Cast updates and preview clips for Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s ‘Where the Legend Lives’

Posted by Kevin Ouellette at 1:25pm on Sunday, August 31, 2008 EDT

Filed under: Drama, Future releases, Trailer Updates

Maboroshi no Yamataikoku flyerYukihiko Tsutsumi’s Where the Legend Lives (Maboroshi no Yamataikoku) is shaping up to be one of the most uniquely Japanese movies to come out in a long time. The plot centers around a blind former railroad worker named Yohei (Naoto Takenaka) who becomes obsessed with finding the ancient country of Yamataikoku, home to the legendary shaman queen Himiko. His passion for finding it was first ignited when he uncovered ancient earthenware while making rail repairs after a flood. Now blind, he completely depends on his wife Kazuko (Sayuri Yoshinaga) to make sense of his maps and lead him through the Kyushu region where he believes Yamataikoku to be.

In the movie there will be a scene in which Yohei has a vision of queen Himiko (also played by Sayuri Yoshinaga). Given the importance of Himiko in ancient Japanese lore, it’s a pretty huge deal to actually show her on screen, so no expense was spared in the presentation. Celine Dion will offer the soundtrack to the relatively brief scene with her song, “A World To Believe In ~Himiko Fantasia~”. Yoshinaga spent over 2 hours in the makeup chair in preparation for the role and the silk kimono she wears required a team of 20 artisans to make at a final expense of about 10 million yen (almost $100,000 USD). Yikes…

In other Japan-centric news, there will be a few notable cameos in this movie, and most of the names will mean absolutely nothing to most people outside of Japan. Some of these names include comedienne Kanako Yanigihara, former NHK announcer Hitoshi Kusano, comedian Kimimaro Ayanokoji, and noted physicist Yoshihiko Otsuki.

Here’s the first preview featuring Kimimaro Ayanokoji. He’s a comedian that’s had a long career, but is considered an “overnight success” for his massive spike in popularity over the past few years. He’s known for his sharp 1-liners and is popular with middle-aged housewives, hence the nickname “middle-aged idol”.

Here’s the second preview featuring Kanako Yanagihara. She’s a former child model and comedienne who makes a ton of appearances on various Japanese variety shows.

 

“Where the Legend Lives” opens November 1 in Japan.

Sources:
Official website
Tokyograph
Wikipedia

Related Entries:

Tags: kanako yanagihara kimiko yo mitsuru hirata naoto takenaka ren osugi saori yuki sayuri yoshinaga tomoka kurotani toru emori toru kazama yosuke kubozuka yumi asou

Comments

When on earth did he have the time to make this!?!  And what’s Kubozuka doing in it?  That’s one tasty pairing of actor and director, right there, he’s a great fit for Tsutsumi’s world.

Posted by Todd at 12:35pm EDT on Monday, September 1, 2008

He’s not mentioned in any of the summaries, just lists of actors. Must be a smallish role. He’s been preoccupied his awful reggae band lately. He has some lyrics about how show business is full of brain washing and then the line “television, but no vision”. He’s just begging to be shitlisted.

Posted by Kevin Ouellette at 12:57pm EDT on Monday, September 1, 2008

Name:

Email: (optional)

Link: (optional)

Save my info

Email me follow-up comments

Submit the word you see below:


  • Nippon Cinema @ Twitter Twitter
  • Nippon Cinema RSS feed Latest

Sion Sono's Lords of Chaos based on "a huge pile of crap" says one prominent Burzum enthusiast http://bit.ly/3okmUT (Sat. 5:21am)

@ryuganji So that rules out communists and Sabu fans. Maybe crab boat workers will like it. (Sat. 12:45am)

@yobgol Progressive video flickers on TVs with a low refresh rate so they encode interlaced and let players do the deint. work if needed (Thu. 5:48pm)

@yobgol Most DVDs are interlaced to look better on older TVs. It does seem a bit tougher for PC players to deinterlace Viz releases though (Thu. 4:47pm)

Evangelion 1.0 Apple trailer: http://bit.ly/4iGK14 (Thu. 3:37pm)

You've got a friend in Japan -- click now!