Archives by Tag 'Movie'

Takako Uehara gets first starring role in “Koitanibashi” movie

Takako Uehara (上原多香子),28, has been given her first starring role in a movie. She will headline the cast of “Koitanibashi: La Vallee de l’amour,” directed by Koichi Goto, set for release this summer.

Uehara, born in Okinawa is a J-pop singer and a member of the group Speed.She is also a highly sought after model endorsing many famous brands such as Shiseido mainly on Proudia & Tsubaki Shampoo, Dunlop Tyres, NTT DoCoMo, FujiFilm FinePix Camera, SAGAWA, FamilyMart, KC Card, Meiji Chocolate, NEC FOMA and other food & beverages. Her most popular campaign was when she teamed up with Vivian Hsu to promote Shiseido’s ‘Proudia’ range of products aimed at the more youthful market. Uehara has also been a favorite pinup model among teenage men.

As an actress, Uehara won a Japan Academy Prize Rookie of the Year award for her role in the 1999 movie “Dream Maker.” She has appeared in several other films since then, with her last one being the 2008 movie “Yume no Manimani.”

In “Koitanibashi,” Uehara plays Tomoko, a young woman who had headed to Tokyo to pursue her dreams but returns in frustration to her hometown. There, she becomes an okami (proprietress) at a hot spring inn and turns her life around. The story is based on “Ame no Naka no Hatsukoi: First Love in the Rain,” a script that won the 1st Super Scenario Grand Prix.

Dream Maker Trailer (1999)

Matsuyama, Ninomiya to attend “GANTZ” stage greetings in L.A on Jan. 20

Gantz is a Japanese manga and anime series written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku. Gantz tells the story of Kei Kurono and his friend Masaru Kato who die in a train accident and become part of a semi-posthumous “game” in which they and several other recently deceased people are forced to hunt down and kill aliens armed with a handful of futuristic items of equipment and weaponry.

At a special event for the live-action “GANTZ” movie held on January 10, it was announced that co-stars Kenichi Matsuyama and Kazunari Ninomiya will do stage greetings for the movie in Japan and the United States on the same day, January 20. This will be a first for the industry.

On the morning of January 20, they will first attend a stage greeting at a theater in Roppongi. After that, they will take a plane to Los Angeles, where they will attend a stage greeting on the night of January 20 at the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. As previously announced, that event in Hollywood is for the official world premiere of the film, and Matsuyama and Ninomiya’s stage greeting will be relayed live to more than 330 other theaters across the United States that are also screening the movie.

The “GANTZ” movie officially opens in Japan more than a week later on January 29. The sequel is slated to premiere on April 23.

Live-action movie “Maria-sama ga Miteru” to star Miki Honoka and Haru

“Maria-sama ga Miteru (マリア様がみてる/ lit. Maria Watches Over Us)” , often shortened to Marimite (マリみて),is a successful series of light novels written by Oyuki Konno (今野緒雪). Started in 1998 and still ongoing, the novels have spawned a manga adaptation and multiple seasons of a television anime.

Read the rest of this entry »

Shun Oguri,Masami Nagasawa X Movie:Gaku

Manga “Gaku: (岳－ガク－ lit. “Peak)” is going to be turned into a live-action movie. Shun Oguri （小栗旬）and Masami Nagasawa（長澤まさみ） are going to star in this movie, 7 years after their last movie together.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ryoko Yonekura X “Koshonin The Movie: Time Limit Kodo 10,000m no Zunosen”

The TV Asahi drama series “Koshonin” is coming back as a theatrical film “Koshonin The Movie: Time Limit Kodo 10,000m no Zunosen” (Negotiator The Movie: Time Limit Battle of Wits at Altitude 10,000m).
Read the rest of this entry »