June 4th, 2008
The Golden Rock - June 4th, 2008 Edition
- It’s Japanese Oricon charts time! GReeeN adds a new number one single onto their already-long list of accomplishments. They even managed to beat out V6 and Orange Range’s latest singles. Meanwhile, Mihimaru GT’s latest album takes number 1 on the album chart, but the biggest news is Shiori and her having the first indie album debut on the top 10.
- While Korean director Kwak Jae Young’s Japanese debut Cyborg She opened at a respectable third place, but Mr. Texas over at Eiga Consultant reveals that its opening was actually 75% of Windstruck. Since Windstruck made 2 billion yen in Japan, at least Cyborg She will pass the 1 billion yen mark.
Also, Sarah Polley’s Away From Her opened at one theater in Tokyo, with three out of four shows sold out on the second day (the film recorded an attendance of 1074 admissions out of a possible 1200). Mr. Texas wonders aloud whether the distributor would’ve opened it at a bigger theater had it won the best actress Oscar.
- At the Japanese promotional event for Indiana Jones, George Lucas says that he won’t rule out the possibility of setting the next movie in Japan. After seeing what Hollywood has done with Asia in the past, please don’t.
- Twitch has the Japanese trailer for the violent action flick Machine Girl. Of course, it being an official trailer means that it has to be considerably tamer than the ones that we’ve seen before.
- The Chinese music industry is coming together to condemn the search engine Baidu as “the largest and most incorrigible purveyor of pirated music in China”. What about the people that use it?
- With the Kimura Takuya Monday 9pm drama CHANGE failing to capture huge ratings (it finally fell below 20% this week), it’s already time for Fuji to get another reliable star for their next Monday 9pm drama. This time, it’ll be Bayside Shakedown star Yuji Oda as a “baka” schoolteacher.
- Variety’s Derek Elley has a short review of the Korean film Crossing, the latest from the director of Volcano High and Romance of Their Own,.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
19% is nothing to balk at for a political drama that won’t appeal to everyone. Change is still the highest drama for Mondays, and it’s doing pretty well IMO given what ratings for dramas normally are (between 8-13%).
Shani
June 6th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Hi, Shani,
You’re right, CHANGE is the highest-rated show on Monday night (it’s also the only drama on that night). However, in terms of the Gatsu9 timeslot (Monday 9pm) standard, it’s historically been the most popular drama timeslot of the week (this was the case for the last two consecutive seasons), and being on top is practically guaranteed if that drama stars Kimura Takuya. In fact, the first installment of Gokusen went up against a Kimura drama, and Kimura won.
So for Fuji TV’s big Kimura Takuya Gatsu9 drama to be losing to Gokusen week after week (its ratings have been on a downward trejectory) is certainly a slight disappointment. Of course, it’s not far behind, and it’d be cool if it pulls through, especially since it got a very positive review at the Televiews column.
On the other hand, while Gokusen 3 is running at lower ratings than the last installment, NTV can still tell their advertisers that they still have the highest-rated drama of the season. In the end, it’s all about punchlines, and NTV has it while Fuji doesn’t.
Either way, I think Fuji wouldn’t have made a political drama without a big star and an attractive gimmick. It’s too bad Japanese viewers are indeed that politcally indifferent. Perhpas Kimura Takuya needs to run for political office in real life before people really care.