my dash of entertainment

Japanese actress Mao Inoue, famous for her role in the hot-selling HYD series, is now teaming up with actor Jonathan Sherr for a movie adaptation of the manga “Darling wa Gaikokujin” (literally meaning, my darling is a foreigner)

In this manga series, the mangaka Saori Oguri depicts her own relationship with her spouse who was an American journalist. Till date, about 2 million copies of its 4 volumes are sold, with the latest one covering content of the birth of their son.

Filming is said to be in progress already, though not much details are released yet. The movie is set to be released in spring next year.

Can’t really imagine Inoue with a gaikokujin together, should be quite an interesting combination (:

The highly anticipated Gokusen: The Movie opened on Japanese screens last weekend, starting on 11th July. It was reported that more than 402 thousand fans saw the film, and that earned the movie approximately 490 million yen.

The movie casted some of my favourite actors from Gokusen 1 and 2, namely Oguri Shun from the first instalment and Mokomichi Hayami and Koike Teppei from the second. guess this is one of the last times that viewers can catch Yankumi in action, i seriously doubt there’s more coming with 3 instalments done.

However there’s comparison to the “ROOKIES” movie which opened in Japan a few weeks ago, with regards to gross earnings. ROOKIES had earned a whopping 1.2 billion yen in its opening weekend. And perhaps people are questioning whether Gokusen: The Movie can reach its targeted earnings of about 4 billion yen by the end of its run.

Gokusen fans! catch it now =o (if you are reading from Japan)

Hey dearies, my bad for leaving this place for quite some while! been busy, been distracted, well you name it.

Anyway, what’s the best way to clear the dust of this blog other than starting it off again with Oguri Shun! ((:

News from Tokygraph.com revealed that Oguri Shun is finally going to be a first-time movie director! (well, talented guys in showbiz should really utilise their talents man)

Of course, while we all know that actors becoming directors are no biggie, but give some credit to this guy who is afterall still in his twenties (26+ in fact)! No official title to the movie yet, but there’s speculations that it might be named “Surely Someday”.

The star is currently overseas for work, and is said to be starting his directing work this summer. The film is rumoured to be a story of adolescence that will feature a cast of handsome actors! (ikemen =p) It will be cool to see Oguri’s group of handsome friends in the entertainment circle being his cast, I’m crossing my fingers haha. Anyway, news also mentioned that Oguri Shun was able to get this directing project rolling with the help of producer Mataichiro Yamamoto who heads his management agency, Tristone, and also Oguri Senior, Tetsuya Oguri, a stage director.

This film is expected to hit the theatres next year.

Pop star Ayumi Hamasaki will be teaming up with famous mangaka Akira Toriyama for her upcoming single “Rule/ Sparkle”. Toriyama is best known for his creation of Dragon Ball in 1984. This time round, Toriyama has drawn a likeness of Ayumi Hamasaki that will be printed on the first press CDs and DVDs of this new single. This is his first time drawing an illustration for a music artiste, as well as drawing a real person for a commercial product.

But of course, this collaboration is a result of Hamasaki’s “Rule” being used as the theme song of the worldwide release of the live-action “Dragonball” movie, based on Toriyama’s creation.

The single will go on sale in late February, way ahead of the movie’s release in mid March.

“Crows Zero” is going to get a sequel, news confirmed yesterday, and the new sequel is expected to be out in 2009! This manga-to-film adaptation was a hit when it came out last year, and its sequel is expected to create another commotion close to release.

Oguri Shun is confirmed to continue the role of protagonist Genji Takaya and training has already started for him (busy man!), and director Takashi Miike calls the shots once again this time round. Other members of the cast are not yet mentioned, though it’s clear that Kyosuke Yabe is also resuming his role.

“Crows Zero”’s sequel is set to be 8 months after the first movie and protagonist Genji is close to graduation at Suzuran High School. However, there’s still one last matter to be settled with the rival school…

Stay tuned to Crows Zero 2..