Category: Movie people

On June 5th, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po ran a story claiming Japanese adult video star Anri Suzuki wants to have sex with Chinese students in Japan as compensation for Japan’s invasion of China in 1937 which led to the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Rape of Nanking. The reporter attributed the story to “Taiwan media reports” but was apparently fooled by a forum post by someone going by the handle “Sniper”. On June 9th, realizing the mistake, he wrote a retraction; but the damage had already been done. The story had quickly spread throughout Asia in multiple languages, and retractions are not typically translated as quickly as sensational news about sex.

In Japan, however, the story was shot down almost immediately. Suzuki posted an in-depth blog entry in which she refuted the claims made in the article one by one. For instance, she’s never even been to Taiwan and has certainly never given any interviews there. The fake article also states that Suzuki has a doctorate in Sino-Japanese history. However, Suzuki points out that she’s a high school graduate and has never even attended university, let alone earned a doctorate. The only part of the story she seems to agree with is the fact that she’s appeared in adult videos.

Given the nature of the hoax-inspired article, it was inevitable that it would eventually catch on with the western media as an oddball “wacky Japan” story. A few days ago, The Sun ran with it, complete with skimpy swimsuit pics and scandalous quote translations. Since then, it’s been spreading to other news sites. with most conscientious reporters sourcing The Korea Times, which was apparently the first foreign paper to translate the bogus story to English for western consumption. So far, only Japan Probe and a few reddit.com members have posted anything refuting the story in English, but that hasn’t slowed it down much. If anything, it’s picked up steam.

The moral of the story? Check your sources. If something seems completely stupid and made up, it probably is.

P.S. My sincere apologies to any Chinese students whose hopes have been dashed.

Tokyo-based action actor Chuck Johnson was recently featured on an episode of a TV show being produced in Thailand called "The Art of Fighting" by Robert Clyne, who also produced a show called "Fight! Japan". In it he covers some of the not-so-subtle differences between real martial arts and theatrical combat, bad experiences in Japan, and good experiences with his action training team.

In addition to various TV and film roles as bodyguards, he also played "Muscleman" (the guy with the gigantic sword) in Yuji Shimomura's Death Trance and recently co-starred with Asami in the yet-unreleased Yakuza Hunter parts 2 and 3.

Check out Chuck's official website for more info on his career.

On the 29th it was reported that Ryuhei Matsuda (26) was recently injured in a Motocross crash in Narita, Chiba prefecture and was admitted to a hospital. He was reportedly attempting some advanced techniques at the time of the crash which threw him off balance. Officials with knowledge of the incident claim Matsuda did indeed sustain a bone fracture, but everyone is relieved that it wasn’t more serious.

After the crash, Matsuda initially returned home to Tokyo, but became concerned when the pain from a bruised area wouldn’t go away and was rushed to a nearby hospital. The subsequent examination revealed a broken rib. Doctors ran a full battery of tests, but didn’t find any additional abnormalities.

Matsuda, one of Japan’s top young film actors, got into Motocross a few years ago with his younger brother, actor Shota Matsuda (24). There were also reports that Shota was with him on the day of the crash.

The Matsuda brothers’ mom, actress Miyuki Matsuda (48) was recently out promoting an upcoming television special which will air this November on SKY PerfecTV to celebrate the career of her late husband, actor Yusaku Matsuda, 20 years after his death. In true PR form, she said of the special, “Please meet the actor Yusaku Matsuda once again”, but declined to comment on her son’s accident.

Source: Sponichi Annex

Edit (10/30): Fixed the Shota part (present during the fall, but didn’t fall—oops!)

For those of you who may not have been keeping track of the enigma that is the career of V-cinema legend Riki Takeuchi over the past few years, he's recently taken to using the pseudonym RIKI for his music, insisting that RIKI is actually his twin brother.

Now he's gone and done the unthinkable: he covered a Morning Musume song. And not just any Morning Musume song, but their best-selling single to date, 1999's "Love Machine".

So without futher ado, here's "Love Machine - RIKI Version"

Compare with the original:

Source: avex Channel