Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:35 pm Post subject:
"Okuribito" takes 10 at Academy Awards
The presentation ceremony for the 32nd Japan Academy Awards took place in Tokyo on Friday. Yojiro Takita's "Okuribito" completely overwhelmed the competition, winning in 10 of the 13 categories it was nominated for. With this, the film has now received a total of 60 major awards since the end of last year.
Aside from Best Picture, the film's ten prizes included a Best Actor win for Masahiro Motoki. This is his second time receiving that honor in the Japan Academy Awards, with the first being in 1993 for Masayuki Suo's "Sumo Do, Sumo Don't."
* Best Picture: Okuribito
* Best Animated Picture: Gake no Ue no Ponyo
* Best Director: Yojiro Takita (Okuribito)
* Best Screenplay: Kundo Koyama (Okuribito)
* Best Actor: Masahiro Motoki (Okuribito)
* Best Actress: Tae Kimura (Gururi no Koto)
* Best Supporting Actor: Tsutomu Yamazaki (Okuribito)
* Best Supporting Actress: Kimiko Yo (Okuribito)
* Best Music: Joe Hisaishi (Gake no Ue no Ponyo)
* Best Cinematography: Takeshi Hamada (Okuribito)
* Best Lighting Direction: Hitoshi Takaya (Okuribito)
* Best Art Direction: Towako Kuwajima (Pako to Mahou no Ehon)
* Best Sound Recording: Satoshi Ozaki, Osamu Onodera (Okuribito)
* Best Film Editing: Akimasa Kawashima (Okuribito)
* Best Foreign Language Film: The Dark Knight
Special awards were given to "Yougisha x no Kenshin" and actor Kenichi Matsuyama.
Source: Japan Academy Awards
Joined: 13 Oct 2008 Posts: 1239 Location: Singapore
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:42 pm Post subject:
Atsushi Ito's brother found dead Mon, March 9, 2009 (12:41am EDT)
Actor Takahiro Ito, the younger brother of "Densha Otoko" star Atsushi Ito, has passed away, it was learned on Sunday. He was only 21 years old.
Ito was found dead in a parked car near Lake Sagami in the Kanagawa prefecture. Police are currently investigating the death as a suicide.
The actor regularly updated his official blog, but his last post was on February 22. In that entry, he included a photo of him having fun with friends at a high school reunion, and he also mentioned that he was preparing for filming a television drama this month.
Ito entered show business as a child actor back in 1993. His most recent roles included the movie "Yougisha x no Kenshin" and the dramas "Galileo" and "Nodame Cantabile."
Naked romp shames SMAP boy band star Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and puts media in spin
Leo Lewis, Tokyo
April 23, 2009
The Japanese media world has been plunged into chaos by the humiliating arrest of Tsuyoshi Kusanagi �\ a member of SMAP, the biggest, best-loved and most successful boy band in Japanese pop history.
Famed for his boyish good looks, and a repeated winner of the �gMr Jeans Japan�h accolade, Kusanagi was bundled into a police car after a night of naked, sake-fuelled mayhem in a central Tokyo park.
�gWhat�fs wrong with being naked?�h the music and television superstar is said to have screamed as the arresting officers dodged his flailing fists and attempted to wrap him in a plastic tarpaulin.
Such is the 34-year old celebrity�fs fame and media profile that his arrest on charges of indecent exposure has already taken on a political dimension. Kunio Hatoyama, the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, was reportedly �gfurious�h at the indiscretion and threatened to drop the singer from one of the biggest public information campaigns that the Government has mounted.
A noted collector of vintage denims, Mr Kusanagi is understood to have stripped completely and strewn his clothes around the park before sitting cross-legged on the grass and, said neighbours, �gwhooping noisily�h. Having allegedly spent most of the night drinking with two friends in a nearby bar, he was reportedly alone when the police arrived on the scene at about 3am.
The bizarre incident �\ the star said today that he could not remember why he took his clothes off �\ is expected to have huge repercussions and blows a potentially huge hole in the Japanese prime-time television schedules.
As by far the most popular boy band, the five members of SMAP are also among the busiest of all Japanese media celebrities �\ a class of entertainer that work freakishly long hours and are contractually obliged to perform in any programme or event that their powerful talent agencies dictate.
In common with the other four members of SMAP, Kusanagi appears on a weekly cookery and variety show and five other regular weekly shows. He also makes numerous non-regular weekly appearances across all six terrestrial channels, most of them in prime-time slots. A punishing schedule of studio recording sessions and other promotional work is fitted around that.
As news of the naked arrest swept across Japan�fs evening tabloid press, an army of advertisers and television producers were forced to reconsider their use of a �gboy next door�h figure who has been an absolutely safe bet for nearly two decades.
Both Toyota and Procter & Gamble immediately cancelled advertising campaigns that used Kusanagi, and television channels said that they were considering their position: a complex tussle between the expected public outrage and the solidity of SMAP�fs historic effect on viewer ratings.
Worse still is the damage it has done to the Government�fs expensive public information campaign. Selected as a clean-cut poster-boy in mid-2006, Kusanagi was made the centrepiece of a giant government drive to prepare the public for the impending conversion from terrestrial to digital television broadcasting. In the role as �gdigital ambassador�h, he has appeared on more than 50,000 posters and a million pamphlets and appeared in 128,000 television advertising slots.
Visibly enraged, Mr Hatoyama said: �gthe act is shameful for a person who is asking the public to shoulder a financial burden of buying new televisions to prepare for the shift�h.
The effect of the arrest has already been felt in South Korea, where Kusanagi�fs fluent Korean has earned him thousands of loyal, passionate fans. News of the arrest was the top item on at least two Korean television news programmes this afternoon.
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Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 2331 Location: in South Atami Country:
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 12:45 am Post subject:
^
it would have been even better if it would have been Kimutaku
They need to chill, man - this is totally blown out of proportion, like the Sawajiri Erika incident - I mean, the poor guy got a little wasted, he�Ls human after all ... and I am sure the fans will forgive him.
it would have been even better if it would have been Kimutaku
They need to chill, man - this is totally blown out of proportion, like the Sawajiri Erika incident - I mean, the poor guy got a little wasted, he�Ls human after all ... and I am sure the fans will forgive him.
This is all over the news. A lot of my friends are shocked. Bringing shame to yourself is not so easily tolerated in Japan. One strike is all it takes to ruin your reputation. Do I think it's right? It depends on what really happened. Sawajiri Erika deserved what she got for her actions in that Closed Note interview.
Joined: 23 Oct 2005 Posts: 5928 Location: San Francisco, CA Country:
Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:50 am Post subject:
@Beem - You would not believe this, but it was Triky who broke the news to me this morning... Craziness! Who would've thunk? I wonder how the Jimusho will spin this one. You'd expect this from other groups, but not the ever so wholesome SMAP...
Maybe, the whole boy band thing has finally taken a toll on him and he just snapped. You know what they say, "in wine, there is truth" that, or he's just really a closet exhibitionist.
SMAP members did joked about Tsuyopon drunken escapades and he did went naked at Nakai's pad one time... the guy can't take alcohol but likes to drink. The fans knew about his drinking antics and is fine with it as long he kept it private. I bet the jimusho will keep all the squeaky clean boybands on leash with their managers in tow, 24/7.
I hope they'll get over this. The guy is a good guy sober and a very talented actor. What's making it complicated is he's been endorsing all kind of products, a regular in multiple TV shows, a movie coming out and a member of SMAP... this guy has a lot on his plate.
That's what his little johnny will be doing to him now....BAKA
He probably got so stressed being the good guy all the time. We all thought he is the best behaved, someone whom girls would want to bring home to show their mothers. I guess if he were Wayne Rooney, he wouldn't be that stressed.......
One thing I'm curious. After all these years, other than KimuTaku, I never hear about those boys having steady girlfriends, esp Tsuyoshi.
Wanna know how famous is SMAP? His news was reported in AFP, Reuters, london papers, German papers, American papers, Chinese papers......Do you think he might appear in Larry King next ?
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That's what his little johnny will be doing to him now....BAKA
