Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:34:39 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/ Garden Supply Center http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/images//themes/takeshikaneshiro/images/takeshi-kaneshiro.jpg http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/ davidyee@yahoo.com http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-14.html What really attracted you to the film and is there anyone in particular who inspires you in the world of martial arts movies? The director, Zhang Yimou was the main attraction for me and as for all that martial arts stuff I hardly know anything it is all mainly down to the choreographer. How much training did you have to do? I practised basic swordplay for about one month and then the action director worked out the scenes mainly whilst we were on set. I always looked after my face. What appealed to you more the story or the action? The elements of the love story appealed to me more and once again the director Zhang Yimou also drew me to the project. Would you like to try out different films like say some big Hollywood movies? I would like to try out many kinds of films but I don’t think that there are a lot of parts for me in certain movies particularly in Hollywood. Do you think that Asian cinema is finally going global in a big way? Yes, well the Chinese mainland has opened up and so the western world is getting to see more and they are pumping more money than before into a lot of foreign films. Do you have more fans on an international scale than in your home country? Well let me put it this way, I don’t have a fan club so I couldn’t really say. Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:34:39 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-13.html Interview with Takeshi Kaneskiro by Ingrid Sischy from Interviewmagazine.com Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:11:52 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-12.html IT ONLY takes Takeshi Kaneshiro to stand with his coat just off his shoulders for one of his entourage to leap up to remove it. It’s superstar behaviour, but then the 31-year-old actor has parlayed his brooding good looks into becoming a pin-up, Prada model, pop idol and film star whose career straddles action and art house. He’s already been dubbed the Asian Johnny Depp. Now the Taiwanese-Japanese actor’s profile in the West is about to be raised with Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers, which continues the director’s shift from neorealist rural portraits (Red Sorghum) and acclaimed period dramas (Raise the Red Lantern) to the recent martial-arts epic Hero .That film was a bouquet of elaborate aquamarine costumes, emerald-misted forests and golden-russet foliage. Daggers is another feast of blood, passion, lighter-than-air martial arts, silk brocade and leading players as eye-catching as the film’s vistas. Kaneshiro and the Hong Kong star Andy Lau play Tang Dynasty government officers, Jin and Leo, whose loyalties come into question when their pursuit of a beautiful rebel spy, Mei (the rising Chinese actress Ziyi Zhang, who now prefers this Westernised order of her name) turns into a love triangle. “I knew I could play the love story, but I was daunted by the fight scenes,” admits Kaneshiro, a polite but guarded presence. “A month before shooting in China and the Ukraine we began basic training in knives and swords without being told what the story was about. I found that strange and was afraid I was going to make mistakes, but Zhang Yimou is like a storyteller — he acts everything out so I knew exactly what he wanted.” Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:58:15 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-11.html Color me a can of Delmonte crushed pineapple in heavy syrup and serve me up with a chilled fork! Oh, c'mon. Who wouldn't want to be devoured by "Badge No. 223"? You know, the painfully attractive, lovesick cop with a peculiar fancy for canned pineapples dated May 1st? For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about and still haven't seen Takeshi Kaneshiro's heart-warming performance in Wong-Kar Wai's 1994 cult classic "Chungking Express," you don't deserve to be enlightened. Perhaps one of "the" finest profiles to ever grace the silver screen, 26-year-old Takeshi Kaneshiro is an international phenomenon. Like Tiger Woods, whose fresh talent and unique race-mix has caused quite a stir in the world of sports, Takeshi has had an equally enigmatic and concentric effect in the world of Asian entertainment. Oh, by the way, this man is so fine. Born to a Taiwanese mother and Japanese father, Takeshi is definitely a delicious, exotic mix. Add on some depth to Takeshi's handsome-boy portfolio with the ability to sing and act. Did I fail to mention that this former Prada poster boy speaks Taiwanese (like a native), Mandarin (fluently), Japanese (as if he were a traveling scholar), Cantonese (with a darling accent), and English (with ease)? This might offer some explanation why critics have heralded the Eastern import, if not for his acting ability, but his keen intellect. His intelligence extends beyond his mere acting and singing ability. He's smart about what projects he takes. Takeshi is grateful for the luxury of being "picky" with his projects. "Basically my main concern is whether or not the role is challenging. Making a Chinese movie or a Japanese movie is the same to me. I just want to make some good movies and hope that audiences appreciate them." Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:31:12 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-10.html Takeshi Kaneshiro became a superstar playing oddball characters. Is this typecasting? When Johnny To signed on to direct the wistfully romantic Turn Left Turn Right, the Hong Kong filmmaker knew exactly whom he wanted to play the male lead. In the illustrated novel by Jimmy Liao, from which the new movie is adapted, the protagonist is so estranged from society that he's depicted floating above the city, like a melancholy blimp. When you want someone who practically oozes that kind of ethereal alienation, whom are you going to call? Answer: Takeshi Kaneshiro, the half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese movie star who, thanks to his protean good looks and versatile acting skills, has become the Asian film industry's Johnny Depp—a quirky, unpredictable leading man capable of seducing audiences no matter how dark or oddball the role. Kaneshiro is "mysterious," says To. "He doesn't belong to Hong Kong, Taiwan or anywhere." Indeed, in his eclectic 10-year career, Kaneshiro—who speaks five languages and has made films in four countries—has trained his chameleon-like talents on a remarkable array of characters. In Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, he played a mute who rode the carcass of a pig like a cowboy. He made love to an HIV-infected teen in the blockbuster Japanese TV miniseries God Please Give Me More Time. In Returner, he played an orphaned assassin-for-hire, and he was a bowling-addicted stockbroker in another Japanese TV series, Golden Bowl. "I don't let myself follow in anyone else's footsteps," says Kaneshiro, 29. "Let other people do what has been done before. All I want is to do something special." Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:21:55 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-9.html Born on 10/1173 in Taiwan One could possibly pinpoint the beginning of Hong Kong’s movie infatuation with longhaired pretty boys on Takeshi. Beginning in the mid-90s he brought his soulful eyes and sensitive good looks to Hong Kong and was soon elevated to an Idol status among teenage girls and having his face plastered across innumerable glossy magazines. Admittedly Ekin Cheng was on the scene before Takeshi, but he didn’t really achieve idol status till his Young and Dangerous films. The difference for me though between Takashi and the idol boys that have followed is that Takeshi is actually very talented. When he turns to Brigitte Lin in Chungking Express and tries talking to her in four different languages (i.e., Cantonese, Japanese, English and Mandarin), it gives a hint as to his multi-cultural background. Half Japanese and half Taiwanese Chinese, Takeshi grew up and attended a predominantly English-language International School in Taiwan and began appearing in commercials at the age of fifteen. A few years later he began making music and released six albums between 1992 and 1993. This brought him to the attention of filmmakers in Hong Kong and it wasn’t long before he was starring in films. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:11:10 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-8.html The women of Singapore have spoken. They have named Japanese-Taiwanese heart-throb Takeshi Kaneshiro - who was in town last week - as the perfect male 01 September 2003 IF God created all men equal, then where on earth did Takeshi Kaneshiro come from? Take a hint from director-writer Riley Yip, who cast the impossibly beautiful Japanese-Taiwanese actor as an angel with wings in Lavender three years ago. Indeed, to many women in this world, he is a godsend. But, you could also be forgiven for thinking he is of the extraterrestrial variety. After all, the man is so famously elusive, you half expect him to live on another planet when he isn't working here. And so, when the superstar descended last week after a decade for a hasty one-day meet-the-press affair for his new movie, all hell broke loose. Well, almost. It might have if his hosts here movie producers Raintree Pictures and Warner Brothers did not withhold his arrival details. Still, some 50 resourceful and tenacious fans staked out the airport, and were suitably rewarded with a one-minute eye-lock on the fleet-footed star. But going by anecdotal evidence given by a larger section of the female population, there was most definitely a whiff of excitement in our humid air that day even from the unusually large crowd of about 100 reporters at the press conference for Turn Left Turn Right. 'I just had to come and witness the sight of the most gorgeous man on earth,' gushed one reporter who refused to be named. That emotional outpour sums up the general sentiment people have for this Asian Adonis. The New Paper on Sunday polled some 60 women across the ages, on who they regard as the perfect Asian male specimen. And the 29-year-old topped the poll heads and shoulders above his closest contender, Tony Leung Chiu Wai. In fact, if you judge him according to research results in New Mexico of what makes the perfect male, Takeshi passes with flying colours. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:53:44 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-7.html Cutting edge martial arts. At first glance, Takeshi Kaneshiro’s razorblade cheekbones and puppy-dog eyes scream model or boy band member (indeed, he is a former Hong Kong pop idol). In fact, the 31-year-old actor has developed a reputation for taking on eccentric, challenging roles (Wong Kar-Wai fans may remember him as a lovelorn cop in Chungking Express), hailed by Time magazine as “the Asian film industry’s Johnny Depp”. Kaneshiro also speaks Taiwanese (his mother’s first language), Japanese (his father’s), Cantonese, Mandarin and pretty decent English, despite modest protestations - a multilingual facility that allows him to cover all of Asian cinema’s bases. In some ways, the romantic lead in the latest stunning bout of martial artistry from Zhang “Hero” Yimou, House Of Flying Daggers, is his most conventional yet. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:41:34 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-6.html TAKESHI Kaneshiro has followed an unlikely path to becoming one of the most sought-after actors of his generation in Asia. The star of Zhang Yimou's breathtaking House of Flying Daggers confesses to never having set out to become a celebrity while at school - only really deciding to 'give it a try' when someone suggested it to him. "I just started because someone asked me to," he told me, during a recent interview at London's Dorchester Hotel. "They said, 'you want to be a singer', and then I thought 'yeah, I'll try'. I don't know what this is. I'll just open the box and jump in." Since 'jumping in', however, Takeshi has barely had time to look back. "I think the very beginning was, I did some commercials as a model, and then started as a pop singer and then started acting," he laughed, turning to his translator to check that his English made sense. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:02:23 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-5.html Oh, Takeshi Kaneshiro: he just has a certain je ne sais quois about him, doesn't he? At 31, age has been good to him, and we're glad his slightly embarassing, dreamy teenybopper phase is behind him. His eclectic acting choices have earned him respect, and in 2004, international audiences were finally able to appreciate his magnetic screen presence in House of Flying Daggers, where he proved himself a potent match for Zhang Ziyi, impressively making us forget about that other guy in the movie (ed. note: who just so happens to be ranked two spots higher). But it's the wide-eyed passion, striking features, and endearing boyish sincerity that gets us each time, even when he's playing a stupid playboy that calls himself Wind -- especially when he's playing a stupid playboy that calls himself Wind. -- Ada Tseng Read the entire article. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:41:31 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-4.html How did you make the connection between pop-star and actor? I started doing movie work coincidentally but then I found that, I think it's all about creation. Whether you're writing a song or acting in a film it's all about the process of creating something. And I think that process is very interesting. It's not just acting. I'm just as interested in directing or camera work or any other of the new technologies of how they make movies, of how they make dreams. It's very interesting. How much training was involved for House of Flying Daggers? I'm not at all qualified for action movies. For this one, I practiced just the basics of using a sword for about a month. But the only thing we could learn was the basics. We didn't know what kind of action would be involved in the role. The action director likes to arrange or think the scenes on set so every day we arrive and wait for him to choreograph the scene and then we learn and we shoot. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:18:11 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-3.html Story: In 859 AD China, the incompetence of the emperor has led to civil unrest with rebel armies forming against the government. Local army captains Leo and Jin (Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro) are assigned with the duty to capture the new leader of the rebel group, the House of Flying Daggers. Learning that they're based out of a local brothel, they use the trust of a beautiful blind dancer Mei (Ziyi Zhang) to seek out this leader, but when one of them falls in love with her, it creates a situation far deeper than the politics of battle. Analysis: Zhang Yimou's second martial arts film could be seen as a thematic sequel to Hero only in the respect that 800 years after the formation of the unified Chinese government, things are beginning to fall apart. Hero was a true tour de force for the director, having never before attempted to make an action film, but the mastery of that film makes it hard to talk about House of Flying Daggers without making comparisons between the two films. The saying that the first time is the charm may certainly be the case here, as Zhang tries to improve on his martial arts "prototype" by reintroducing the character-driven elements of his earlier films. This allows for a somewhat simpler story about love and betrayal between this young girl and the soldiers caught up in their mission to quash the rebel unit to which she belongs. This relationship triangle is set up early in a scene set in the colorful Peony Pavillion, where Jin first sees the blind Mei dance. When he gets a bit eager to get a bit more than just a dance, his partner bursts in threatening to take them both to jail, but instead he tests the blind girl's dancing skills with a complicated Echo Game where he throws beans against drums surrounding the dance floor in a pattern which she has to replicate. It's the film's most immediately distinctive and memorable moment, but a rare scene that isn't punctuated by some of the most violent and bloody fighting since Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill. Veering away from the fantasy of Hero, the fighting is more visceral and savage with actual blood shed, creating quite a contrast. At times, that realism is hard to watch like when the blind Mei is overpowered by four horsemen in the forest, but the lack of the magic of Crouching Tiger or Hero makes it less unique from Western style martial arts films. Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:07:48 -0400 http://www.takeshikaneshiro.org/a-2.html Takeshi Kaneshiro is half Taiwanese and Japanese. He was born in Taipei, Taiwan on October 11, 1973. He current lives in Tokyo, Japan. Takeshi's height is 5' 10" (179cm). His unique background led to Kaneshiro being fluent in several languages, namely Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, Taiwanese, and some English. Kaneshiro spent his childhood in Taiwan. He went to Japanese school first and then the Taipei American School. His mixed background caused problems for him, and he was bullied at school by his fellow students. He had problems fitting in, and felt like an outsider both at his Japanese school and in his Taiwanese neighborhood. For this reason he later moved to the Taipei American School. Kaneshiro started his rise to stardom by making commercials during his school years, and at the age of 15 he was given the opportunity to be a pop star by a Taipei company. In 1992, he started a successful singing career in both Mandarin and Cantonese. As is traditional with Asian pop stars, Kaneshiro was offered roles in films, his first being in Taiwanese comedies. When given the chance, he eschewed the usual pop fodder in favor of quirky character parts. Internationally-acclaimed director Wong Kar-Wai worked with Kaneshiro on Chungking Express (1994) and Fallen Angels (1995), and speaks highly of his depth and versatility. Kaneshiro's screen idol looks belie his talents; reportedly, Wong and Kaneshiro collaborated on ideas for some scenes, and Kaneshiro's role in Fallen Angels as a son missing his father is perhaps one of the best and most loved in Wong Kar-Wai's oeuvre. Another notable role of Kaneshiro's was in Lee Chi-Ngai's Lost and Found (1996), opposite Kelly Chen and Michael Wong. Kaneshiro's humorous, but deeplly felt turn as a finder of lost items was the centerpiece of this touching film. After a sucessful run of films in Hong Kong, Kaneshiro was spotted by a Japanese TV producer who gave him a role in the unusual miniseries, God Please Give Me More Time (1998), about a musician who falls in love with an HIV-positive young girl. The controversial show was a huge success in Japan and sparked his Japanese film career. His subsequent Japanese films, Sleepless Town (1998) and Space Travelers (2000), continued to boost his profile in the territory. Kaneshiro also returned to Hong Kong for the hit romantic film Tempting Heart (1999), opposite Gigi Leung, and the romantic fantasy Lavender (2000), again with Kelly Chen. Most recently, Kaneshiro starred in the 2002 Japanese box office smash The Returner, and worked opposite Gigi Leung again in the Hong Kong hit Turn Left, Turn Right (2003). Kaneshiro has also found success as an international print model for the designer label Prada, and appears extensively in advertisements all over Asia. In his spare time Takeshi enjoys staying a home & playing video games as he does not go out often. He can play the guitar & piano. Fri, 4 Aug 2006 19:30:57 -0400