Yoji Yamada to start new project

TOKYO (TR) – Studio giant Shochiku announced this week that legendary director Yoji Yamada will begin work on his next film in mid-January.

“Otouto” tells the story of one foolish brother (the word “otouto” in Japanese means younger brother) and his warm and caring older sister. The film will be the 81st for Yamada, who first garnered fame for his “Tora-san” series of 48 films and whose recent works include the Academy Award-nominated “The Twilight Samurai” (2002) and its follow-up, “The Hidden Blade” (2004). Read more

King copra

MAJURO – The continually hot and dusty conditions found on the Marshall Islands’ capital of Majuro can be rough on the interior of any car, explains Joe Heran as his brown 4-door sedan taxi rumbles down the main road from the airport.

“I fill this up with coconut oil – $2 a gallon,” he says, producing a spray bottle of light brown liquid from beneath the driver’s seat. “It helps to clean the inside of my car. I just wipe it down.” He then pats the dashboard just below the yellow fuzzy dice dangling from his rear view mirror.

Adding a little sparkle to a car’s interior is just one of the many uses for products coming from the coconut – its dried meat, or copra, has been a major source of income for many resource-poor nations in the Pacific over the last two centuries. Read more

Keitai’s ring, ‘no vacancy’ signs glisten, in Tokyo’s winter wonderland

“I was surprised — from early afternoon there wasn’t a room to be had anywhere,” the man in his 40s, who works in his company’s sales department, tells Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 20). “You walk down the back street in Kabukicho with all the love hotels, and most of them are fully booked, even though it’s just 2:00 p.m. Makes you wonder who the heck’s using them. . .”

And mysteriously, the busiest hotels of all appear to be the most decrepit. Read more

Sex shops cop out on ‘naitei’ arrangements for class of ‘69

When it rains, as the saying goes, it pours. Not only are proper companies backing out of naitei (informal agreements) to hire university grads from this coming April: Due to the repercussions of the financial meltdown, such sex services as fashion health emporiums and deri heru (“delivery health,” i.e., out-call sex services), are also hurting so badly they’re cutting back on recruitment.

“One thing that owners of sex shops seem to have in common is a love of gambling,” the employee at one such shop confides to Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 17). “They aren’t just satisfied with buying stocks in companies — they also dabble in commodities trading and investment funds in third-world countries, with high-risk high return. When they do well, they plow their profits back into the business.” Read more

Social hygiene getting outfoxed by the pox

“Considering that syphilis infections spread relatively easily, those who contract it tend to have a low awareness of their condition. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number of carriers were actually several hundreds, or even thousands of times greater than the official figures.”

So says Dr. Tsuneo Akaeda, head of the Roppongi Clinic, who is often consulted by the media on such matters.

One thing is for sure, reports Nikkan Gendai (Dec. 16), this age-old malady is making a comeback in Japan. According to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 509 people were diagnosed with syphilis in 2003. As of last month, the figure for 2008 had reached 720. Read more

Kazumi Kawashiro – Bandai Visual

Kazumi Kawashiro
President of Bandai Visual
By focusing on popular animation titles, Kawashiro has made Bandai Visual the leader of Japan’s homevideo market.

The “Gundam” robot franchise, which includes dozens of television and film animations created by subcontractor Sunrise Animation, is the company’s signature brand.

According to research firm Media Control GfK, “Mobile Suit Gundam DVD Box 2″ was Japan’s top revenue-producing title through October, with “Box 1″ registering eighth. Read more

Mike Ellis – Motion Picture Assn.

Mike Ellis
Senior VP and regional director, Asia Pacific at Motion Picture Assn.
Since he took over antipiracy operations in the Asia Pacific region for the MPA in 1999, Ellis has participated in so many raids and legal actions that Asian pirate crews are likely considering a mutiny.

Last year, MPA operations assisted law enforcement on 12,400 raids, which netted more than 35 million illegal optical discs and 4,482 optical disc burners.

Ellis has seen tremendous progress in several countries in the Asia Pacific arena.

“In the late ’90s, piracy rates in Hong Kong and Singapore, for example, were well above 20%,” he explains. “Now, the rates in both (areas) are below 10%.” Read more

Naoshi Yoda – T-Joy Entertainment

Naoshi Yoda
Executive director of T-Joy Entertainment
Investment in technology and a commitment to innovation have made exhib T-Joy Entertainment, under executive director Naoshi Yoda, the leader in the march toward digital conversion within the world’s No. 2 film market.

A subsid of studio giant Toei established in 2000, T-Joy operates 40 of Japan’s approximately 100 d-cinema screens in its 14 plexes nationwide. It became the first chain to operate an all-digital plex when it opened its flagship Shinjuku Wald 9 in central Tokyo early last year. Read more

Kabukicho conundrum

TOKYO – The framed certificate from the Tokyo public safety commissioner sitting inside the office of Yoshihisa Shimoda acknowledges his successful completion of training in thwarting the activities of boryokudan, or criminal organizations. Such an accreditation should be very practical given his task at hand.

For years, it was well known that the bread and butter of a typical yakuza gangster working the darkened streets of Kabukicho has been the sale of ordinary items like hand towels and ice cubes at heavily marked-up prices to the area’s seedy kyabakura (cabaret clubs) and bars in exchange for any necessary “protection” of business operations.

Shimoda is the office manager of Discovery Kabukicho, an organization whose goals are to rehabilitate the image of Japan’s most vast red-light district, located just east of Shinjuku Station. “At the end of the day, we want Kabukicho to be clean,” says the manager, who along with two other staff members began operations in April. “We want security, safety, and a pleasant environment.” Read more

‘Tokyo Sonata’ – Release of English-subtitled edition

‘Tokyo Sonata’, English-subtitled edition

Starting Date:
12/13 (Sat)

Showtimes:
Week of 12/13 (Sat)- 12/19 (Fri)
4:40pm/ 7:15pm

Cinemart Roppongi

3-8-15, Minato-ku Tokyo

Tel: 03-5413-7711

TOKYO SONATA is a portrait of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family. The father who abruptly loses his job conceals the truth from his family; the eldest son in college hardly returns home; the youngest son furtively takes piano lessons without telling his parents; and the mother, who knows deep down that her role is to keep the family together, cannot find the will to do so. From the exterior, all is normal and the same. But somehow, a single, unforeseeable chasm has appeared within the family, only to spread ever so quietly and quickly to disintegrate them. Read more

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