Kuroki adds oestrogen to “Crows Zero”
Posted on Wednesday, 30 May 2007 at 11:13 am
American-Japanese model and sometime actress Kuroki Meisa (18) will be supplying eye candy for the lads in Miike Takashi’s sausage fest “Crows Zero“.
Cinema Today and Sponichi have some not-too-exciting pics of Meisa in character as Aisawa Ruka singing with rock band The Street Beats at a location shoot in Osaka.
Kuroki is a graduate of the Okinawa Actors School that’s to blame responsible for launching the careers of countless idols and pop stars such as Amuro Namie, Speed and Da Pump. Although best known as a model for commercials and fashion rags including JJ, she’s also currently in demand for several TV series, stage productions, and films (”Who’s Camus Anyway?”, “One Missed Call: Final”, “Heavenly Forest” etc.), not to mention her voice role in “Ping Pong” director Sori Fumihiko’s upcoming CG feature “Vexille“. Going on what I’ve seen, her exotic looks only go so far to compensate for her wooden performances to date, so I have my doubts as to whether she’ll still be around in a few years time. (sources: Cinema Today, Sponichi)
comment by Don
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
It does sound British doesn’t it, but strangely enough I picked it up from a Hawaiian mate of mine. Funny old world, innit eh?
I took a pass on “Funky Forest” on the big screen as “The Taste of Tea” is the only thing of Ishii’s I’ve been able to put up with so far. 2 & 1/2 hours of random hipster schtick sounds much better suited to DVD anyway.
comment by logboy
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
that’s the thing that’s splitting the audiences (well, english speaking one who’re sharing their thoughts - about 0.0000000000001% of the global population, if that) is that the randomness of ‘funky forest’ is off-putting. well, it was for me at first, but then once you’ve gone past the phase of being annoyed and gone slightly into the giving up phase you potentially begin to let it flow over you, and then it really begins to work. that said, i prefer the story (although still semi-random, but in a more familiar or coherant fashion) of ‘taste of tea’.
btw, can you see what you can dig up on the new tetsuya nakashima film ‘Pako and the Magical Picture Book” - i can’t get the japanese text for the title even…
comment by kevin
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
i wish i could read japanese but i found the title パコと魔法の絵本 and a current article about it at http://blog2.dreamy.bitter.jp/?eid=394963 with some fancy googling.
comment by kevin
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
also, totally agree about funky forest. at the beginning i was a little annoyed that nothing made any sense, and by the middle i was giggling at Ikki Todoroki “umaaaaaaaaiii!”-ing his tea for no particular reason.
comment by Don
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
Sorry to be late getting back to you guys - my computer at home went into a coma and is currently in intensive care.
The only news I could find out there on “Pako to Maho no Ehon” (just a working title) is the Sponichi story used by Tokyograph, who left out the bit about it being set in “a hospital full of quirky patients”.
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2007/05/30/01.html
As for “Funky Forest”, I’m sure I’ll get around to watching it at some stage, but to me Ishii and Nakashima are way overhyped as filmmakers. They bring the (admittedly often enjoyable) flash alright, but go thin on the substance. Then again, I’m a card-carrying member of the minority that hates “Kamikaze Girls”.
comment by logboy
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
don - you’ve probably got a woman, no? and she’s fine, no? anna tsuchiya goes a long way to describing why i like ‘kamikaze girls’ - i’ve a thing for odd voices on women, and that gruff smokers drawl gets me every time.
i agree that ishii and nakashima are potentially overrated, they’re clearly both making visually rich, potentially light-on-plot films… i can’t say no to those vibrant colors and wacky visuals, even though they’re the exact opposite of what i’m looking for most of the time, and they go against what i take to be genuine or acceptable in terms of kooky storytelling…
comment by Don
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
Er, well, yes, and she’s fine enough to be italicized, but I’m not sure if she’d agree that I’ve “got” her… :)
Back to Tsuchiya Anna - the first time I became aware of her was when she was doing NHK’s Italian language programme. Surly, rude and generally pretty thick. She was fine in “Taste of Tea” and was actually one of “Dororo”’s few saving graces, but her punk rebel routine (a la “Kamikaze Girl” and “Sakuran”) probably falls somewhere between Kubozuka Yosuke and Avril Lavigne. That being said, at least she can actually act when given the right role and decent direction. The less said about Fukada Kyoko the better.
I’ve got nothing against films that are quirky for quirky’s sake - I love Miki Satoshi and Wes Anderson’s output for example - but I generally don’t get the coolness-obsessed Japanese subgenre of low attention span comedy hybrids made by TV commercial directors (”Survive Style 5+”, most of Ishii Katsuhito’s work, “Kamikaze Girls” etc. ). I often wonder if this kind of stuff would be as successful overseas if it wasn’t Japanese.
pingback by Japan News for June 01, 2007 » Japan Probe
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
[...] American-Japanese model and sometime actress Kuroki Meisa (18) will be supplying eye candy for the lads in Miike Takashi痴 next film 鼎rows Zero・ [Link] [...]
comment by logboy
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
don - it’s a good point, though you could plonk a question mark over many things that might not work quite so well if it weren’t in japanese; there’s certainly lots of people whose expectations and tastes are for american-style films that happen to be made abroad, i can sense that for certain. as for the low attention span comedies - well, personally, these ultra vibrant kooky things are (as i’ve mentioned already) somehow completely against the tide of my taste, and that’s probably why i like them every now and again, because there’s a wacky element to them that fits that picture of japanese output we’ve learnt from a couple of decades of clips from extreme gameshows and tv ads. i have quirky, and i hate kooky, i also hate thick / brash women - but i think anna tsuchiya’s fantastic, and i like the rare(ish) slices of ishii and nakashima : go figure!
comment by kevin
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
i’d like to add to this ishii debate but i’m slowly realizing how low-brow i am. pretty much anything tatsuya gashuin says or does makes me laugh and i download Mechaike episodes every week to see takashi okamura clamping stag beetles to people’s noses… so maybe i’m more susceptible to corny humor than most.
anyway, to the anna tsuchiya stuff. is she really like that in a normal setting? she seemed pretty docile in taste of tea. if she’s just playing the roles she’s given as intended it’s hard to fault her as much as you can fault kyoko futada for reciting her lines as if she’s reading them off a teleprompter and ruining scenes with inappropriately-timed pouty faces whenever possible.
comment by logboy
posted on Wednesday, May 30 2007 at 11:13 am
i’m still trying to figure out how ishii picked up the phrase ’sausage fest’ for the singles picnic is ‘funky forest’… it sounds incredibly british to me, really plays with words and meanings to a familiar extent. makes me laugh too.