Lost in a Reverie » Movies

Ninomiya Kazunari to star in latest Higashino Keigo adaption, Platina Data

Fiona — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:17:02 +0000

On January 26th, it was announced that Ninomiya Kazunari from Arashi will be starring in an upcoming movie titled,”Platina Data“.

“Platina Data” is based on a novel by famed writer Higashino Keigo. Set in 2017, it tells the story of a young brilliant scientist named Kagura Ryuhei (Ninomiya), who works as a DNA specialist for the National Police Agency in the newly created underwater DNA data center. One day, he suddenly becomes the prime suspect in the murder case of the person who developed the new DNA investigation system. Having no memory of what actually happened, Kagura decides to run away from the police.

Ninomiya commented, “It’s an incredible story that lets you take a look at a not too distant future… It’s an honor to be involved in this project.”

It was also announced that the detective in charge of the pursuit, Asama Reiji, will be played by actor Toyokawa Etsushi.

“I’m really happy to be able to work with Toyokawa. I can learn so many things from him,” Ninomiya said. “I’ll immediately start the preparations in order to be able to keep up with him.”

Toyokawa commented, “I’ve always thought of Ninomiya as a wonderful and young actor with a great individuality, from whom I can still learn a couple of things myself. I can’t wait to interact with him.”

The filming will begin in February, which gives Ninomiya a few more days to study the latest reports about DNA research, as he said. Aside from the science factor, the movie is said to include various dynamic action scenes as well. Distributor Toho stated that they want to create an epic mystery on the level of a Hollywood movie.

“Platina Data” will not appear in cinemas before 2013.

From Tokyohive

Looks like another great movie for Nino, I love the sci-fic and mystery factors and cannot wait to see it!

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Nino and Matsuyama unlock what makes GANTZ so appealing

Fiona — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:13:51 +0000

The much anticipated live action film adaptation of the GANTZ manga series will be released in Japan on January 29. Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya and Kenichi Matsuyama sat down with Ori-Suta to tell us about the memories of the story and how they got along on set.

Q: I’ve heard that both of you were fans of the original manga series. What made you start to read it?

Ninomiya: I first heard about it while I was reading weekly manga magazines. I always read them while I was on the train on the way to TV stations. Back then I was a (Johnny’s) junior so I’d go from my house to the TV station to be a back dancer for my seniors when they were on music shows. Luckily there was always a senior group on TV every week so I could buy a magazine every Friday. Mind you, I’d always be reading it the day after it went on sale.

Matsuyama: I first saw “GANTZ” while it was a series on (Weekly) Young Jump, but towards the end. I first heard about it when I read an advertisement for it in the train. The pictures were really pretty, and that got my attention. It made me wonder what kind of manga it was. When I started reading it, I got distracted by the beautiful pictures again. It made me see that Oku sensei was trying something different, that was his challenge, and by that point I was hooked.

Ninomiya: That’s true. The finishing touches to the pictures were so unique, almost like a digital picture. The lines (Oku) sensei would draw looked so sharp.

Q: What do you think makes this movie different?

Ninomiya: ……I guess the fact that we’re wearing funny outfits? (laughs)

Matsuyama: (laughs) that and, you know how in movies the main character always fits the hero role. But Kurono and Kato aren’t real heroes, and I think the fact that they’re normal people is what makes this movie special. Young men living in today’s society happen to become heroes, happen to become the enemy, you don’t see that in other movies. They’re not showing people that heroes have weaknesses…it’s more that they’re like everyone else in the world, their lives are complicated.

Ninomiya: Yeah, it’s modern. They suddenly find themselves in world where they’re the stars, and the longer they stay in that environment, the more they let that become the norm. They don’t think about working harder to get somewhere, they let themselves become spoilt in the present. It adds something new to the hero genre, and it’s fun to watch because you don’t know whether they’re getting fired up or are being selfish.

Q: With this being an adaptation from an original manga, don’t you get distracted by the image you have of your characters in the original story?

Ninomiya: Not really. I think everyone has the same image of Kurono and Kato as me. I don’t get worried about things like, ‘the manga’s pictures are like this’, or, ‘the original story says that’, and it doesn’t make work harder or easier. Of course, I was always reading the manga, especially in between scenes on set. But I never studied from it for the movie.

Matsuyama: With the manga you have one visual image. But when you introduce a real person who acts into the situation, I think you have to be careful to not stray too far from that image. That’s not to say that the closer you get, the better it is. There are a lot of things in the manga and film that don’t gel well together. With films there area a lot of things you have to get right, and as an actor you have to respect that. The other thing is that although the manga series is still going on, you have to provide an ending to the movie. So what makes this film adaptation different from others is that we had to bring in our own ending to the story. On that note, it makes sense to say that the original manga series wasn’t my main study guide while I was working.

From Momoedgewood

Always love these types of interviews where the actors provide their insight of the original source, even better that they are fans. The promo in the US has been intense, I’ve been receiving notices from multiple mailing lists regarding the movie. Cannot wait to see it!!

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Kaibutsu-kun movie confirmed, budget reported at 2 billion yen

Fiona — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 19:07:48 +0000

It has been confirmed that the “Kaibutsu-kun” drama series, starring Arashi’s Satoshi Ohno (30), has a movie version in the works. The film will be shot in 3D and is said to be a huge project, with some sources reporting that NTV is investing approximately 2 billion yen for the film’s production budget. Yoshihiro Nakamura (“Golden Slumber,” “Team Batista no Eikou”) has been tapped to direct.

Although the drama only averaged 13.9% during its original broadcast run last year, it reportedly had ratings of 24.2% among young children and families. The show already got a special episode last year, and the characters from the show also made an appearance at NHK’s Kouhaku Uta Gassen.

This will be Ohno’s first solo starring role in a movie. Besides him, the show’s main cast will reprise their roles, including Norito Yashima, Ryuhei Ueshima, Choi Hong Man, Takeshi Kaga, Masahiro Matsuoka (TOKIO), Izumi Inamori, Umika Kawashima, and Tatsuomi Hamada. Of course, new characters will be added as well, including an original villain.

Filming will begin this month, and some scenes will be shot in southeast Asia as the story involves Kaibutsu-kun and his friends going on an adventure to a fictional country.

Production is aiming to finish around October. Although an exact release date has not yet been set, various sources are reporting that the film will either be released around Christmas or the New Year holiday season.

From Tokyograph

Isn’t this a nice little surprise? Oh-chan finally will star in his own movie, cannot wait to see! He is probably the only 30 year old idol that can play such an extremely cute 10 year old. I wonder if themesong will be performed by Arashi as well.

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Ninomiya and Matsuyama to attend GANTZ stage greetings on same day in U.S. and Japan

Fiona — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 13:57:08 +0000

At a special event for the live-action “GANTZ” movie held on Monday, 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.

From Tokyograph

Oh, I really envy those lucky people in Los Angeles! If only they would come to New York too, I would definitely attend. There is going to be some intense flying, ganbatte to Nino and Kenichi-kun!

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1st Live-Action Gantz Film to Get Hollywood Premiere

Fiona — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:16:24 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QICB7Ca77UU

Japanese pop culture theater owner and distributor New People has announced that it will host a special event in Hollywood for the January 20 world premiere of the first live-action film based on Hiroya Oku’s manga Gantz.

Otaku USA Editor-in-Chief Patrick Macias will interview several of the film’s cast members, who will be in attendance at the Hollywood premiere. New People will officially announce the guests before the premiere, although its distribution partner Fathom Events had listed “the two stars, Kazunari Ninomiya and Ken’ichi Matsuyama,” as the interview guests in November. Audience members will be able to submit questions for the interview in a process to be announced next week.

The event is limited to 400 seats at Mann’s Chinese 6 theater, and fans can enter an online random drawing for a chance to buy tickets. Tickets will cost US$15.00 and come with a special Gantz t-shirt.

In addition to the Hollywood event, Gantz will screen in over 300 theaters throughout the United States on January 20. The interviews at the Hollywood premiere will be simulcasted to the other theaters.

From ANN

Awesome ne! Those who are able to go to the premiere are sooo lucky!! Nino will be in Hollywood again….boy, I wish I could go too!! My chances will probably none to very little, but signing up for in cases.

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Ohoku off to a fighting start

Fiona — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:50:23 +0000

Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya (27) made a personal appearance at a movie theatre in Tokyo on Saturday to thank his fans for the “大奥 (Ohoku)” movie’s success so far, reports Daily Sports.

The movie was played on more than 310 cinema screens across Japan on its opening day, attracting more than 170,000 people.

Ninomiya was accompanied by Ko Shibasaki (29), Maki Horikita (22), and Hiroshi Tamaki (30) as 1600 大入り袋 (Ohiri-bukuro)* with 5-yen coins** inside were given out to those who had come to see the movie on Saturday.

“Please use this money to come and see the movie again,” Ninomiya said.

The star and his co-star Tamaki continued to promote the movie by confessing their feelings for one another.

“My idea of the perfect man would be Tamaki-san. There’s no one as beautiful as him,” Ninomiya said.

“I took up this role because Nino was starring in the movie,” Tamaki said.

* 大入り袋 (Ohiri-bukuro) are specials bags with money inside that are given out as thank you gifts after big business successes.

** 5-yen coins are a type of lucky charm in Japanese culture, the way the word is said, “go-en”, is the same as the word for “fate” or “destiny”.

From Momoedgewood

Nino-Tamaki love! Its awesome that two of my favorite actors adore each other…they do have very good taste! LOL Interesting fact about the 5-yen coin, it’s similar in Chinese and considered a good luck charm to carry.

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Miura Haruma & Tabe Mikako hold an event for “Kimi ni Todoke”

Fiona — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:12:31 +0000

An event for upcoming movie “Kimi ni Todoke“, was held on the 11th, and the lead stars, Tabe Mikako and Miura Haruma showed up at the event. They appeared in Yukata’s (summer kimono) for the first time this summer, and invoked a big hit for the movie.

“Kimi ni Todoke” is originally a very popular manga, about a pure love story between a high school couple. The manga “Kimi ni Todoke” sold a total of 11 million copies.

Haruma told fans, “I know some people are a bit anxious about this movie, since it’s from an extremely popular manga, but we worked hard on this movie, and we also are big fans of the manga. We will not let down your expectations, so please love the movie as well as the manga.”

“Kimi ni Todoke” will be released on September 25th.

From Tokyohive

ZoomIn coverage of the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfXh0F33h9o

Kimi ni Todoke is love, sooo excited for the movie! They certainly look adorable together and have been casted perfectly as Kazehaya and Sawako. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Haruma-kun, he is maturing beautifully. May I say he looks quite dashing now-in-days?!

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Ninomiya Kazunari – Gantz Press Conference

Fiona — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:36:04 +0000

The press conference was held on August 5th, here’s the coverage from Super News:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0v4VZj3fHc

Nino looks so tiny compared to the other cast members, though, still very cute. Love his little wave and his recent hairstyle. Wasn’t this held a bit too early? The theatrical release will not be until January 2011, they just want to keep us on the edge all the time.

I had also locate an article regarding the 500,000 yen costumes for the movie:

GANTZ cast talk about iconic 500,000 yen body suit

Not only were the stars of “GANTZ” excited to wear the characteristic body suit, so were their cast members, it was revealed at the film’s press conference in Tokyo this afternoon, reports Eiga.com, Mainichi Shinbum Digital, and Oricon.

Arashi’s Kazunari Ninomiya (27), Kenichi Matsuyama (25), and the cast of sci-fi film “GANTZ” talked about working on the film.

The press conference was also watched live by 2000 fans in Hibiya park, central Tokyo.

Nino and Matsuyama play two friends, Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato, who die in a train accident, but are then mysteriously recalled back along with several other dead people to hunt down and kill aliens. The movie is a live action version of the manga series of the same name, which has to date sold more than 11 million copies and also has a large fan base in Europe.

All of the cast members had revealed that they were big fans of the manga before production. Nino had said this had given him some problems during filming.

“I thought that if we were going to do a live action version, we should do it properly.

“But (as an actor) I couldn’t talk about how the movie should be directed, and that made me a little sad. But I put everything I could into this movie,” he said.

The popstar had said the characteristic GANTZ body suit, which had cost 500,000 yen to make, was the centre of attention all throughout filming.

“There was a lot of waiting time (during filming) so people who didn’t wear the suit would be playing around and trying it on. I’m talking about (co-star) Yoshitaka-san”

A shocked Yuriko Yoshitaka was fast to explain herself.

“Why did you bring that up now!?

“I thought everyone had gone home so I thought this was my chance and tried it on. But then, Ninomiya-san hadn’t gone home yet.

“But when I put it on it was more revealing than I had imagined…and I threw it off because I got embarrassed,” she said.

Currently in post-production, film producer Takahiro Sato said he wants to create a movie that could compete with Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”. He also added that the female body suit actress Natsuna wears outlines her womanly figure clearly.

Nino quickly responded by saying, “you’re making it sound like this is a pervert movie! It’s science fiction”.

Nino also said that being a fan had created other problems in his private life.

“When I heard rumours it would be turned into a live action movie I was excited, but when I heard I would be starring in it I got a little depressed.

“It means I can’t talk about it a lot with my GANTZ fan friends,” he said.

The star said one of the reasons why he had taken up the role was because of his co-star.

“I was concerned about who would play Kato. But they told me they were thinking of Matsuyama-san and I just went, ‘if Matsuyama-san’s involved, I want to be a part of this’,” he said.

Matsuyama could not hold back a smile at the remark.

“I feel very privileged to hear Ninomiya-san speak of me like that. I couldn’t think of anyone else to play Kurono but Ninomiya-san as well,” he said.

With a budget of 40 billion yen and filming which had taken almost six months to finish, film director Shinsuke Sato said he wanted to create a movie that would not simply be a copy of the manga, but something that could stand on its own.

From Momoedgewood

The conversation between Nino and Yoshitaka was LOL, her description certainly makes the film sounds kind of hentai. Awww poor Nino, it’s awesome that he was able to star in one of his favorite manga, but discuss with his friends about his participation is prohibited. I would be the same, I truly about that the live-action will live up to everyone’s expectations. The Nino fanboying was mecha kawaii as well!

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Ohoku’s themesong and extended trailer

Fiona — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 01:49:06 +0000

Japanese film “Oooku” has just selected Arashi’s song “Dear Snow” to be the theme song for the film. This is not surprising due to the main actor in the film being Arashi’s own Ninomiya Kazunari, but is great news for Arashi fans none the less.

The film is about an alternate universe Japan in the Edo era where all of the male population is affected with a mysterious disease that forces the society to become matriarchal. Based on the manga of the same name, it draws upon aspects of gender role reversals to make a stunning semi-historical drama. Nino will be starring opposite female lead Kou Shibasaki.

At the present time no more details about “Dear Snow” being in the film are known. Arashi’s new album “Boku no Miteiru Fuukei” will be released on August 4th, but “Dear Snow” is not confirmed as a track on the album at this time.

From Tokyohive

What a nice surprise! I was certain that the themesong would be performed by another artist. There are no complaints though. I’m really curious to see what the song will be, I’m sure the lyrics will be something very meaningful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2InMnWz6m7A

Aaah~ the movie looks so amazing!! XD Did you see Nino’s almost smooch scene? That nearly killed me. LOL This adaption certainly looks brilliant along with its stunning cast, I really wish that October will arrive soon! **Reminds self to finish reading the two volumes of the manga that are laying the shelf.

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Sakurai Sho’s upcoming movie, Kamisama no Karute

Fiona — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:24:56 +0000

Today it has been announced that Arashi’s Sakurai Sho (28) is going to be starring in his first doctor role in the movie “Kamisama no Karte” that will open sometime next year.

Production is being handled by the team that already brought us “Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World”. Sakurai was already overwhelmed by the script, “It was such a tear-jerker!” He will play an internist dealing with medical care in Matsumoto, Nagano. Actress Miyazaki Aoi (24) is going to play the woman at his side. It’s the first time the two of them are working together.

Kurihara Ichito (Sakurai) is a young doctor who is going to experience a lot of different patients in Matsumoto, e.g. a woman with terminal cancer. All patients and their tragedies somehow influence his own life. However, “Kamisama no Karte” won’t just be a completely depressing and sad drama. There will be eccentric characters and friends of Kurihara that are going to loosen the serious atmosphere whenever it seems appropriate. The production team knows what they are doing, so there should be no concern on that end.

“Working in the field of community medicine (chiiki iryou), you always have to deal with >life< itself. Through Ichito and all his troubles, you are going to see how difficult it actually is for many people to just >live< . It's going to show you how important it is to have some kind of light in your life." He earnestly explained the message of the story.

In the movie you are not only going to see Sakurai as a doctor, you will also witness him as a devoted husband. Miyazaki will play his wife Haruna, a professional mountain photographer. As mentioned above, it's their first time working together. Sakurai about Miyazaki, "With Miyazaki it will be no problem playing a married couple overflowing with love, because there is such a soft atmosphere surrounding her." Miyazaki is looking forward to the filming that will start in September as well. "By getting into the role of the strong and kind Haru I'd like the filming to be just as relaxed as her character." She said.

The story is based on a novel by writer and actual doctor in Nagano, Natsukawa Sousuke (31). It went on sale in August 2009 and already sold over 300,000 copies. So far the signs are looking good for this movie. Let's see whether the production team will be able to repeat the success of their previous works.

From Kawaii Joyuu

News coverage from Zoomin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7tnpzzxVK0

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