Asian stars are drawn to the "Rain"

Thursday August 23, 2007 Asia


HONG KONG—Thriller “I Come With the Rain” has a cast that packs a major punch across Asia.
In addition to Josh Hartnett, who stars as a private investigator in Tran Anh Hung’s English-lingo psychothriller, pic also has Japanese megastar Takuya Kimura (“2046”), Korean superstar Lee Byung-hun (“A Bittersweet Life”) and local star Shawn Yue Man-lok (“Infernal Affairs”) on its roster.

The US$18 million high-definition pic is about a private detective who, haunted by a past encounter with a serial killer, heads to Asia in search of a missing heir who has the power to heal with his touch.

Pic started shooting in Hong Kong two weeks ago and should be done by the first week of October, said Chu Chen On, producer at October Pictures who is handling the Hong Kong portion of the film’s shoot. Cast will spend most of that time on location, but also do two to three weeks of interior work at the Shaw Studios.

About 80 percent of the pic will be shot in Hong Kong. Thus far, pic has been battling summer rainstorms and typhoons while shooting here. “The weather has been unpredictable…it’s been hard to plan,” Chu said, but added that the cast has been in good spirits.

Cast was previously shooting in the Philippines for a week and will return to LA after their Hong Kong stint to wrap up filming, which is expected to be in November with a summer 2008 preem.

Pic is fully financed through French paybox Canal Plus, the British fund Aramid and several French Sofica funds. It’s produced by Fernando Sulichin’s Paris-based Central Films and Jean Cazes with John Kilik executive producing.

International sales are being handled by TF1 Intl.

Kimura appeared in Wong Kar-wai's mood romance "2046," but "I Come with the Rain" will be his first English-language pic. He also starred in Yoji Yamada's period drama "Love and Honor," a major hit for Shochiku in 2006.


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Kimura Takuya cast in Hollywood film starring Josh Hartnett

Tuesday August 21, 2007 Japan


Kimura Takuya (34), popular actor and member of SMAP will be appearing in his second international film since appearing in Wong War Kai’s film “2046″.

Kimura will take part in the Hollywood film “I COME WITH THE RAIN” which stars Josh Hartnett, Harvey Keitel, Korea’s RAIN and Lee Byung-hun.

According to Beyond Hollywood, “I COME WITH THE RAIN” is about ex-Los Angeles cop turned private eye Kline (Hartnett) travels to Hong Kong in search of Shitao, the missing son of a chinese billionaire. Enlisting Meng Zi (Wu) a friend and a former colleague now working for the Hong Kong Police, Kline follows a faint trail left by the ethereal Shitao. The path leads to local gangster Su Dongpo (Lee) and his beautiful, drug addicted girlfriend Lili (Tran). But Kline is distracted from his search, haunted by memories of the serial killer Hasford (Koteas)whose ‘body of work’ was the reason Kline quit the police force. Will Kline once again need to lose his mind to find his latest quarry?

This could possibly be Kimura’s second opportunity to participate at Cannes which he did in 2004 for “2046″.

Kimura Takuya is currently promoting his upcoming film “HERO” which comes out in theaters in Japan on September 8th.

Takuya Kimura starring in Hollywood movie?

Monday August 20, 2007 Japan

Credits to Star East Asia Entertainment News

Takuya Kimura starring in Hollywood movie?
August 20, 2007 Japan

According to a Hong Kong newspaper… Japanese star Takuya Kimura is set to make his Hollywood debut in 2008 with movie I Come with the Rain.

The details of the movie is unknown yet, but Takuya is not playing the main character; Hollywood star Josh Harnett will take the center stage instead.

It’s also said that Korean actor Lee Byung-hun might be involved in the movie as well. Lee is Takuya’s co-star in his latest Japanese movie, Hero, which is scheduled to premiere next month.

HERO Trailer

Takuya Kimura’s Hero showing next month

Thrusday August 16, 2007 Japan

Japanese movie “Hero,” starring Takuya Kimura and Takako Matsu, is scheduled to premiere in Japan on September 8.

The movie is an ‘extension’ of the same title popular drama in 2001, which was a great hit back then. Besides starring Takuya, Takako and most of the main casts from the drama, the movie will also feature popular Korean actor Lee Byung-hun.

Movie Trailer

'Hero' starring Kimura Takuya, to change Japanese movie history

Tuesday August 7, 2007 Japan

The premiere of the movie 'Hero' starring Kimura Takuya was held successfully on the 6th at Tokyo's Budokan.

With all major media reporting the event, many forecasted that the movie would break previous records of "Bayside Breakdown: the Movie 2" at 17.3 billion yen.

With 5,000 guests invited to the premiere, more than 200,000 entered to be selected. Kimura Takuya and other cast walked down a 50 meter red carpet after the screening greeted by the crowd.

The movie "Hero" is based upon the drama series that aired in 2001 on Fuji Television. All episodes of the series had viewer ratings higher than 30% with the final episode reaching 36.8%. These are the highest numbers for any drama series Kimura Takuya starred in, and was a first of all television series where all episodes exceeded 30% viewer ratings. The special episode aired in 2006 had a 30.9% viewer rating and with the special appearance of Lee Byung Heon, the movie is expected to surpass all movie attendance records in Japan.

Japanese newspapers reported that the movie will open on more than 470 screens on the 8th, the most ever for any movie opening in Japan.

The head of the movie production division at Fuji TV, Gameyama, says, "With Kimura Takuya's acting and the growth of co-stars from the series, the movie has a great potential to break records. Because the quality of the overall movie is so great, it will be able to break records of 'Bayside Breakdown: the Movie 2' as well."

broasia

5,000 fans come out to see Kimura Takuya and cast for “HERO” press conference

Monday August 6, 2007 Japan

The highly anticipated film version of “HERO” starring Kimura Takuya and Matsu Takako will be in theaters on September 8th and at a recent press conference, 5,000 screaming fans welcomed the stars of the film.

“HERO” is a popular Japanese drama that aired on FUJI TV during September through December 2000. The drama received awesome ratings and was the third pairing of actor Kimura Takuya and Matsu Takako who appeared together in the popular dramas “Long Vacation” and “Love Generation”.

“HERO” (the original drama series) is about Kimura stars as Kuriyu Kouhei, a public prosecutor (”kenji”) from Aomori Prefecture who is transferred to Tokyo. He gets treated by the rest of the prosecutor’s office as a country bumpkin and enforces the image by bringing apples (the most stereotyped image of Aomori is that of apple orchards), being amazed by the infomercials on Tokyo television, and generally not wanting to do things in a ‘professional’ manner. His main foil is the career-climber Amamiya Maiko (played by Matsu Takako), who can’t believe the things that he does - that is, until he manages to nail a government official through some sharp deductive work.

For the film, the film will open up to 461 theaters around the whole country. The most for any film in Japan.

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