!! Fingers crossed for me! The other piece is the Prelude out of the Well-Tempered Clavier book 1 (it's the Ave Maria prelude--Ave Maria is in Nodame at a point!!!! )

Good luck... Ganbatte... Do your best...!

bmwracer wrote:

Good luck... Ganbatte... Do your best...!

Doumo arigatou! And I'm getting mail magazine from Tamaki Hiroshi's official page. LOTS of interviews going on that we're all missing...unless one of us has Japanese satellite...

xiaoli75 wrote:

Doumo arigatou! And I'm getting mail magazine from Tamaki Hiroshi's official page. LOTS of interviews going on that we're all missing...unless one of us has Japanese satellite...

Right interview, wrong person: Juri-chan...

pinkroma wrote:

^aw! kawaii!!! looks like nodame ate most of the food and i prefer her hair before. those pictures above remind me of the time they went to sakura's house to convince her to play again. wait... i can't remember if there's a paris scene like that in the manga. *off to read the manga again*

haha, yeah!!