Both mother and the baby are in good condition, and Yamada left a comment through his agency, which read, “I am happy that he was born safely. I will continue devote myself to acting just like up until now.”

Yamada announced his marriage with a non-celebrity woman who is 7 years older than him back on New Year’s day of last year, and announced his wife’s pregnancy in October.

Congratulations!

Source & Image: Sanspo

It was announced that actor Yamada Takayuki will be starring in musical “The Full Monty” that will open January of next year. This will mark Yamada’s first appearance on the stage.

Yamada commented, “I’m chuckling to myself that no one expected I would chose a musical for my first stage, and that it would be this work.”

The musical is a Japanese adaptation of the popular Broadway musical that was based on the 1997 British film of the same name. Set in Buffalo, New York, it will depict 6 unemployed men dreaming of making a fortune with just one stroke by challenging on a strip show.

The direction and translation will be served by Fukuda Yuichi. Yamada has worked with Fukuda previously in drama “Yuusha Yoshihiko” series, as well as in movie “Ore wa Mada Honki Dashitenai Dake.”

Yamada said about the original movie, “It’s a wonderful work as it changes difficulties in lives like divorce or attempted suicide, into laughs, and you can feel warmth in people’s hearts with joy.”

Other than Yamada, Owada Miho, Nakamura Tomoya, Muro Tsuyoshi, and Katsuya have also been chosen as the cast members.

Source & Image: Oricon

(02) 'Aku no Kyoten' / (01) 'Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.' / (03) 'Nobou no Shiro'

‘Evangelion’ establishes itself in first place and even beat the opening weekend of ‘Umizaru’.

If there is one anime movie everyone has been waiting for, it has to be ‘Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.‘ The movie opened on 224 screens on Saturday and recorded an astonishing opening weekend with 771,764 viewers and a revenue of 1,131,004,600 Yen (13,834,448 USD) in just two days. It even topped the opening weekend of this year’s most successful start and movie in general, ‘BRAVE HEARTS UMIZARU‘, which opened at 450 screens and ‘only’ recorded 1,119,171,350 Yen (13,689,704 USD) back in July.

‘Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.’ also outdid other recent successful anime movies such as ‘Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea‘ (481 screens; 1,024,880,555 Yen/ 12,536,338 USD) and ‘One Piece Film Strong World‘ (188 screens; 1,039,214,800 Yen/ 12,711,675 USD). Its direct prequel ‘Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance‘ even only recorded 512,989,000 Yen (6,274,881 USD). It will be very exciting to see how well it will do until the end of the year.

Meanwhile, ‘Aku no Kyoten‘ managed to defend its spot in the second position and forced last week’s first place ‘Nobou no Shiro‘ to move all the way down to third. It should be able to crack the first billion Yen (12,232,000 USD) within this week. ‘Nobou no Shiro’ has already recorded 1,390,000 viewers and a cumulative revenue of 1,673,046,950 Yen (20,464,710 USD).

There was only one other movie that managed to rank within the top ten this weekend. ‘Ninkyo Helper‘, starring Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, opened in at fourth place. It only recorded 91,017 viewers and merely grossed 115,303,950 Yen (1,410,397 USD), but the satisfaction rate seems to be very high for this movie, so it might benefit from a very strong buzz marketing.

You can check out the trailers of all the new Japanese films below the box office ranking!

===

	Rank/Last		Title	Weeks
	01 (00)		Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.	01
	02 (02)		Aku no Kyoten	02
	03 (01)		Nobou no Shiro	03
	04 (00)		Ninkyo Helper	01
	05 (03)		Kita no Canariatachi	03
	06 (04)		Eiga Smile Precure! Ehon no Naka wa Minna Chiguhagu!	04
	07 (05)		Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away	02
	08 (06)		Ougon wo Daite Tobe	03
	09 (07)		Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter	03
	10 (08)		Paranormal Activity 4	03

(Note: The ranking is not based on the revenue, but the number of sold tickets!)

===

-

> ‘Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.‘ (Science-Fiction, Action, Mecha, Anime)
Directors: Anno Hideaki, Tsurumaki Kazuya, Masayuki, and Maeda Masahiro
Voice Cast: Ogata Megumi, Hayashibara Megumi, Miyamura Yuko, Sakamoto Maya, Mitsuishi Kotono, and more

-

> ‘Ninkyo Helper‘ (Human Drama)
Director: Nishitani Hiroshi
Cast: Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Yasuda Narumi, Kaho, Kazama Shunsuke, Kuroki Meisa, and more

-

> ‘Sono Yoru no Samurai‘ (Human Drama)
Director: Akahori Masaki
Cast: Sakai Masato, Yamada Takayuki, Ayano Go, Tanimura Mitsuki, Takahashi Tsutomu, and more

-

-

> ‘Working Holiday‘ (Human Drama)
Director: Okamoto Koichi
Cast: AKIRA, Hayashi Roi, Ayano Go, Aizawa Rina, Nishino Akihiro, and more

-

> ‘Fugainai Boku wa Sora wo Mita‘ (Youth Drama)
Director: Tanada Yuki
Cast: Nagayama Kento, Tabata Tomoko, Kubota Masataka, Koshino Ena, Tanaka Miharu, and more

-

> ‘Onna-tachi no Miyako‘ (Human Drama)
Director: Inori Akira
Cast: Otake Shinobu, Matsuda Miyuki, Sugita Kaoru, Nishio Mari, Bro. TOM, and more

-

-

> ‘Musashinosen no Shimai‘ (Comedy)
Director: Yamamoto Junichi
Cast: Kato Natsuki, Nakaya Sayaka, Nakata Chisato, Hiyori Yuki, Komatsu Ayaka, and more

-

> ‘FASHION STORY‘ (Youth Drama)
Director: Nakamura Sayaka
Cast: Honda Tsubasa, Kagami Seira, Kawakita Mayuko, Nagabuchi Ayane, Morita Ayaka, and more

-

> ‘EDEN‘ (Human Drama)
Director: Take Masaharu
Cast: Yamamoto Taro, Nakamura Yuri, Takahashi Kazuya, Saiga Masakuza, Ikehara Takeru, and more

-

-

> ‘39 Settoudan (Thank You Settoudan)‘ (Comedy)
Director: Oshida Kosuke

-

> ‘Zenryoku Eiga‘ (Omnibus)

On October 19th, it was revealed that the wife of actor Yamada Takayuki is pregnant with their first child.

Yamada and his non-celebrity wife married on New Year’s Day this year. He updated his official website late at night on the 19th and wrote, “I’m sorry to trouble you with personal affairs, but our family has been awarded with a new life. My wife has entered her second trimester (stable period).”

One tabloid once reported that Yamada’s wife is seven years older than him and resembles actress Dan Rei in terms of looks. Before getting married on New Year’s Day, the two of them had already been dating for around two years. Ten months into their marriage we can now congratulate them on expecting their first child.

Yamada is currently doing great career-wise as well. Right now he is filming for his night drama ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi‘ (TV Tokyo) and on November 24th his new movie ‘Milocrorze‘ will open in cinemas. There will even be three more movies with him in a supporting role in the same month as well – ‘Nobou no Shiro‘ (11/2), ‘Aku no Kyoten‘ (11/10), and ‘Sono Yoru no Samurai‘ (11/17).

He now has to watch over one more person in his life and knows that he has to keep on doing his best. He expressed ambitiously, “I want to continue to devote myself to my work as an actor like I’ve been doing until now.” Yamada’s next public appearance will be at the stage greeting for the movie ‘Nobou no Shiro’ on November 3rd.

Source: Sanspo

Drama Prime Time Report – 10/12~10/14

The weekend brought forth a total of six new fall dramas, including three actual prime time dramas and one very strong 11:00 pm drama.

TBS started off Friday with the premiere of ‘Ooku ~Tanjou~ (Arikoto – Iemitsu Hen)‘ starring Sakai Masato and Tabe Mikako. The ‘Ooku‘ series usually earns ratings around 15%, but the latest live-action adaptation is off to a mediocre start with only a rating of 11.6%. Maybe the casting of Tabe didn’t convince enough people to give it a try, since she isn’t yet as familiar as her predecessors; or maybe most people don’t need another ‘Ooku’ adaptation. Either way, Sakai did a good job as usual, so let’s hope its rating won’t drop too much next week and that the upcoming one with with Sakai and Kanno Miho in the lead will have a much better opening weekend.

Takahashi Katsunori, on the other hand, once again proved that he still got the certain something that just draws people into his works. His new Friday 11:00 pm drama ‘Tokumei Tantei‘ (TV Asahi) premiered with a more than decent 11.7% rating, which even tops the prime time drama ‘Ooku’ mentioned above. The last time a Friday a “TV Asahi Friday Night Drama” recorded a better start was in October 2008 with the first season of ‘Salaryman Kintaro‘. Takahashi himself already experienced ratings as high as 17.0% in the same time slot. Now it remains to see whether this drama will satisfy or disappoint all those viewers.

Fans of the quirky TV Tokyo night dramas also rejoiced that day, as the network aired the first episodes of the fantastic ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi‘ and the adorable ‘Hao-Hao! Kyonshi Girl‘. As usual, it’s hard to come by any actual viewer ratings for those time slots on TV Tokyo.

On Saturday, NTV sent off ‘Akumu-chan‘ to court the Japanese drama viewers. It does have some convincing arguments with an interesting concept; Kitagawa Keiko as a popular actress and GACKT as a secret weapon to attract a couple more people who might have ignored the drama otherwise. In the end it managed to experience an okay-ish start with a rating of 13.6%. Saturday evening isn’t exactly the easiest time slot, so it would have been more helpful to start around the usual 15%, but it’s not exactly a bad start by definition.

Meanwhile, ‘Koukou Nyushi‘ (Fuji TV) lost 1.4% compared to last week and dropped down to 6.3%. Late-night drama ‘Piece‘ (NTV) gained 0.9% (rating: 3.4%).

The year is pretty much over for the NHK taiga drama ‘Taira no Kiyomori‘ after two consecutive ratings below 10% with the 39th and 40th episode, which is more than shameful for this genre. Let’s just end this painful journey and let Ayase Haruka give NHK some hope again.

Not so painful (not counting the never-ending Engrish in the drama) was the premiere of Fuji TV’s Sunday drama ‘Tokyo Airport‘ starring Fukada Kyoko in a more mature yet still naive role. It’s an interesting and relatively fresh setting with a good supporting cast that helped attract a good amount of viewers for its first episode.

It also helped the viewers to forgive the always same expression on Fukada’s face. In my opinion she really didn’t do herself a favor by taking this role because she has to act too much with her eyes alone, which isn’t exactly her strong point. Hopefully they will decrease the amount of time she has to stare into the blank in that control tower in the coming episodes, and focus more on the interaction within the team. In the end it recorded an episode-average of 14.0%, which is the best start of all new fall dramas that premiered so far; not including the long-standing ‘Aibou‘, of course.

You can check out all of the ratings and more details below!

(Screencaps might contain spoilers!)

===

10/12 – Friday

morning slot (‘NHK Asadora – Morning Drama’)
08:00-08:15 – ??.?% Jun to Ai

other highlights before 10:00 pm (>10%, chronological)
19:00-20:54 – 13.0% Nep & Imoto no Sekai Banduke SP
19:00-21:48 – 11.7% Oh! Doyagao Summit SP
19:56-20:54 – 11.6% Pittanko Kan Kan

10:00 pm slot (‘TBS Kindora – Friday Drama’)
01 – 21:54-23:10 – 12.3% Hodo Station
02 – 22:00-23:09 – 11.6% Ooku ~Tanjou~ (01) *START*
03 – 21:00-22:52 – 11.3% Dolce
04 – 21:00-22:54 – 09.8% 20th Century Boys 1: Beginning of the End
05 – 21:00-22:48 – 07.0% Sokon Tokoro! SP

11:00 pm slot (‘TV Asahi Friday Night Drama’)
01 – 23:15-24:15 – 11.7% Tokumei Tantei (01) *START*
02 – 23:00-23:30 – 08.4% another sky
03 – 23:00-23:30 – 05.1% Terrace House *new*

midnight slot (‘TV Tokyo Drama 24′)
24:12-24:52 – ??.?% Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi (01) *START*

late-night slots(‘TV Tokyo Late-Night Drama’)
24:52-25:23 – ??.?% Hao-Hao! Kyonshi Girl (01) *START*

Info:
>>> ‘Dolce‘
Cast: Matsushita Yuki, Tanabe Seiichi, Totsugi Shigeyuki, Bengal, Baba Toru, and more

> ‘Ooku ~Tanjou~ (Arikoto – Iemitsu Hen)‘
Cast: Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako, Tanaka Koki, Hirayama Hiroyuki, Naito Takashi, and more

> ‘Tokumei Tantei‘
Cast: Takahashi Katsunori, Katase Nana, Tayama Ryosei, Miura Rieko, Yamaguchi Daichi, and more

> ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi‘
Cast: Yamada Takayuki, Kinami Haruka, Muro Tsuyoshi, Takuma Shin, Sato Jiro, and more

> ‘Hao-Hao! Kyonshi Girl‘
Cast: Kawashima Umika, Kaburagi Kaichi, Nadaka Tatsuo, 9nine, and more

Caps:
Ooku

Tokumei Tantei

Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi

Hao-Hao! Kyonshi Girl

—

10/13 – Saturday

morning slot (‘NHK Asadora – Morning Drama’)
08:00-08:15 – ??.?% Jun to Ai

other highlights before 9:00 pm and at 10:00 pm (>10%, chronological)
18:56-20:54 – 10.6% Onegai! Ranking GOLD SP
19:00-20:54 – 12.3% Tensai! Shimura Dobutsuen SP
19:00-20:54 – 10.7% Hono no Taiikukai TV SP
19:30-20:54 – 11.6% Gekisou! Nihon Alps Daijudan
22:00-23:24 – 11.8% Jyoho 7days Newscaster

9:00 pm slot (‘NTV Do-9 [dokku] – Saturday-9 Drama’ & ‘NHK Saturday Drama Special’)
01 – 21:00-23:06 – 14.9% Okashina Keiji 9
02 – 21:00-22:09 – 13.6% Akumu-chan (01) *START*
03 – 21:00-23:10 – 10.5% Bakusho Red Carpet
04 – 21:00-21:54 – 07.5% Sekai Fushigi Hakken!

11:00 pm slot (‘Fuji TV Dodora – Saturday Drama’)
01 – 23:15-24:09 – 09.3% SmaSTATION!!
02 – 23:10-23:55 – 06.3% Koukou Nyushi (02)
03 – 23:15-23:45 – 06.0% Kokoro Yusabure! Senpai ROCK YOU

late-night slots
24:55-25:25 – 03.4% Piece (02)
25:20-25:35 – ??.?% Megu-tan tte Mahou Tsukaeruno? (14)

Info:
> ‘Akumu-chan‘
Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, GACKT, Yuuka, Kimura Manatsu, Okada Keisuke, Kohinata Fumiyo, and more

> ‘Koukou Nyushi‘
Cast: Nagasawa Masami, Minamisawa Nao, Nakao Akiyoshi, Tokuyama Hidenori, Saiki Shigeru, and more

> ‘Piece‘
Cast: Nakayama Yuma, Honda Tsubasa, Matsumura Hokuto, Suzuki Airi, Mizuno Erina, and more

> ‘Megu-tan tte Mahou Tsukaeruno?‘
Cast: Kojima Haruna, Muro Tsuyoshi, Iketani Nobue, Oto Takuma, and more

Caps:
Akumu-chan

Koukou Nyushi

Piece

Megu-tan tte Mahou Tsukaeruno?

—

10/14 – Sunday

other highlights before 8:00 pm and after 11:00 pm (>10%, chronological)
19:00-19:58 – 15.5% The! Tetsuwan! DASH!!
22:00-22:30 – 10.5% Oshareism

8:00 pm slot (‘NHK Taiga Drama’)
01 – 19:58-20:54 – 15.0% Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q!
02 – 19:00-20:54 – 14.6% battle for money
03 – 19:00-20:54 – 11.9% Sanma no Karakuri TV SP
04 – 18:56-23:10 – 11.8% Ikegami Akira no Manaberu News
05 – 20:00-20:45 – 09.6% Taira no Kiyomori (40)
06 – 19:54-21:48 – 09.1% Sunday Big Variety (various)

9:00 pm slot (‘TBS Nichiyo Gekijo – Sunday Theater’ & ‘Fuji TV Dramatic Sunday’)
01 – 21:00-22:09 – 14.0% Tokyo Airport (01) *START*
02 – 18:56-23:10 – 11.8% Ikegami Akira no Manaberu News
03 – 21:00-21:54 – 11.2% Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo
04 – 21:00-22:48 – 10.0% Nichi 10 Engei Parade SP *new*
05 – 19:54-21:48 – 09.1% Sunday Big Variety (various)

Info:
> ‘Taira no Kiyomori‘
Cast: Matsuyama Kenichi, Mikami Hiroshi, Toyohara Kosuke, Matsuda Seiko, and many more

> ‘Tokyo Airport‘
Cast: Fukada Kyoko, Sasaki Nozomi, Kaname Jun, Seto Koji, Seto Asaka, Tokito Saburo, and many more

Caps:
Tokyo Airport

—

NHK, TBS and TV Tokyo usually don’t disclose the ratings for their shows on a regular basis, therefore they won’t be included in the list below. Certain dramas or drama specials that aired on those channels and might lack ratings are still included with a ??.?% rating. This doesn’t mean that the ratings were too low to recorded.

Improvements and declines will be illustrated with the use of several icons. The colors and the numbers indicate how much the ratings have changed.

An orange color means almost no change, while a red color means the ratings dropped, and a green color means the ratings improved.

===

Drama Overview (Fall 2012):

Previous: [Spring 2011] [Summer 2011] [Fall 2011] / [Winter 2012] [Spring 2012] [Summer 2012]

===

Average Ratings (Fall 2012):

19.90% – Aibou Eleven
-
14.00% – Tokyo Airport
13.60% – Akumu-chan
13.00% – Going My Home
13.00% – Kekkon Shinai
12.55% – Taira no Kiyomori [taiga drama] (-0.08)
11.70% – Tokumei Tantei [11:00pm drama]
11.60% – Ooku
-
09.00% – Perfect Blue
09.00% – Tokyo Zenryoku Shoujo
08.29% – Tsurukame Josanin [started in summer]
07.00% – Koukou Nyushi [11:00pm drama] (-0.70)
06.13% – Nemureru Mori no Jukujo [11:00pm drama; started in summer]
-
03.60% – Poison
02.95% – Piece (+0.45)
02.25% – Girl’s Talk
01.70% – Sugarless

(The average ratings are based on the episode ratings listed above. There can be differences between the calculated averages and the official announcements at the end of each season. You can see the official season average in square brackets.)

On September 28th, TV Tokyo finally released the first teaser for the upcoming second adventure of everyone’s favorite midnight drama hero ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko‘, written and directed by Fukuda Yuichi.

After the very successful first season of the low-budget adventure drama ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Maou no Shiro‘ last summer, which also ranked first in the ‘Amazon Best DVD of 2011′ drama DVD category, the homage to the popular ‘Dragon Quest‘ franchise was given a go for a second season slated for this year’s fall season.

The second season is called ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi‘ (lit. ‘The Hero Yoshihiko and the Key of the Evil Spirit’). Despite being set 100 years after the first adventure, the story will once again feature the familiar party of four, which consists of Yamada Takayuki as ‘Yoshihiko’, Kinami Haruka as ‘Murasaki’, Muro Tsuyoshi as ‘Merebu’, and Takuma Shin as ‘Danjo’. Also reprising their characters from the first season are Sato Jiro as ‘Hotoke’ and Okamoto Azusa as ‘Hisa’.

In the first announcement of the second adventure, the producers made clear that they won’t change its formula at all, which means there won’t be a higher budget nor are they planning to increase its scale. The first teaser already pleases its fans with the familiar characters, atmosphere, humor, and handmade special effects. One slogan of the second season says, “The beginning of another ridiculous adventure.”

Those who missed the drama last year and didn’t buy the DVD set will get another chance just before the start of the second season. All episodes of the first season will become available for free at the commercial streaming platforms of GyaO!, Video Market, DMM.com, TV Dogatch, and NicoNico Douga, but only during the 48 hours before the first episode of the second season.

TV Tokyo will air the first episode of ‘Yuusha Yoshihiko to Akuryo no Kagi’ on October 12th.

Check out the teaser below!

-

Sources: TV Tokyo, Oricon

The full trailer for Miike Takashi’s upcoming live-action adaptation of Kishi Yusuke’s mystery novel ‘Aku no Kyoten‘ (‘The Lesson of Evil’) – starring Ito Hideaki – was recently released on its official website.

‘Aku no Kyoten’ is about an extremely popular high school teacher named ‘Hasumi Seiji’ (Ito), whose students often call him by his nickname ‘Hasumin’. It’s not just the students that adore him, all their parents and all the other teachers see him as an ideal teacher.

However, the truth is that he’s suffering from antisocial personality disorder. He doesn’t possess any form of conscience and cannot feel any sympathy towards the people around him. Whenever he faces some kind of obstacle that threatens his status and people who try to unveil what’s behind the curtain, he simply gets rid of them for good. One day, a mistake causes his whole class to find out about his true self, which leaves him with only one choice – kill them all.

The trailer perfectly shows the gap between the image that is being perceived by the people around him and his scarily composed murderous nature. It also features the movie’s theme song “THINK ‘BOUT IT!” by EXILE’s new unit THE SECOND from EXILE.

The supporting cast made up of Nikaido Fumi, Sometani Shota, Hayashi Kento, Asaka Kodai, Mizuno Erina, Yamada Takayuki, Hira Takehiro, and Fukikoshi Mitsuru.

‘Aku no Kyoten’ is slated to open in cinemas nationwide on November 10th.

Check out the trailer below! (Note: The movie is rated R15+!)

Source: Cinema Today

(02) 'Anata e' / (01) 'Rurouni Kenshin' / (03) 'Marvel's The Avengers'

It was a great opening weekend for ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ and ‘Anata e’, while ‘Prometheus’ made it into the top five.

The much-anticipated live-action adaptation of ‘Rurouni Kenshin‘ – starring Sato Takeru – finally opened in theaters nationwide and successfully seized the top sport for the last weekend of August and the ending summer holidays. Over the weekend it attracted 295,319 viewers and grossed 399,530,400 Yen (5,084,823 USD). Adding the results from the advanced screenings that were held since the 22nd, its revenue already amounts to 550,000,000 Yen (6,999,850 USD). It won’t be able to join the league of ‘Thermae Romae‘ and ‘Umizaru‘, but if things go well, it might be able to at least crack the 3 billion Yen milestone (38,181,000 USD) at the end of its run.

‘Anata e‘, another much-discussed movie, opened right behind ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ in second place. Featuring an amazing ensemble of actors, lead by the living legend Takakura Ken, it attracted 213,723 viewers and grossed 237,231,500 Yen (3,019,245 USD). The revenue is much lower compared to ‘Rurouni Kenshin’, because the majority of its viewers were already at an age where they can get movie tickets at a cheaper price. It still should be able to reach a cumulative revenue of 1.5 billion Yen (19,090,500 USD).

‘The Avengers‘ dropped down to third place, but it already grossed more than 2 billion Yen (25,454,000 USD) after just two weeks. It already surpassed ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ and is only 1 billion Yen (12,727,000 USD) left from beating ‘The Amazing Spider-Man‘ and becoming the most successful Hollywood summer blockbuster in Japan for 2012.

In fourth place opened Ridley Scott’s ‘Prometheus‘ with 200,178 viewers and a weekend revenue of 302,497,000 Yen (3,849,879 USD). If the box office chart was based on revenue, it would actually be on second place. Adding the results from its advanced screenings prior to the weekend, it already grossed a cumulative revenue of 754,435,800 Yen (9,601,704 USD).

Another new movie opened in at the tenth place and it was a Japanese one with ‘Yamikin Ushijima-kun‘ – starring Yamada Takayuki. It mobilized 50,000 people and grossed 75,000,000 Yen (954,525 USD) over the weekend, which is a good start for this movie.

You can check out the trailers of all the new Japanese films below the box office ranking!

===

	Rank/Last		Title	Weeks
	01 (00)		Rurouni Kenshin	01
	02 (00)		Anata e	01
	03 (01)		Marvel’s The Avengers	02
	04 (00)		Prometheus	01
	05 (03)		Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki	06
	06 (02)		BRAVE HEARTS: UMIZARU	07
	07 (04)		Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted	04
	08 (05)		Gekijouban Pocket Monsters: Best Wishes – Kyurem vs Seikenshi Keldeo	07
	09 (06)		Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Everyone, Space Is Here!	04
	10 (00)		Yamikin Ushijima-kun	01

(Note: The ranking is not based on the revenue, but the number of sold tickets!)

===

> ‘Rurouni Kenshin‘ (Otomo Keishi) [Action, Drama]
Cast: Sato Takeru, Takei Emi, Kikkawa Koji, Aoi Yuu, Aoki Munetaka, and more

-

> ‘Anata e‘ (Furuhata Yasuo) [Human Drama]
Cast: Takakura Ken, Tanaka Yuko, Sato Koichi, Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Yo Kimiko, and more

-

> ‘Yamikin Ushijima-kun‘ (Yamaguchi Masatoshi) [Human Drama]
Cast: Yamada Takayuki, Oshima Yuko, Hayashi Kento, Sakimoto Hiromi, Yabe Kyosuke, and more

-

> ‘After School Midnighters‘ (Takekiyo Hitoshi) [Fantasy, Animation]
Voice Cast: Yamadera Koichi, Taguchi Hiromasa, Tomatsu Haruka, Uran Sakiko, Kotobuki Minako, and more

-

> ‘Ai wo Utau Yori Ore ni Oborero!‘ (Fukuyama Sakurako) [Youth Drama, Love Story]
Cast: Karam (The Boss), Ono Ito, Furukawa Yuta, TAKUYA (Cross Gene), AKIRA, and more

-

> ‘THE SONG‘ (Nakamura Teppei) [Music, Documentary]
About: UVERworld

(Click here for the trailer!)

-

> ‘Yamashita Tatsuro Theater Live / PERFORMANCE 1984-2012‘ [Music, Documentary]
About: Yamashita Tatsuro

-

> ‘Utae Machigwa‘ (Nitta Yoshitaka) [Documentary]
About: Sakaemachi Market in Naha, Okinawa

-

> ‘Kobito Gekijou 2‘ (Nabata Toshitaka) [Fantasy, Animation]
Voice Cast: None / Based on a picture book.

On August 23rd, a full trailer for the upcoming omnibus movie ‘BUNGO ~Sasayaka na Yokubo~‘ (literally: ‘Meager Desire’) was released online.

Similar to the ‘BUNGO‘ drama series back in 2010, it features a live-action adaptation of short stories written by some of Japan’s finest authors from the Showa era. They are brought to life by six well-known scriptwriters and directors.

The movie is made up of a total of six stories written by the likes of Miyazawa Kenji, Miura Tetsuo, Nagai Kafu, Okamoto Kanoko, Sakaguchi Ango, and Hayashi Fumiko. Moreover, the six stories are divided into two main themes, ‘Mitsumerareru Shukujotachi‘ (lit. ‘Eye-Catching Ladies’) and ‘Kokuhaku Suru Shinshitachi‘ (lit. ‘Confessing Gentlemen’).

Here’s an overview of the six stories:

‘Mitsumerareru Shukujotachi’

Title: ‘Chumon no Ooi Ryouriten‘ (lit. ‘The Restaurant of Many Orders’)
Author: Miyazawa Kenji
Director: Tominaga Masanori
Script: Kanno Tomoe
Cast: Ishihara Satomi and Miyasako Hiroyuki

Description: A bold adult love story about a hunting couple set at a mysterious restaurant deep inside a forest. A true masterpiece by Miyzawa Kenji.

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Title: ‘Chibusa‘ (lit. ‘Breast’)
Author: Miura Tetsuo
Director: Nishiumi Kenichiro
Script: Sode Yukiko
Cast: Misaki Ayame, Kageyama Jukiya, and Shiomi Sansei

Description: A human drama that tenderly portrays the feelings of a young boy who is fighting with puberty and a woman whose husband was taken away from her by the war.

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Title: ‘Hitozuma‘ (lit. ‘Married Woman’)
Author: Nagai Kafu
Director: Kumakiri Kazuyoshi
Script: Ujita Takashi
Cast: Tanimura Mitsuki and Ohnishi Shima

Description: A humorous and sexy tale about a frustrated wife and a new young man in town. Nagai Kafu is an expert in depicting the feelings between a man and a woman and this is one of his best examples.

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‘Kokuhaku Suru Shinshitachi’

Title: ‘Sushi‘
Author: Okamoto Kanoko
Director: Sekine Kosai
Script: Omori Sumio
Cast: Hashimoto Ai, Lily Franky, and Ichikawa Mikako

Description: A true tear-jerker and light love story about a young, pretty girl and a middle-aged gentleman who tells her a very emotional, sushi-related story about his dead mother. Okamoto Kanoko had to hide this story from her own mother, Okamoto Taro, due to its content and characters.

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Title: ‘Nigitta Te‘ (lit. ‘The Grasped Hand’)
Author: Sakaguchi Ango
Director: Yamashita Nobuhiro
Script: Mukai Kosuke
Cast: Yamada Takayuki, Narumi Riko, and Kuroki Haru

Description: A serious yet comical story about one man, two women… and a little ‘revolution’.

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Title: ‘Koufuku no Kanata‘ (lit. ‘Beyond the Happiness’)
Author: Hayashi Fumiko
Director: Taniguchi Masaaki
Script: Kamata Toshio
Cast: Haru, Miura Takahiro and Denden

Description: What is happiness? One woman asks herself just that when her arranged husband, scarred by war, suddenly confesses that he has a child. A story that questions a woman’s way of life and the way that a married couple and family ought to be.

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‘BUNGO ~Sasayaka na Yokubo~’ is scheduled to open in Japan on September 29th. Check out the trailer below!

Source: BUNGO
Trailer: Movie Collection

The first teaser for the upcoming live-action adaptation of Kishi Yusuke’s mystery novel ‘Aku no Kyoten‘, starring Ito Hideaki, was recently released on its official website.

‘Aku no Kyoten’ is about an extremely popular high school teacher named ‘Hasumi Seiji’ (Ito), whose students often call him by his nickname ‘Hasumin’. It’s not just the students that adore him, all their parents and all the other teachers see him as an ideal teacher.

However, the truth is that he’s suffering from an antisocial personality disorder. He doesn’t possess any form of conscience and cannot feel any sympathy towards the people around him. Whenever he faces some kind of obstacle or trouble that threatens his status within the school, he simply kills the threat as quietly as possible. One day, he makes a mistake, and his class witnesses one of his murders, which leaves him with only one choice – kill them all.

The first teaser gives us a first glimpse at the gap between the image that is being perceived by the people around him and his scarily composed murderous intentions.

The movie is directed by none other than Miike Takashi, and features a supporting cast made up of Nikaido Fumi, Sometani Shota, Hayashi Kento, Asaka Kodai, Mizuno Erina, Yamada Takayuki, Hira Takehiro, and Fukikoshi Mitsuru.

‘Aku no Kyoten’ is slated to be released on November 10th.

Source: Cinema Today