Being the sadist that I am, I felt compelled to write yet another Japanese cinema post which almost totally ignores Matsumoto Jun's existence. Hopefully Andreja is appropriately annoyed by this - I'll be disappointed if she isn't ;) Actually, even Kinga voiced her displeasure the other day when I told her I was in the middle of writing this post rather than one about Jun ;)
For those of you groaning at the thought of reading more gushing about a certain Japanese actor's face - rest assured, Matsuda Ryuhei doesn't feature much in this post either ;) This time, you will be treated to some Oguri Shun gushing!
As I think only Kinga has any idea who I'm talking about - Oguri Shun is the guy who plays Rui in Hana Yori Dango. That probably didn't help most of you, did it? :] Er... well Andreja should now know who I'm talking about and it's her I want to annoy ;) But just so everyone else isn't left out (and also because introducing him is a good excuse to put in a random video clip), Oguri Shun is another Japanese teen idol kind of star. AFAIK he's best known for his cool and brooding romantic heroes in Hana Yori Dango and Hana Kimi.
As for the random video clip - it's under 40 seconds, all in Japanese, but despite not understanding a word I still find it very amusing (actually there's a lot of clips from Japanese TV that keep my attention despite not understanding anything :] I'm not sure why that is). They're clearly joking about his height. In Japanese standards he's very tall - one source has him at 184cm.
Anyway, my latest study evasion tactic has been browsing the net for random bits of info about Oguri Shun. I thought Shun would be a lot less interesting to investigate than Ryuhei or Jun, but the very existence of this post proves that I was wrong ;)
I had assumed that his filmography would just be filled with brooding romantic hero types and maybe some comedic roles here and there. The most adventurous thing I considered was that he may have done a slasher film or two - he's got the physique for it and the brooding persona would fit in well. All of these (including the slasher bit) were there, but there were some things I hadn't expected and I'm weird enough to be amused by them (especially when there's too much school work to do ;-P). So here goes...
There are more vulnerable, pushover type characters in his filmography than cool, brooding ones
Apparently, the first part he got noticed in was a small part in Great Teacher Onizuka - a very popular Japanese TV series from 1999. Shun played the part of a boy who was bullied by the whole class. He was 16 at the time, but looked around 12 (and in direct contrast to the present day was shorter than most of his co-stars ;)). It's weird seeing him playing a wimp, but it works. From what I can make out (I'm far from having a full idea about his filmography :]) he got to play quite a few vulnerable, sensitive characters after that.
One thing that I'm particularly surprised with is that he's actually a good crier ;) I couldn't picture him doing big, unrestrained crying scenes well - maybe because what I saw of him was rather reserved and restrained (and when I saw him do something less so *cough cough* Gokusen *cough cough* I hated him in it :] ).
I don't think he got to play a cool and brooding kind of character until Hana Yori Dango (2005). This perhaps explains why the gossip is that Shun got the part only thanks to Matsumoto Jun threatening to leave the project if they didn't give the part of Hanazawa Rui to Shun. I always thought it was a bit strange that the producers didn't want Shun for it. If it was quite different to what he had played before it makes much more sense.
A psychological vampire movie
His first cinematic film - Hitsuji No Uta (2002) (and also his first lead - most of his career consists of supporting roles) is also kind of in the vulnerable, sensitive vein, though it has a darker twist.
It's the story of a boy, Kazuna, who is brought up by his uncle and aunt. His parents kept his older sister with them, but gave Kazuna away. He's never told why and doesn't get to see any of his family. When we're introduced to the character he's in his teens and his mum is dead. He's not seen his father or sister since the age of 2.
He starts having strange dreams and then one day he passes out all of a sudden at the sight of blood. He thinks he's just anaemic or something, but of course he's not or we wouldn't have a story ;) His sister (who he meets for the first time in many years) finally tells him the dark family secret. Their family has some sort of practically unheard of hereditary disease. It causes them to have attacks during which they crave other people's blood very, very strongly. The disease is incurable and in the end fatal (the attacks are very weakening), but also dangerous to people around because the cravings can get so strong that the person cannot control them. Kazuna was given away because it was thought he didn't have the disease, but it looks like in his case it just took longer to surface.
The trailer is here:
Usually I would go the legal route to see it, but there is practically no way to see it legally :] I mean no DVD with English subtitles exists. There is a Japanese version without subtitles, but it's been out of print for years. It's hard to find on-line, so if any of you think it sounds interesting you can check it out here.
The bizarre thing about this film is that while it might sound like your regular vampire film, it's so totally not. Usually in a vampire film you get lots of action, blood and gore and of course the sexy female vampires trying to seduce some poor innocent guy to get his blood. This film in contrast is very slow with almost no action at all. The gore is barely there - the scenes in which Kazuna has his cravings are about him trying to restrain himself rather than about him trying to attack somebody. In terms of sex it's more about sexual tension than anything else (and no seductive female vampires either).
The film deals primarily with Kazuna's insecurities. He's very ashamed and scared of the blood cravings to the point of withdrawing from normal life. It's also about the relationship with his sister - two outcasts, who need themselves because nobody else can possibly understand what it's like.
It's a rather strange film as you may imagine... Judging by on-line reviews I seem to be in the minority in liking it, but if it sounds interesting to you at all then I would recommend it :) Shun is really great in it and also, for any Hana Yori Dango fans - you get to see the girl who plays Shigeru in season two as Kazuna's older sister. It's a very different (muuuuch quieter) part and she's really good too :)
He's a stage actor
Apparently Shun loves doing stage work and has done quite a bit of it. Titus Andronicus which he starred in even played in the UK and was very well received there. There's a number of English reviews of the play on-line and all the ones I found were positive both about the play and about Shun. If you want to check some out then here's a selection - Reviews Gate, the Guardian, BBC and a nice one on somebody's blog. For pics see here. The play is very visually spectacular, so the photos are actually really worth seeing - I've certainly become curious about what Japanese theatre is like now. Also you get to see Shun being kissed and groped by a man on those photos, but that might not necessarily be as interesting to you as it is to me ;-P
And now the best part...
It looks like despite his teen idol status he's totally up for taking his clothes off ;) This is partly demonstrated on the poster for Caligula - one of his stage plays (ok, the important parts are photoshopped out with fancy, white, flowy bits, but still...).
However, you may be interested to find out that in the same year he was shooting Hana Yori Dango season one (one of his most popular teen romance roles), he was also shooting this:
The scene is from Neighbour No 13, which I hope to see soon. It sounds like an art house horror movie - I honestly have no idea how that's supposed to work, which is why I really want to see it :]
It's about a guy who was bullied at school in a very extreme manner when he was little. According to the amazon reviews, the bullies even go as far as forcing him to eat excrement, but the worst is when they hold him down and pour acid on his face.
X years later, the main character is a young man and he's working on a construction site only to find that the bully who did all of this to him is in charge of him. The bullying starts all over again and the main character snaps - he develops a dual personality, one personality is very vulnerable and the other is a murdering maniac. The two personalities are played by two actors.
Every now and then the two personalities appear in frame together. Specifically, the inner fight between those personalities is represented in that red room on the clip. Shun is naked because he's the vulnerable one.
When I wrote about Big Bang Love, Juvenile A I said that out of all my friends probably only Ziggy and Kinga might enjoy it. Well, with Neighbour No.13 I get the feeling that I am totally the only one ;) Ziggy is eliminated because in the end it's a violent horror movie - he's too snobbish for that ;-P Kinga is eliminated because it'll probably be too violent for her. So I'm totally alone with this one ;)
Apparently most of the film festivals turned the film down because of the excessive violence. At the same time the people who like gore didn't enjoy the film either because firstly they said it wasn't gory enough and secondly it was a bit too psychological and weird. According to what I read the violence is not *that* heavy in terms of gore levels (some of it even happens out of frame - not something you'd see in your typical exploitative horror film). But emotionally the violence is supposed to be extremely heavy and there's a lot of it.
For me hearing all of this is actually all the more of a turn on, but I think everybody knows by now that my film taste is just weird :] Anyway, the trailer is here:
P.S. If anybody reading this (though I doubt it ;-P) actually wants to see Oguri Shun in his "I'm too cool" mode to compare against the clips I put up then you can check out this fan video (very appropriately the clip author has a Shahrukh avatar *grin*).
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5 comments:
It wasn't displeasure rather surprise ;) i'm not fifteen anymore and ignoring the pretty boy i like doesn't make me rant ;) i just kind of expected that you'll write something about jun, because he got you intereted in the jdorama thing in the first place
anyway if you don't find him interesting enough to write about it's cool with me ... ok one exeption if your next post for some bizarre reason is going to be about takizawa, our friendship will be thretened ...
and i do admit that Shun is a far more interesting character than i suspected he might be; i just assumed he is another of these plastic boysband boys and never looked into his biography/filmography
i like the scenes in the red room :) it's a shame i probably won't like the violence
shun seems to be drown to ancient rome in his stage career, i wonder if it's a concious choice? ;)
theatre in japan is very strong and vary varied:
all of their classic genres (noh, kabuki, bunraku) are still alive plus they have their own modern variants; for instance takarazuka
and there is butoh a strange dance theatre difficult to classify
there is european theatre in all forms (from serious drama to musicals);
there is a lot of folk theatres and here i mean both traditional village shows that are connected to religion and the performances are just 2-3 times a year; and city folklore - this means really strange and funny things, little local shows, mixed genres, very interactive
plus all the plastic boys have their stage shows - mostly music and acrobatics, maybe a sketch or two, sheer fanservice
i just kind of expected that you'll write something about jun, because he got you intereted in the jdorama thing in the first place
Actually, I expected myself to write something about Jun too ;) I'm also rather puzzled that it hasn't happened yet lol
It's not really that he's uninteresting, it's his filmography that's the problem :] And that's probably not even because of him but because he's in a boyband, so he's:
a) got less time to shoot films and serials
b) probably not going to go outside certain borders
On the other hand he's a much better object for exploring stuff like fan service or the Japanese teen idol system, so maybe I should just do that ;)
ok one exeption if your next post for some bizarre reason is going to be about takizawa, our friendship will be thretened
lol, I'm scared to watch S.O.S. now - he's in it, right? ;)
and i do admit that Shun is a far more interesting character than i suspected he might be; i just assumed he is another of these plastic boysband boys and never looked into his biography/filmography
I felt exactly the same :) If the only thing I had seen of his was Hana Yori Dango I totally wouldn't have bothered checking out his filmography (I liked him in HYD, but somehow I just wasn't hooked). I changed my mind a little after Hana Kimi, but still wasn't expecting what I got.
Actually the content of my post is only a fraction of what I found. There's a lot of crap in his filmography of course, but it's still very varied crap ;) Apart from the teen and soppy stuff, there's slasher movies, ghost movies, samurai movies, detective stories and even a western.
Clearly we both have to have more faith in Jun picking interesting friends ;) Btw, Shun has his own radio show and he once had Jun on it - it's supposed to have been totally hilarious (apparently amongst many things they phoned up Inoue Mao in the middle of the night to ask her something stupid ;) ). I found signs on-line of a video clip of this existing (and even an English subbed one :]), but couldn't actually find the clip. Then again I'm not sure how a radio show got recorded on video, but whatever :] Anyway - if you do find this gem please let me know :)
i like the scenes in the red room :) it's a shame i probably won't like the violence
Yes, I like them too :) Those scenes almost look more like a painting than a film and there's something very intense about them.
The people who liked the film seem to agree that the best and most intense scenes in the film are when the two personalities are together in that room or when the main character is having flashbacks from the childhood bullying.
Some of the reviews say the violence was overhyped, so if I feel that way too and think you'll be able to get through it I'll let you know.
shun seems to be drown to ancient rome in his stage career, i wonder if it's a concious choice? ;)
I'm not sure exactly what he's done cause the lists of his stage plays tend to vary and I think most on-line sources rely on the one on wikipedia, which isn't necessarily a full one. He certainly seems to have been the most successful in an Ancient Rome setting though - maybe because he gets to do the most skin show in those? ;)
But I think the majority of theatre he's done has not been Ancient Rome so much as Shakespeare - apart from Titus Andronicus it seems he's done Hamlet, the Comedy of Errors and As You Like It. However, I think the only lead roles on stage he's done are Caligula and As You Like It.
I'd never given Japanese theatre much thought before. I mean I'd heard of kabuki a few times. I think the first time I heard of it was in film history context. The first films made in Japan were recordings of kabuki performances in around 1897 I think.
I'd heard of noh because in Kimi Wa Petto the main character is supposed to have as much expression as a noh mask ;)
Otherwise all this is totally new to me. Do they tour with those sorts of things in Europe? I guess that would be very interesting to see. Maybe there would be a shot at seeing something like that in London someday?
lol i'm kidding; don't be scared to watch it ;)
japanese theatres tour in europe sometimes and can be even seen in poland, and both the bigger gigs and the little ones come :)
MONIKA, YOU ARE OFFICIALLY NO LONGER MY FRIEND! I HATE YOU! I LOVE JUN UNCONDITIONALLY! UNTILL YOU WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT JUN AND HIS AMAAAAAAAAAZING TALENT, DON'T EXPECT TO HEAR ANY WORD FROM ME!
JUN FOREVER!
@Kinga
Unless you protest, the next time Japanese theatre comes to Poland you will be my date for the evening *grin*
@Andreja
You know, Jun should just do a nude scene in something. Judging by the other Japanese actors who have appeared on this blog, that would get a post from me in no time ;)
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