Asian Entertainment

[JAPAN] HAYAMI MOCOMICHI BECOMES FATHER!

Hayami Mocomichi will be starring in an NTV drama series this fall, it was learned on Sunday. While the show is currently untitled, it is said to feature the actor in a “father” role.

Mocomichi plays the role of Kotaro Yamashita, an aspiring young novelist working part-time at a publishing company. He leads the life of a poor bachelor, but he somehow gets stuck living with the 6-year-old An, an impertinent but gifted child actress, forcing him to take on the role of a father figure. Rosa Kato has been cast as An’s manager.

NTV has scheduled the drama for Tuesday nights at 10:00pm. The first episode airs in October.

source: tokyograph

[JAPAN] 30-YEAR ANIIVERSARY “THANK YOU-”SUMMER TOUR

Southern All Stars, which will disband and stop all activity next year, started their 30-year anniversary Thank-You Summer Tour on 16th August at Yokohama. They will hold concerts on the 16th, 17th, 23rd and 24th and will mobilize a total of 300,000 people.

Amidst a cheering crowd of 70,000, vocalist Kuwata Keisuke (52) said, “We have returned, please enjoy!” For a duration of 3 hours, Southern All Stars sang and danced, alternately making the audience laugh and cry, showing at the same time how the Southern spirit has not changed throughout these 30 long years.

“Southern will not be able to see you guys for a while, please remember us! If we ever come back with a new single, will we be able to meet up here again?” Kuwata shouted out to a crowd which shrieked in what sounded like a mix of despair and delight. Later on, Kuwata thanked the crowd for their 30-year long support and promised to meet up again.

There were many from the crowd who came from distant places just to support Southern. A housewife from Aomori (49) said that it was because of Southern All Stars that she and her husband clicked with each other and got married eventually. “Southern will never die!!” She intoned fervently.

source: sanspo
translations: myfirstgossipblog

[JAPAN] HIROSHI TAMAKI IS THE CF KING

For the past three years, Yukie Nakama has been at the top of Video Research Ltd.’s CM rankings, which are based on the amount of commercial airtime for each celebrity. Now, according to the company’s data for the first half of 2008, she has fallen far behind, and a male face has risen to the top.

In the Kanto region, Hiroshi Tamaki has jumped from #10 a year ago to #1, with more than 47 hours of airtime in over 8,000 commercials. Aya Ueto, who previously ranked 8th, is now #2 at more than 36 hours with almost as many commercials. Yu Aoi and Ryoko Yonekura were next on the list, with Nakama placing 5th.

Tamaki also led in the Kansai region with close to 36 hours of commercial time, up from #34 last year. Ueto ranked #2 there as well, less than an hour behind Tamaki. Kosuke Toyohara and Maki Ota tied at #3, while Masami Nagasawa came in 5th.

In Nagoya, Ueto was able to keep her #1 seat from last year, but Tamaki moved up from #39 to #2. The two were followed by Nagasawa, Koyuki, Toyohara, and Ota.

source: tokyograph

[JAPAN] JAY CHOU’S “KUNG FU DUNK”

Jay Chou’s “Kung Fu Dunk” will be showing today in 150 cinemas in Japan, due to the fact the movie has over TW$7 billion box office sales over Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea, the Japanese publishers “Kadokawa” have spent 3 billion yen on promotions, setting a new record for a Taiwanese movie in Japan. 

“Kung Fu Dunk” cost 10 million US dollars to film, it’s come out in Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Korea canvassing a total of TW$7 billion, this made the Japanese publishers spend 3 billion yen on promotions, it’s on par with an A class Hollywood movie, it’s also broken the record set by “Kung Fu Kids” that released in over 100 cinemas, it’s become the biggest Taiwanese movie in Japan.

Jay Chou’s popularity in Japan is high, “Kung Fu Dunk” is coming out this week in Japan, his own movie “Secret” that he directed and starred in will come out next week (23rd) in the whole of Japan, this month is simply Jay Chou’s movie month in Japan, being able to have two movies coming out in a row in Japan, Jay Chou is probably the first young Asia heavenly king to do so.

At the moment Jay Chou is busy with his new album, which is estimated to come out in September, he still has a few concerts to perform in Mainland China, so he still hasn’t set out his plans to accept new movies for the latter half of the year.

Before there were reports from a Mainland China website that said Jay Chou had a chance to work with Andy Lau in a new magic related movie which was to be directed by Jay Chou, Jay Chou’s “JVR” company yesterday expressed: “Jay and Andy Lau have both publicly expressed their admiration for one another and their hope to work together, but right now we don’t have any solid plans.”

Source: UDN
Translated: jaychoustudio

[JAPAN] TOMOKO NINOMIYA TAKES OFF TO HAVE HER BABY

Manga artist Tomoko Ninomiya revealed in an August 11 blog entry that she was several months pregnant and would take a break from drawing the Nodame Cantabile manga to have her baby. Her manga will go on temporary hiatus from Kodansha’s biweekly Kiss magazine until the issues that ship in October. She joked about the alien-like gurgling that her baby was making in her stomach, and said she will try her best to return as quickly as possible.

Coincidentally, October is also when the new Nodame Cantabile: Paris anime sequel will premiere in Japan. Del Rey will publish the 15th of the 21 current volumes of the manga in North America in November. The romantic comedy follows two music students as they pursue their dreams in Japan and beyond.

Source: Oricon+AsianNewsNetwork

[JAPAN] AKB48 MEMBER FIRED OVER “PURIKURA PHOTO

Ayaka Kikuchi, 15, who is a member of the pop group AKB48, was fired from the group on Thursday according to her management agency.

A private online community site run by Kikuchi and her friends had been hacked and “Purikura” photographs picturing her with her boyfriend distributed over the internet. Her management agency said Kikuchi had been fired because of her “immature behavior”.

source: japantoday