Press Conference of 'Sayuri' in Tokyo, Japan
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Flix , AllAbout , Eiga (in Japanese, with pics)
Press Conference of 'Sayuri' in Tokyo, Japan
31 Jan 2005
Press Conference of 'Sayuri' in Tokyo, Japan
Sanspo / Sponichi / NikkanSports / ZakZak (in Japanese, with pics)
Abstract from JapanToday:
Director Rob Marshall, left, appears with his Japanese and Chinese cast of "Memoirs of a Geisha" at a news conference in Tokyo on Monday.
TOKYO �X Filming finished on Saturday in Japan on the long-awaited "Memoirs of a Geisha," which is being distributed in this country under the title of "Sayuri."
Director Rob Marshall (of "Chicago" fame) and seven cast members were on hand to celebrate the end of shooting, most of which was done in Los Angeles. The final scenes were filmed in Kyoto.
Producer Steven Spielberg sent a video mesage saying he thought Arthur Golden's book was one of the most culturally appealing stories he had ever seen and expressed confidence that it would appeal to audiences in any country.
The project attracted controversy early on with the casting of three non-Japanese actresses �X Ziyi Zhang, Gong Li and Michelle Yeoh �X in the lead roles. The Japanese cast includes Ken Watanabe, Koji Yakusho, Kaori Momoi, Yuki Kudoh and youngster Suzuka Ogo.
Set in 1920s Japan, "Memoirs" tells the story of Nitta Sayuri, who is taken from her home at the age of nine and sold to a geisha house. We follow her transformation as she undergoes training to become a geisha, learning dance, music, wearing kimono, elaborate makeup and hair, how to pour sake and so on, eventually attracting the amorous attentions of two men �X the chairman (Watanabe) and Nobu (Yakusho).
"It was an exquisite journey making this film," said Marshall. "We had to film most of it in Los Angeles because we couldn't find any places here that still looked like 1920s and 1930s Japan. We ended up building a little Japan in Ventura, California. For the final scenes, we filmed in Kyoto temples that had never allowed filming before."
"We talked with Rob in great detail about whether this would be a culturally and historically accurate film or a concept film," Watanabe said. "Since it is a fantasy world, the details were not as important as they would have been in something like 'The Last Samurai.'"
"Memoirs of a Geisha" will have its world premiere in Japan in December
17 Jan 2005
Ken shows up at the promotion of Kitano Zeronan
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Yahoo! 1 / 2 / 3 , Sanspo 1 / 2 / 3 , Sponichi (in Japanese, with pics)
Brief translation:
The movie, Kitano Zeronan, co-starred by Sayuri Yoshinaga, 59 years old Japanese actresses, and Ken Watanabe, is official on screen at 15.1.2005. Ken, the husband of Sayuri in the movie, dropped his work at Hollywood and getting back to Tokyo from LA to participate the promotion with Sayuri. Sayuri was so impressed and dropped her tears.
Sayuri showed up at Tokyo TOEI theatre for the promotion of the movie. There were more than 900 audiences queuing up outside the theatre, and 20 of them haven been queued up since midnight in the very cold and snowing weather. When Sayuri noticed that, she was so impressed and cried. She said, ��Today my husband (Ken Watanabe) comes back, and you all supported me under this freezing weather, I was really very very happy!��
9 Jan 2005
An interview of Ken
NikkanSports (in Japanese, with pc)
Click here to see a brief translation
1 Jan 2005
Ken in TBS The 46th Japan Records Awards
Yahoo!Japan , Sanspo (in Japanese, with pic)