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- Aya Ueto learns about the high life to play her role as a celebrity in a new TV drama
- Sano Natsume
- Hot Japanese Singer “Suzuka Mizuhara”
- Hikki’s Next Album
- KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2007 ~Black Cherry~ SPECIAL FINAL in TOKYO DOME
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| Life of make-believe: Aya Ueto’s character Alice Mitazono appears with Taro Sato (Yusuke Kamiji) in the drama “Celeb to Binbo Taro” (”The Celebrity and Poor Taro”). |
UETO AYA
“I never wished to become an actress or a star who performs on TV,” explains Aya Ueto, the prominent model and actress. “I took this role because my management gave it to me.”
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| Aya Ueto COURTESY OF OSCAR PROMOTION |
The role in question is that of Alice Mitazono, a wealthy hotel heiress who meets a poor widowed father of three named Taro Sato, played by Yusuke Kamiji, in the new Fuji TV drama “Celeb to Binbo Taro” (”The Celebrity and Poor Taro”).
As “CM Queen” for 2008, having raked in some $3.6 million in endorsements, one might think that Ueto, 23, is familiar with the celebrity lifestyle. But having come from humble beginnings to succeed in Japan’s notoriously hardworking aidoru (acting and modeling talent) industry, the sad truth is far from it.
Coming from a broken home where she dreamed of being a child-care worker, in 1997 she found a leaflet offering a ¥2 million prize for the winner of the seventh All-Japan National Young Beauty Contest. Thinking she could get a big house to bring her family together, she entered and won, aged just 12.
Since then she’s barely had time to look back, having starred in a stream of high-profile television dramas such as “Koukou Kyoushi” (”High-School Teacher,” 2003, where she played a high-school girl in love) and manga adaptation “Ace wo Nerae!” (”Aim for the Ace!,” 2004, in which she played the lead — the role of Hiromi Oka, a struggling tennis player). Ueto’s rise to prominence, though, came when she played the assassin Azumi in Ryuhei Kitamura’s international hit film of the same name (2003) and its sequel, “Azumi 2: Death or Love” (2005).
Backstage at Chiba Marine Stadium while filming for “Celeb to Binbo Taro,” Ueto bounces into the room with the cheerfulness that has placed her among the most recognizable faces in Japanese entertainment. Dressed in a glorious white ensemble topped with a tilted white fur hat, it’s as if she has stepped right off the red carpet. Her eyes are full of eagerness and fascination, and her answers surprisingly direct and honest.
“I thought (the role of Alice) would be tough, because I couldn’t imagine the lives of celebrities,” Ueto laments. “My life was rather similar to poor Taro’s. But I realized that (Alice) was a lively, unrestrained, fashionable girl, so I could manage to play the role with passion and energy. One of the similarities between me and the character is that I am easily influenced by others.”
Sano Natsume
11/11/08
Name (romaji): Sano Natsume
Nicknames: Burin, Natsumin
Profession: Actress and gravure idol
Birthdate: 1985-Feb-14
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Height: 155cm
Star sign: Aquarius
Blood type: A
Family: Brother
Talent agency: Metal Box
Suzuka Mizuhara Biography
Name: Suzuka Mizuhara
Japanese Name: ????
Birthdate: 1986-6-2
Birthplace: Kyoto Origin, Japan
Height: 163cm
B88 (F) W58 H88cm
Hobbies: illustrations, reading, internet
Blood Type: O
Hikki’s Next Album
11/11/08
As I have definitely mentioned before, Utada Hikaru’s next album is to be released March 19th (According to YesAsia). The day is getting nearer and nearer, of course, so with that, Hikki is promoting it more and more, and we, the fans, couldn’t be happier.
To begin with the title of the album, that from “Undecided,” went to “HEART STATION,” just like her next single that is to be released February the 20th. I feel like it’s a very, very beautiful title and couldn’t love it more.
It has also been determined that “HEART STATION” will have 13 tracks, 7 of them being brand new and never heard before, while the others are from her singles “Flavor Of Life,” “Beautiful World,” “Kiss & Cry,” “Boku Wa Kuma,” “Stay Gold,” and finally, “HEART STATION.” You even get a bonus if you pre-order a copy! You get a B2 sized poster! That’s awesome.
With all these fabulous updates, her album’s cover art couldn’t miss out, right? Well, here it is, straight from her website, so fresh and so beautiful:
But there’s still more! Her website also uploaded her promotional video (Or music video) for “HEART STATION” (The song), and it’s excellent! Anyone who’s not familiar with her work should check the video out! It’s a fantastic song and a great video! Here’s the link to the complete video:
http://www.emimusic.jp/hikki/heartstation/hs/
Thank you everyone for all the support and wonderful comments for my previous post… I really needed all the support and I feel much better, and good enough to write more posts for y’all! Thank you once again!
For two days now I have wanted to watch KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2007 ~Black Cherry~ SPECIAL FINAL in TOKYO DOME, but because the download was very hard to acquire, I only got to watch it yesterday. The hard work was worth it. This concert is one of the best I’ve ever watched because it’s so different. It’s kind of a play involving pirates, the ocean and mermaids. The part after the second video interlude kind of drops the story and it’s pretty much a normal concert. The whole stage and audience had an undersea vibe, (Since the stage was in the shape of a pirate ship and the audience was waving blue glowing shells throughout the concert) and it was something truely amazing.
The concert begins with a video interlude of Koda Kumi as a mermaid and lying (Apparently dead or sleeping) on some sort of a pedestal. Then a terribly ugly witch comes in and removes this key she was wearing as a necklace and throws it onto the floor. A pirate that walks in with the witch takes the key that fell onto the floor for himself. The witch then takes out these fire swords and stabs the pedestal that Koda Kumi is on three times. Koda Kumi opens her eyes and when the witch is about to kill her with the fiery blade, Everything disappears in a white flash and mermaid Kuu is still on the pedestal, but she’s waking up. Her hands move on the screen and the attention is turned to the stage, where an aquarium is placed. The music plays and bubbles cover the water. Just when the bubbles are over, there is Kuu, swimming. She jumps out of the aquarium and starts to sing. It’s a great start for a great concert.
The rest is the real concert and two more interlude videos. Kuu really shows her vocal range and many other abilities through out the concert, like pouring drinks, doing cartwheels and of course, her great dancing abilities. I really liked the song choice, but the ‘rock’ part of the concert was my least favorite part, since it was too noisy and loud. The last part of the concert was a great one, ending with a crying Kuu singing ‘walk’ and the mermaid part was adorable, the songs were chosen very well, with R&B and pop vibes while the costumes were very rich and beautiful.
Overall, the concert was great and one of the best I’ve ever watched. I’d rate it a 10/10, in the beginning, I was a little concerned about the song selection on some parts, but it’s something you grow into to feel the sould of the songs, and the performances make up for everything! I recommend it to anyone who enjoys lots of special effects, pop and R&B!
If you wish to watch this incredible concert, the link to download it is displayed below, but first, it is necessary that you create an account and then download all parts of the file and then join them together! (Using HJSplit or any other file like it will be just fine) The forum is also in Portuguese, so if you don’t understand much, you can use Google Translate as well.
KODA KUMI LIVE TOUR 2007 ~Black Cherry~ SPECIAL FINAL in TOKYO DOME