MOVIES,MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT (84)
The Bay City Rollers in Japan: Photographed by Bob Gruen
The Bay City Rollers performed in Japan for the first time in December 1976. This was at the height of their worldwide fame when the Scottish band consisted of Derek Longmuir, Ian Mitchell, Stuart “Woody” Wood, Les McKeown and Eric Faulkner. They were responsible for hit records in England like Saturday Night and several No. 1 songs in the United States. The band was especially popular among teenage girls, who were drawn to their boyish charm and freshness. The hordes of passionately screaming girls at their shows led to their events being dubbed “Rollermania,” thus making the Bay City Rollers the only other band to have a “mania” added to their name after the Beatles.
Fran Rubel Kuzui’s Film Tokyo Pop Pops in 4K
Fran Rubel Kuzui is a film director, writer, producer and distributor. For 25 years, she has served as co-president of Kuzui Enterprises alongside her husband, Kaz Kuzui. Th e company revolutionized the marketing and distribution of independent and art films in Japan. Considered the “grandparents” of hip-hop culture in Japan, they featured hip-hop artists, break-dancers and rappers in their films, which helped bridge the Japanese and American film cultures of the 1980s, while also helping establish hip-hop’s prominence in Japan. Fran entered the spotlight by writing and directing Tokyo Pop, a hit at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. Tokyo Pop follows bleach-blonde-wannabe-rocker Wendy (the late Carrie Hamilton) as she explores Tokyo’s vibrant pop culture, while dreaming of making it as a singer. The film has been recently restored in 4K by IndieCollect, in association with the Academy Film Archive with funding from Dolly Parton, Carol Burnett (mother of Tokyo Pop actress Carrie Hamilton), the HFPA Trust and donors to IndieCollect’s Jane Fonda Fund for Women Directors. Fran shares in an interview with Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony AI-Jamie her inspiration for the film, the behind-the-scenes’ hustle and the luck involved in bringing this 80s American independent film to life.
American Idol Alum Ava August: The Next Stage in Her Career
Since discovering her love for music at the age of eight after singing the American national anthem for the first time at a local sporting event, Ava August has gone on to make her mark on the music industry. Ava auditioned for The Voice, a singing reality television show, when she was 12 years old, and then for American Idol at 15, becoming the youngest to ever compete in both shows. After American Idol, she released critically-acclaimed singles like “Move On,” “Miss You,” and “Beauty Queen.” She has sung at sold-out stadiums for professional sports teams like the Los Angeles Lakers, Dodgers and Rams. This successful artist sat down with Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony Al-Jamie to discuss her experience in the music industry from a young age and her time on American Idol.
Yuya Yagira Stars in Disney+ Horror Series Gannibal
Yuya Yagira
From Cannes Best Actor Winner to Disney+ Horror Sensation
Yuya Yagira, the youngest winner of the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama Nobody Knows, stars in the Disney+ seven-episode original horror series Gannibal in Japan. Released on December 28, 2022, Gannibal follows Yagira’s character, Daigo Agawa, as a police officer who relocates from the big city to the remote village of Kuge after a traumatizing event leaves his daughter mute. The show garnered massive local attention, and became the most locally watched produced original series on Disney+ in Japan, which further established Yagira as one of Japan’s biggest actors. Tokyo Journal Editor-in-Chief Anthony Al-Jamie sat down with Yuya Yagira to discuss his work on Gannibal.
Korean Band Fad Goes Global
Asia’s Korean band fad is going global with top Western entertainment venues hosting performances by Korean dancers and musical artists.
K-Pop Goes the World
Surprising Attendance in California
The lights go on. The pounding dance beat starts. And 12,000 screaming fans rise to their feet in the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Acclaimed record producer Quincy Jones watches from his suite. Is this Beyonce? Rhianna? Lady Gaga? Nope. It’s an all-star concert featuring the likes of Girls Generation, Super Junior, BoA, TVXQ, f(x), EXO and SHINee. How can bands not played on American Top 40 radio fill a U.S. arena? Well, these are Korea’s top pop bands, and they played S.M. Entertainment’s third world tour on May 20, 2012. SME, a Seoul-based independent record producer, has held previous world tours with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. Yeah, but was Anaheim’s Honda Center filled with 12,000 Koreans and Korean Americans? Nope. Around two thirds of the fans were non- Korean, a sign of the spreading popularity of Korean pop.
Korean Band Fad Goes Global
Two of South Korea’s biggest bands, TVXQ! and Super Junior, have taken their tours global as demand for K-pop grows around the world.
K-Pop Continues to Go Global
TVXQ!
TVXQ!, known as Dong Bang Shin Ki in South Korea, Tong Vfang Xien Qi in China and Tohoshinki in Japan, has twice held the Guinness World Record for the largest fan club in the world, with more than 800,000 in South Korea alone. They hold the current Guinness World Record for being the Most Photographed Celebrities in the World with more than 500 million photos taken. TVXQ! launched their “TVXQ! Live World Tour ‘Catch Me’” in November 2012 in Seoul before heading to China, Taiwan and elsewhere around the world. They made history by touring 11 cities in Japan between January and April 2012, doing a total of 26 shows as part of their “TVXQ! Live Tour 2012 ~TONE” with more than 550,000 in attendance.
Caroll Spinney
The Man Behind Sesame Street’s Big Bird and Oscar the Grouchbra
“I Am Big Bird” screened at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival. Tokyo Journal talked with the co-director of the documentary, Dave LaMattina, and Caroll Spinney, the 80-year-old Emmy and Grammy Award-winning puppeteer behind the iconic “Sesame Street” characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. The two discussed the documentary as well as the legacy of the beloved TV program and its characters.
Big Hero 6 Featured
Japan-Influenced Big Hero 6 Scores Oscar for Best Animated Film
Voice Actor Ryan Potter and CG Animator Matsune Suzuki Talk about the Heart-Warming East-Meets-West Story of a Boy and his Robot
Big Hero 6 is a magnificent mashup of Marvel-based Disney animation, Eastern and Western cultures, and the cities of San Francisco and Tokyo. Set in “San Fransokyo,” Big Hero 6 is an action-packed animated comedy adventure that finds robotics whiz kid, Hiro Hamada, forming a special bond with his personal companion robot called Baymax, while his diverse group of science-geek friends forms a band of unlikely heroes. Japanese- American actor Ryan Potter and Japanese CG Animator Matsune (Matt) Suzuki talked to Tokyo Journal shortly after the movie won the 2015 Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year.
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