Usually, I don't translate news like this which tend to be a bit gossipy and may have some unconfirmed rumours but I'm doing it this time due to a request from one of the blog readers. Hope that this is interesting to everyone!
I can see that there were a lot of press reports on the stage play when it was in the preparation stage and when it began its run. I did pick up a number of such articles and posted them on the blog, partly because I wanted to help promote it in one way or another. If I was in Japan, I would have gone to see it. Obviously, there were a lot of efforts put in to boost the awareness of the play and Matsuyama appeared to be putting his all into this. However, the lingering problems of the Taiga flop and his wife's controversy about giving birth in South Korea only served to make his climb back a tougher ride than it would have been. The arrival of his second child should have been a happy occasion but really, I sometimes wonder if more tact should have been exercised by his significant other when handling the situation.
I think it's rather unfair to write him off just because of one bad Taiga outing. Who can forget about his breakthrough role L in Death Note or the amazing transformation he showed in Detroit Metal City? He did give us some really memorable performances in the past but whenever failure strikes a successful actor, it's as if his past successes were written off overnight. Let's think of it this way, he experienced a high in his career fairly early on thus the fall this time must have hurt a whole lot more than it would be for someone who had been at a fairly consistent level through his career. There were so many reports piled onto him about the Taiga failure as if he was solely responsible. No doubt he tried to keep a brave front when asked about this all the time, I think his confidence level would still be badly dented. Since his book is coming out next month, I would love to read what he has to say about his feelings towards the Taiga drama and if he had ever regretted taking it on. I certainly hope that he won't become a loser just because of this rough patch.
2 years of bad luck! Matsuyama Kenichi is facing more problems this year after his Taiga drama "Taira no Kiyomori" got the lowest average rating of 12.0% in the Taiga drama history.
His first attempt at a stage play "Tooi Natsu no Gogh" opens on 3 February at Akasaka ACT Theatre so he is busy preparing through the rehearsals. However, contrary to the efforts he has put in, ticket sales are slow.
The ACT Theatre can accommodate 1,300 guests but other than the first day, the seats aren't even half-filled. If the Taiga drama had been a success, this would have brought about the same effect to Matsuyama's first leading role in a stage play. However, the Taiga turned out to be a major flop. Despite extensive publicity efforts, it is worrying as to how many non-Matsuyama fans he can attract to the theatre.
To add on to his troubles, Matsuyama's wife Koyuki gave birth to their second child in South Korea and was involved in the controversy of leaving the hospital without permission. This almost led to a lawsuit by the hospital over unpaid hospitalisation charges which were later settled. In order to wipe away the lingering after-effects of the Taiga failure, Matsuyama's attempts at resurrecting his career are further hampered by such unwanted controversies around him.
Matsuyama is due to release his first book "Haisha" (Loser) at the end of February and he chose this name because of his drop to rock-bottom after "Taira no Kiyomori". If his stage play flops too, that would be a critical blow to his career. Despite being once said to be the Johnny Depp of Japan due to his acting skills, if this downward spiral continues, Matsuyama will then become a true loser.
Source: Tokyo Sports
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