Today, January 29 is Hyde-san's tanjoubi^^ and he's turn 38 now.
Wishing you all the best, in L'Arc and solo!
Jang Dong-gun Becomes Nintendo Model
Actor Jang Dong-gun became the model for Nintendo’s promotion campaign in South Korea.
Jang, the hero of movies ``Friend’’ and ``Tae Guk Gi,’’ will be featured in game advertisements for Nintendo DS mini console from January.
``We picked him because he is a representative of people who don’t look like a game fan at all,’’ Nintendo said in a release, hoping to improve the public image of the video game culture. (Korea Times)
Nintendo release DS Lite, an upgraded version of Nintendo DS, as well as two localized games _ ``Brain Training’’ and ``English Training’’ _ in Korea on Jan. 18 with Jang Dong Gun as the model.
There's 3 version of cute CFs for each English learning and Brain training. Check on http://www.nintendo.co.kr
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It's really interesting, feel like get one for myself :)
Just for info. Nanako Matsushima was Nintendo DS model in Japan now. So with Utada Hikaru. Apparently she's a tetris expert!^^ There's a clip where she challenge 30 (plus 2) people to play tetris. Amazingly she won 26 and lose 4 times. With plus 2 expert people, she won 1 and lose 1. The show was around August 2006.
Nintendo Takes Aim at Korea
Japanese video game maker Nintendo is set to attack the Korean market. After setting up a Seoul office last year, Nintendo, one of the world’s top three game makers, has just released its latest portable game machine here. The Nintendo DS Lite, a top seller in Japan with some 8 million units sold so far, hit stores Thursday for W150,000 (US$1=W937).
Nintendo Korea has hired movie star Jang Dong-gun to promote its products to local gamers. The company’s chief Koda Mineo said that they aim to attract people who don't usually play video games “We plan to target even those age groups who typically show little interest in video games,” he said.
Later in the year, the company will introduce its highly-anticipated Wii game console. The next-generation machine has already rocked the Japanese market, selling a million units in just one month after its December release, more than twice the number of Sony’s new PlayStation3.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200701/200701190034.html
another news: http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200701/kt2007010918195853460.htm
Refering to the news here , a Kimura Takuya fan - Sandra, create a blog with title 'Letter to Johnny's Jimusho'.
Here's I quote her comment:
I've started a blog called Letter to Johnny's Jimusho to protest some of their policies in relation to the withdrawal of the best actor nomination for Kimura and Junichi.
While it is imperceivable that Kitagawa may change his policy as he is playing shogun but the frustration from fans needs to be communicated to JE no matter what. That's what being a fan is all about. Please help.
Thank you in advance.
Sandra
If you want to participate, please go to the block, http://lettertojohnnyjimusho.blogspot.com/ and for those who don't have a blog, you can email her.
Posted: Wed., Dec. 20, 2006, 6:26pm PT
Japan nominations to Yamada drama
But star rejects actor nod
By MARK SCHILLING
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According to a Japan Academy spokesman, talent shop Johnny & Associates, which reps the pop star-turned-thesp, rejected Kimura's nom after a week of negotiations, saying it didn't "want to put him in a position of competing with other actors for the prize."
Johnny's, known for mass-manufacturing young male talent hyphenates, has a longstanding policy of not participating in music biz contests and awards. Its rejection of a Japan Academy nom is a first, however.
Kimura is a member of the pop group SMAP and has been a TV drama megastar for more than a decade.
The 12 nominations for "Love and Honor" equal the record for a live-action pic.
Comedy "Suite Dreams" received 11 noms and dramedy "Hula Girls" took 10.
Noms are made by the 4,400 Academy members in a total of 15 categories, including picture, director, actor and actress. Awards ceremony will be held Feb. 16 in Tokyo.
In the 29-year history of the Japan Academy Awards, several individuals have rejected noms, including Akira Kurosawa, who turned down a director nod for "Kagemusha" in 1980, citing scheduling conflicts, and Ken Takakura, who rejected an actor nom in 2002 for drama "Hotaru," saying he wanted to make way for younger actors.
Kazunari Ninomiya, who has earned some Oscar buzz with his turn as a baker-turned-solider in Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima," is a Johnny's talent as well. Firm has not said what it will do if he scores an Academy Award nomination.
Love and Honor has been released last December 1st. Many reviews, positif and negatif, I'll post it here. Do not read if you don't like spoiler.
| Takuya Kimura and Rei Dan in "Bushi no Ichibun" (c)LOVE AND HONOR FILM PARTNERS |
| Director: Yoji Yamada Running time: 121 minutes Language: Japanese |
The star of the recent hit "Love and Honor", Takuya Kimura, has been known for "King of J-drama". All the TV dramas that he starred became huge hits, and the biggest of them was Fuji TV's "HERO" in 2001. Kimura played a maverick prosecutor who pursues the truth in his own way, and the drama got the average rating of 34.3%, the highest among all Fuji dramas historically. A special one-time drama was also aired in July 2006, which also got 30.9% rating.
Fuji's hit-maker producer Chihiro Kameyama has been thinking of making it into a movie for 3-4 years, and finally decided to go ahead recently. The feature version's screenplay is currently written, and the same main cast, including Takako Matsu, Nene Otsuka, Hiroshi Abe and Masanobu Katsumura, are supposed to appear. Fuji is hoping the repeat of "Bayside Shakedown" pattern, the strong drama-movie combination with the same cast, with successful sequels and spin-offs.
The film's release is scheduled in September, 2007.
Oh, and by the way, I noticed Ryuganji already has more detailed report on his blog. See Ryuganji.
Source: SANSPO
Source: Variety
Posted: Tue., Dec. 5, 2006, 3:05pm PT
Bond bested by blind warrior in B.O.
'Love' beats 'Casino' in Japan
Helmer Yoji Yamada's "Love and Honor" (Bushi ni Ichibun), earned Y436 million ($3.8 million) beating fellow opener "Casino Royale's" $3.4 million.
Take was well up on the first weekend gross recorded by "The Hidden Blade," the second pic in Yamada's samurai trilogy, which finished its run with $7.9 million.
"Love and Honor" star Takuya Kimura is a member of the pop group SMAP and a TV megastar for more than a decade. He is helping to draw younger femme fans who would ordinarily never turn up for a samurai drama.
Distrib Shochiku predicts that "Love and Honor" will hit the Y5 billion ($43.5 million) mark, which would make it Yamada's biggest hit in a career that includes the 48 entries in the "Tora-san" series, itself a Guinness Book record.
