musings

Musings from Webmaster

Here, from time to time, I am going to write about my musings relating to Koji Yakusho and his work.

Created on June 2, 2008
Updated on May 13, 2010

May 13, 2010
In his blog, Mr Jason Gray wrote that he had lately translated a screenplay by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, adding, "The producers have requested to keep details under wraps so I can't say what it's about. What I can say is that it's an ambitious project and also quite different from any of Kurosawa's previous films in several respects. I hope it makes it to the big screen."

On reading this info, I wondered if there would be some possibility that Koji Yakusho would work together with K. Kurosawa in this film: Koji once mentioned on his website that he felt like appearing in Kurosawa's films every year, if possible. How he came to appear in "Tokyo Sonata" (2008) is quite amazing. It seems that he wouldn't mind how small his role might be.
When interviewed by Mr. Martin Gullen, Kiyoshi Kurosawa disclosed quite interesting info about Koji's role as "Dorobo" (Thief):

"Guillen: That's lovely. I would be remiss not to mention Koji Yakusho's hilarious performance as the manic-depressive burglar Dorobo. He struck me as a narrative agent of change. How do you perceive his role in changing the Sasaki family?

Kurosawa: When I was first redrafting the screenplay, I dreamed up that character as someone who would willy-nilly drag the mother out of the house so that she would realize or recognize that she is a human being before she is a mother or a wife; but, I never dreamed it would be played by Yakusho. I knew from the beginning that Yakusho's schedule was full for the duration of the filmmaking, so I didn't even consider him. By the time I had cast almost all the parts he suddenly emailed me out of the blue and said, "I have three days to spare. Do you have a part for me?" At that point the burglar was the only role left. Once he was cast, I sent him the screenplay for his approval. As I was revising it for him, I realized that it was gradually turning into a kind of pathetic extension of all the other roles he's ever played for me."

Koji made a cameo appearance in "Kairo/Pulse" in 2001 as a ship captain . The shooting time for those scenes was reportedly three days!

February 11, 2010
On the IMDb 'Silence' message board, the following notice appeared on February 9th : "As-of-this-writing (and highly subject to change) the plan is to film The Invention of Hugo Cabret, then return to Silence, then The Irishman with Robert DeNiro (formerly entitled I Hear You Paint Houses)

Sinatra is in re-writes (and, for now, on a more distant back-burner)"

Incidentally it was announced today that Director Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio will be visiting Japan from March 10th to 11th to promote "Shutter Island".

As-of-this-writing, Koji Yakusho's filming schedule for 2010 has not been announced. What has been announced is that his two films, "The Thirteen Assassins" and "The Last Chushingura", will be released later this year; these two films finished shooting in 2009.
An interesting item of information is that Koji has stopped appearing in the TV Tokyo's weekly documentary program, "Gaia no Yoake/ Dawn of Gaia", after working with it for eight years, which means that he can work either overseas or anywhere in Japan for a longer period.

June 12,2009
I have recently set up a page for "Chinmoku / Silence" on my website, as on the IMDb message board on "Silence", on June 5, there was a posting from a staff member for this film that "the soulful Koji Yakusho is in talks to portray "Kichijiro".

Februay 13
I found this info tonight:

J-Film-POW-WOW: "Martin Scosese's "Silence" one step closer to becoming a reality"

This is the English translation of the Asahi Shimbun article.

February 5, 2009
Possibility of Koji Yakusho's appearing in Shusaku Endo's "Silence" (Chinmoku) directed by Martin Scorsese:

"Scorsese, King talking up 'Silence'
Daniel Day-Lewis, Benicio Del Toro to star
By MICHAEL FLEMING

Martin Scorsese is determined to make "Silence" his next movie. The helmer and Graham King's GK Films are negotiating with Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis and Benicio Del Toro to star. Gael Garcia Bernal is also circling the film, expected to begin production later this year in New Zealand.

The drama is set in the 17th century as two Jesuit priests face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate their mentor and to spread the gospel of Christianity.

"Silence" is based on the Shusaku Endo novel, which was adapted by Jay Cocks. Scorsese has had the project on his radar for more than a decade. King will produce with Gianni Nunnari and Barbara DeFina.

The film would be Day-Lewis' third with Scorsese following "Gangs of New York" and "The Age of Innocence." Day-Lewis has completed the Rob Marshall-directed musical "Nine."

"Silence" would mark the first collaboration for Scorsese and Del Toro, who most recently starred in the Steven Soderbergh-directed "Che" and next stars as the title character in "The Wolf Man." Garcia Bernal, best known for "Babel" and "Y tu mama tambien," is in early talks.

There is currently no domestic distributor for the pic. King is financing the film himself, as he did on "Edge of Darkness," the William Monahan-scripted and Martin Campbell-directed drama that stars Mel Gibson.
Scorsese and King have worked together on "The Departed," "The Aviator" and "Gangs of New York."

Scorsese most recently completed an adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel "Shutter Island" for Paramount with Leonardo DiCaprio starring. "

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The above Variety article, dated February 1, was instantly translated into Japanese and reported on various internet movie news sites in Japan :

One such site, eiga.com , after introducing this info, added a stunning piece of info that among those concerned with Japanese movies, Koji Yakusho ("Syuri/The memoires of a Geisha" and "Babel" ) is rumored to be considered to be the first candidate actor to play one of the major Japanese characters, i.e. Kichijiro or Inoue Chikugo-no-Kami. The eiga.com site predicted that the Japanese cast members for this movie would be announced soon.

Rumor is rumor, and nothing is certain yet; but I have been thinking about the possibility of Koji's appearing in "Silence" ever since I knew the fact that Scorsese was influenced by Shohei Imamura in directing movies when young, and that he had later become good friends with him until Imamura passed away in May 2006. I actually learned the growth of their friendship as a result of watching an NHK TV Imamura-memorial program (dated March 7, 2007), where Scorsese related how much he had been influenced by Imamura and how he had respected him for years.

In this March 2007 TV program, Koji Yakusho worked as a narrator and talked briefly about an episode that occured while Imamura was directing "Unagi" in 1996.

It may be too hasty to conclude that Scorsese himself, therefore, might have wanted Koji Yakusho ( who worked with Imamura twice in "Unagi" and "Warm Water under a Red Bridge" ) to join in his long-wished-for movie. And Koji Yakusho, also, might have longed to work with Scorsese for the above reasons.

All of these guesses may be all wrong and Koji Yakusho may have simply become the first candidate actor for this film due to his international fame, as a result of appearing in those films like "Memoirs of a Geisha", "Babel" and "SILK".

If all is well and Koji joins in the film, "Silence" , which role is he expected to play, I wonder. Everybody's guess must be the role of the elderly samurai, Inoue Chikugo-no- kami; but I cannot forgo imagining the possibility of Koji's playing the Judas-like miserable figure, Kichijiro for these reasons:

First, Koji Yakusho is from Isahaya, Nagasaki, which is close to the small island where the two Portuguese priests landed in Shusaku Endo's novel "Chinmoku" ("Silence"). Second, Koji can speak Kichijiro's local dialect. Third, Koji is brilliant in portraying a
complex character like that of Kichijiro.

However,it is almost certain that those who have read the novel are likely to complain that he is too old, too good-looking, too tall or too well-built to play the role of Kichijiro.

Well, let's wait, keeping our fingers crossed, first of all, in the hope that the movie by Scorsese itself will actually start filming.

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June 2       About "Sanbiki ga Kiru"
Koji's period TV dramas, namely "Tokugawa Ieyasu" and "Miyamoto Musashi" have often been mentioned overseas, but not apparently one of his other period tv dramas, titled "Sanbiki ga Kiru". Although I have tried to set up a page for this drama to introduce Koji's overseas fans to this charming samurai character whom Koji portrayed, I have found it rather difficult each time. But tonight I feel relieved to be able to announce that I have finally managed to set up a "Sanbiki ga Kill" page. Here it is.

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February 20   About "Hachiko: A Dog's Story"
A short while ago, on discovering from the IMDb announcement that, instead of Koji Yakusho, the Japanese actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa ( who played the role of the Baron in "Memoirs of a Geisha/ Sayuri") would be taking the role of Ken in "Hachiko: A Dog's Story"( i.e. the forthcoming Hollywood remake of the movie, "Hachiko Monogatari", starring Richard Gere), I deleted the page for "Hachiko: A Dog's story" from my Koji website.

      I continue to wonder, however, why such noted movie info sites as Hollywood.com.,Yahoo Movies or the New York Times still add "Hachiko: A Dog's Story" onto Koji's filmography.

     Here is my guess as to a possible explanation:

On his official website blog on October 27, 2007, Koji started his comment like this:

     �gAt this time of the year I was actually supposed to be working in a certain foreign country; but the schedule was delayed again and again, and now I feel that this circumstance couldn't have been helped.�h

     He added that, because of the scheduling delay, he felt happy that he could attend the stage greeting session for "Zo-no Senaka" on October 27th, as well as another stage greeting session for "SILK" held on october 28, at the time of the closing of the Tokyo International Film Festival. Koji also said that he now felt a sense of relief, being freed from the task of preparing for an English- speaking role.

     Reading these reported comments, many Koji fans must have got puzzled, wondering what on earth he might have been thinking about. Which movie did he have in mind?   Did he perhaps mean "The Beast of Bataan"?

    Next, I was stunned to see on Hollywood.com that in the role of Ken, our Koji would appear in the Hollywood production titled, "Hachiko: A Dog's Story", for which filming would start in Connecticut in September 2007. However, soon after that, I came across another info that, due to the change of film director, shooting of "Hachiko" would recommence in Rhode Island, late in January 2008.

     Now, last November, various sites indicated that Koji might appear as General Masaharu Homma in "Beast of Bataan", together with Hayden Christensen; and that the filming was due to start late in February 2008 in Queensland, Australia. Judging from these different pieces of info, the shooting schedules for these two movies may possibly have clashed.

     Although I felt that I had to delete the page for "Hachiko: A Dog's Story" simply because Koji would not appear in this movie, I myself am actually interested in this movie for various reasons, the first being that I knew that famed Tatsuya Nakadai, Koji's acting teacher, had starred in the original Japanese movie in 1987. As a matter of fact, long ago I watched this movie on video and was very impressed. I am therefore curious about this Hollywood remake version; and I am especially interested to see how the Japanese setting will be transmuted into an American version of the story.

    I'm also looking forward to seeing Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as 'Ken', in the American version of "Hachiko", since I was present in the audience to hear his impressive speech, both in his native tongue of Japanese and in English, at the time of the 2005 Japan premiere of "Memoirs of a Geisha/Sayuri" (Mr. Tagawa is on the far right at the back of the group photo), which was held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. In the course of his speech Tagawa mentioned that, as a Japanese actor who had long been involved in Hollywood movies, he was so pleased to be able for once to greet a Japanese audience in Japan.