RinRin is still on the process of writing up what exactly happened at midnight 10/22 in "The World of Hiroyuki Sanada" at Roppongi district in Tokyo, as a part of TIFF.  I will translate the report eventually, but there is a very important event for me and I am quite busy, so you will have to wait... sorry...

In the meantime, MSN Japan site put up an article about it with his new photo, so here it is...

MSN article

Fans say they all liked "The City of Your Final Destination".  I will follow up as soon as I can...  please be patient...

Misty

Sanada-san's appearance in "LOST" was officially announced by Disney Japan on Oct. 14, and the announcement revealed that the name of his role in the popular suspense series drama is "Dogen".  (道厳 in kanji characters, where "do" means "way" or "road", and "gen" means "strict" or "solemn")  Thank you always to RinRin and other Japanese fans on her blog!!

Article 1

Article 2  

The show's producers (one article says Carlton Cuse, another says Damon Lindelof) say "We have had a big respect for Hiro's ability, and we specifically created this Dogen role for him.  We want to surprise viewers so we cannot say much but it will be a character with dignity and vulnerability, and will be an important spice to the story."

The series will go on air in January 2010 in the U.S., and early summer in Japan.  There will be a show's promotional event in Japan in early November, and Hiro is scheduled to appear in the event.  According to the "Article 1" above, the filming is done up to the 3rd episode in Hawaii, and Sanada-san will fly to Japan from Hawaii.

WOW!!  So according to agent's info via reiko, Hiro left L.A. home to go somewhere on his birthday (10/12)... the probably he is back in Hawaii for further filming now, and will go to Japan for Tokyo International Film Festival around 10/22, and either stay or go back and forth between Tokyo and Hawaii till November event.

SO NICE to see busy Hiro!!  Hope he keeps up with his health and energy!!

Misty

It's Oct. 12, and time to celebrate Hiro's Birthday!!

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Sanada-san, happy 49th birthday!  As always, you are an inspiration and encouragement for me, and for many other fans around the world.  It is great to see you in many new projects, including "LOST" next season, and we are SO excited about it!!

We wish you all the best of happy and healthy birthday, and in your exciting new works!

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OK, and here's the administrative stuff.  Thanks to your help, we collected more than 90 messages from all over the world to put into an album, through Jamie's SHIN website.  Asha and Reiko put together beautiful album and lei that show all the messages.

And I just got info from Reiko that the album was actually delivered to HIRO on Friday.  We can be pretty sure that he was reading our cards over the weekend!!

Please see the new photo album for the gift.  (Click the "Hiro Birthday 2009" icon on the upper right hand.)

We understand that Hiro is pretty busy at this moment and please don't expect any reply from him, and I hope you all understand the tricky situation. 

I understand the frustration of Mosje, for example, about the absence of photo of him with the first lei that was delivered in Hawaii.  About that, Reiko informed me that he was actually in his costume of "LOST" when the lei was delivered, and since his role is kept SECRET, it was not possible to take a photo of him.  I hope you understand the tricky customs in entertainment industry, and let's all just keep our effort in helping him!

Thanks again, for Jamie, Asha, Reiko, and all the fans who sent the message!!

On Sep. 30, our friend asha posted a series of BEAUTIFUL photos of hand-made lei, and reported that it was delivered to Sanada-san.  Together with the lei, she put a card with Emily's "LOST" poem.

SHIN post by asha about LEI 

Please read more in detail about the lei.  It is a part of our "Hiro Birthday Project" this year, and asha, who lives in Hawaii, volunteered to build a lei to welcome Sanada-san in Hawaii's location site for LOST shooting.

After the lei was delivered, the following message was e-mailed to Reiko, who coordinated the delivery of the Lei.

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Jess just came in to tell me about giving the Lei to Hiro.

She reported he was very grateful, surprised and happy to receive the lei.

he did a small bow and told her that he wanted to make
sure his fans were aware of his sincere appreciation.

He said he was sorry about the photo, but due to the secret nature of
the show, he felt he should not have a photo taken.

Jess said he was very very gracious and extremely thankful to his fans.

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BIG BIG THANK YOU to asha, reiko, and "Bob and Jesse" (who coordinated with Reiko), and EMILY!!

Misty

Over at RinRin's blog in Japan, our fellow Japanese fans' reports have started to flow in that they got the ticket for TIFF midnight event featuring Hiro's talk and "The City Of Your Final Destination" and "Byoin e Iko".

That means that we can expect a lot of report of how it went, and how James Ivory's "COYFD" is like!  Stay tuned, folks!!

Misty

As I previously reported, there will be a special "all-night" event featuring Sanada-san at Tokyo International Film Festival in late October.  There, one of Hiro's films were supposed to be chosen by fan vote and would be screened, and the fans voted the most for "The City of Your Final Destination"!!

Another one to be screened is "Byoin e Iko" (Let's go to the hospital) by Director Yojiro Takita.  It is dubbed as "Sanada-san's selection".  Yojiro Takita just won the Oscar Foreign Language Film this year with "Departures", and he is one of the frequent collaborator for him.  I believe it was the first Takita's film that Hiro was in, so it may be a "tribute" to Takita by Hiro, for his big international success.  (Other films are:  "Byoin e Iko II", "We are not Alone", "Shinjuku zame", and "Onmyoji".)

TIFF "World of Hiroyuki Sanada" (Japanese version) *English page does not contain any detailed info about the films

TIFF info page (English)   see "Director's Angle/Actor's Angle"

TIFF event info page (English)

"The City of Your Final Destination" (2007)

"Byoin e Iko"  (1990) 

Hiro's list of works

As far as I know, "The City" has not been shown officially anywhere, so it probably will be "world premiere" of this film.

Hiro himself is scheduled to appear in this event.

I mean, WOW!!  This James Ivory film is NOT know at all among public, so the fans "in the know" certainly all voted for this one.  I wish I were there to see it!!

Misty

According to "babe jo" over at SHIN bulletin board, Hiro's name was mentioned among "most famous people around the world" recently, as a representative of Japan, at a recent Oprah Winfrey show.

Please see the following SHIN thread:

SHIN thread 

According to people who were watching the show, he was not a main guests, but between the guests, a few international stars in different countries, and HIRO was introduced with his photo and "Tom Cruise of Japan" mention.

If you have any further info, please join the discussion above!!

Misty

While you are thinking of what to write for his birthday, you can ENJOY some GREAT recent photos of Sanada-san on Intermezzo special website.  Thank you CHI over at RinRin site for letting us now about it.

Please click "Collaboration" tab to see SUPER cool photo flash of Sanada-san!  Caution that the music starts playing when you go to Collaboration.

"INTERMEZZO" is a clothing brand targeted to adult men in Japan, by a major apparel company Renown.  Sanada-san has been working with this brand for a long time, appearing for their spring and fall collection catalogs and posters.

Until this time, his image only appeared on printed catalogs and posters, so we had to obtain them in Japan and scan the to see outside of Japan, but THANKS to the change of their policy, this fall they set up the flash site that show ALL THE COLLECTION PHOTOS on the site. as well as some "behind the scenes" and producer/photographer information.  Sorry texts are all in Japanese...

ENJOY!!

Misty