Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 10th & 11th December 2016

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas where the movie is shown at:

1) Monster Strike THE MOVIE Hajimari no Basho e (314)

2) Fantastic Beasts and where to find them (350)

3) Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Dr. Bakkuman tai Eguzeido & Ghost with Legend Rider (314)

4) Kaizoku to yobareta otoko (359)

5) Kimi no na wa (296)

6) Museum (331)

7) Kono sekai no katasumi ni (68)

8) Gekijouban Kancolle (61)

9) Shippu Rondo (286)

10) Oboreru Knife (153)

Source: Eiga.com

Top 10 movies box office ranking for the weekend of 3rd & 4th December 2016

Numbers in brackets indicate the number of cinemas which are showing the movie:

1) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (350)

2) Kimi no na wa (296)

3) Museum (331)

4) Kono sekai no katasumi ni (68)

5) Shippu Rondo (286)

6) Gekijouban Kancolle (61)

7) Florence Foster Jenkins (204)

8) RANMARU Kami no shita wo motsu otoko Hoozuki Death Road Hen (270)

9) Kuroko no Basuke Winter Cup Soushuuhen Tobira no Mukou (31)

10) Death Note Light up the NEW world (342)

Source: Eiga.com

First-day-screening event of new movie "Shippu Rondo"

The first-day-screening event of new movie "Shippu Rondo" was held at Marunouchi TOEI 1 on 26 November which was attended by the director Yoshida Teruyuki and cast members Abe Hiroshi, Okura Tadayoshi, Oshima Yuko, Muro Tsuyoshi, Hamada Tatsuomi and Shison Jun. The event was also broadcast live to 209 cinemas nationwide.

The movie which is based on the same-titled novel by Higashino Keigo, features Abe as a researcher who is tasked to find a biochemical weapon buried somewhere in a ski resort with the help of the resort's patrol staff (Okura) and a snowboarder (Oshima). Abe "complained" that the director likes ad-libs which made them unsure how to react at initially. He recounted that during the first scene with Okura, there was silence for about a minute but the director simply would not shout "cut". Although Abe thought that such scenes would not make it to the final version of the movie, he was surprised to find them included after all. He also emphasized that the charm of the snowy mountains and action scenes are worth checking out in the movie.

Muro who plays a mysterious man also out to find the biochemical weapon, had to film a scene where he was trailling behind Okura and Oshima on skis. Okura recounted that Muro had managed to ski properly during the rehearsals but suddenly fell down at the end. Oshima then teased Muro for doing it on purpose and said that he really fitted his character because they are both strange people. In response, Muro said that the scene was a NG since both Oshima and Okura had burst out laughing after seeing him fall.

Source: Eiga.com

Promotional campaign launch event of new movie "Shippu Rondo"

The promotional campaign launch event of new movie "Shippu Rondo" was held in Tokyo on 17 November where a 2-storey bus wrapped with the promotional poster will begin its tour within the capital from 17 November for a period of one week. The movie is based on the same-titled novel by Higashino Keigo and features Abe Hiroshi in the leading role of Kuribayashi who is a researcher tasked to find a biochemical weapon hidden at the ski resort and is assisted by a patrol member played by Okura Tadayoshi and a snowboarder played by Oshima Yuko.

Cast members Abe, Oshima, Okura and Muro Tsuyoshi appeared at the event where Abe expressed amazement at seeing how big the poster was and embarrassment at seeing his face plastered on the bus. He remarked that although he thinks that this will be a good promotional method, he also called out to the drivers not to be too distracted and cause accidents while looking at the bus.

As the movie was shot at Nozawa Onsen's ski resort in Nagano Prefecture in February this year, artifical snow was created at the event to coincide with the movie's location setting and the cast even had a tape-cutting ceremony to launch the bus. Upon seeing this, Abe said that they should probably go on a bus parade in Ginza like the Olympic athletes. He also remarked that the biggest selling points of this movie are its speedy storyline and amazing scenes at the snow mountains which will allow the audience to laugh and be entertained.

Despite being at the onsen resort, Abe did not go to the public bath as told by the staff since this would cause the tourists to be overly excited at seeing him and create a disturbance to others. As such, he always had to use the onsen bath in his room. However, upon hearing that Oshima went to the onsen every day without a care, he was filled with regret and wished that he could have gone ahead with his plan instead.

In one of the scenes when Muro's character was tailing Oshima's character, she remarked jokingly that Muro deliberately fell down at the back so as to attract attention. Okura who was at the front in the scene with Oshima, chipped in to say that Muro didn't have any issues during the rehearsal which led the latter to defend himself that it was a show of him being too immersed in acting and was not done on purpose.

The movie will be shown in cinemas from 26 November.

Sources: Sponichi / Oricon / Eiga.com

Completion screening event of new movie "Shippu Rondo"

The completion screening event of new movie "Shippu Rondo" was held on 13 October which was attended by the director Yoshida Teruyuki and cast members Abe Hiroshi, Ookura Tadayoshi, Ooshima Yuko, Horiuchi Keiko, Hamada Tatsuomi, Shison Jun, Nomaguchi Tooru, Asou Yumi, Totsugi Shigeyuki and Emoto Akira. In line with the setting of the movie at a snowy mountain, the red carpet was replaced with a white carpet.

The movie which is based on the popular novel by Higashino Keigo and had sold more than 1 million copies to date, features Abe as a middle-aged researcher who is told to retrieve a dangerous biological weapon stolen from his university's research facility at a ski resort and goes through a hard time while searching for leads about the whereabouts of the weapon.

Although the filming was done at Nozawa Onsen in Nagano Prefecture, it was not as cold as it seemed because it was a warm winter with very little snow. In contrast, the day when the screening event was colder due to the rainy weather so Ookura commented that today was the coldest as compared to when they were filming the movie. Ironically, the day when Abe arrived at the ski resort for the filming turned out to be extremely cold and there was heavy snow. As such, this led Ooshima to comment that Abe is a snow man i.e. one who brings the snow wherever he goes. In response, Abe joked that it turned out to be colder than when he was at Everest.

In the movie, Abe, Ookura and Ooshima had many snow-skiing scenes but Abe had not skiied in the last 30 years since the last time when he was in university. As such, he had to practice before the filming. Ooshima was very skillful in snowboarding and skiing since she has been doing it since she was 9 but Ookura turned out to be a total amateur even though he had written in his official profile by mistake that his hobby was skiing. Since this was only his third time skiing, Ookura had to start learning from how to hold the ski sticks. Upon seeing this, Abe was glad that he had company for the training and that he was slightly better than Ookura in skiing. As for the scenes where he was driving the snow mobile, Ookura stressed that he did them himself although viewers may find it difficult to identify him as he was wearing goggles.

"Shippu Rondo" will be screened in cinemas from 26 November.

Sources: Eiga.com / Oricon

B'z to sing the theme song for new movie "Shippu Rondo" starring Abe Hiroshi

B'z will be singing the theme song for new movie "Shippu Rondo" starring Abe Hiroshi which is due to be shown in cinemas from 26 November and adapted from the same-titled novel by Higashino Keigo. Being a big fan of B'z, the director Yoshida Teruyuki approached the duo who accepted the offer readily. The song titled "Fukiarenasai" is the first movie theme song by B'z since "PRAY" which was the theme song for 2009 movie "TAJOMARU".

B'z commented that they had read the original novel where they had a deep impression of the flashy yet comical scenes which happened amid the characters' belief in heading down the paths they believed in. As such, they wanted to show this type of emotion in the setting of a snowstorm and hoped that viewers will be able to enjoy the movie's impressive images along with their song which took 1.5 months to produce. Meanwhile, Abe revealed that he was very excited when he was told that B'z was going to write the theme song for the movie and believed that there is no other song which fits the ending credits of this movie that has suspense, action and comedy elements rolled into one. He hopes that viewers will leave the cinema theatres with feelings of exhilaration after watching the movie to the end. As for Yoshida, he expressed his gratitude to B'z for granting them the honour of using their song for their movie but joked that viewers might remember the song more than the movie after leaving the cinemas.

The release date of "Fukiarenasai" has not been decided yet.

Sources: Sanspo / Oricon