After her passionate portrayal of a high school student with Gender Identity Disorder in the 6th series of the long-running classroom drama Kinpachi sensei, "3-nen B-Gumi Kinpachi Sensei 6" (2001), endeared her to the Japanese nation, she was able to pursue a solo music career with her first single, "Pureness", released in August 2002. It was this performance that also convinced cult movie director Ryohei Kitamura to cast her in the title role of Azumi (2003).
With the film's release date coinciding with the sale of her debut album "AYAUETO" in the spring of 2003, Aya was set for super-stardom. Her famous smile has since earned her increasing numbers of commercial contracts and magazine covers - all-important exposure for any idol - combined with starring roles in a number of popular television dramas have meant she is rarely out of the limelight and has cemented her position as one of Japan's top entertainers.
She has been married to Hiroyuki Igarashi (HIRO of EXILE) since September 14, 2012. Their first daughter was born on August 19, 2015. On July 27, 2019, the birth of their second child, a boy, was announced. On Jun 23, 2023, the birth of their third child, a boy, was announced.", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/4rQw6_5c.jpg" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Negishi Toshie", "alternateName": "根岸季衣", "birthDate": "February 3, 1954", "nationality": "Japanese", "description": "Toshie Negishi is a Japanese film and television actress.", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/eA46n_5c.jpg" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Oguri Shun", "alternateName": "小栗旬", "birthDate": "December 26, 1982", "nationality": "Japanese", "description": "Shun Oguri is a Japanese actor, voice actor and film director, son of stage director Tetsuya Oguri, and the youngest of 3 siblings, including older brother Ryo, who is also an actor.
He started in small roles as extra in the works in which his father and brother worked. He began his official acting career at the age of 13 in the 1995 TV drama, "Hachidai Shogun Yoshimune". With over 100 credits to his name, Oguri has an extensive Japanese filmography. He directed his first film in 2010, Surely Someday, a drama in which he had a cameo role. Oguri made his Hollywood debut in "Godzilla vs. Kong", released in 2021.
As a voice actor, in 2005, he lent his voice in "Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa" as Alfons Heiderich, as well as other characters in other series.
Shun Oguri married actress and model Yu Yamada on March 14, 2012. They met during the filming of an NHK Taiga drama in 2012. They have 4 children, a daughter born in 2014, second child in 2016 , a third child in June 2020 and a fourth child in spring 2022.
(Source: Wikipedia)", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/jYAAB_5c.jpg" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ishigaki Yuma", "alternateName": "石垣佑磨, いしがき ゆうま, 이시가키 유마, Yuma Ishigaki, Yuuma Ishigaki, Ishigaki Yuuma, Юма Исигаки, ยุมะ อิชิกะคิ", "birthDate": "August 28, 1982", "nationality": "Gifu Prefecture, Japan", "description": "Ishigaki Yuma is a Japanese actor, born on August 28, 1982, in Tokyo. His younger brother is singer Ishigaki Daisuke. Yuma is represented by the talent agency Horipro. He was the Grand Prix Winner for the 21st Movie Star Audition in 2000. He and former TV Nagasaki announcer Mori Manami submitted their marriage registration papers on Ishigaki's 40th birthday, August 28, 2022. (Source: DramaWiki)", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/ishigaki-yuma.png" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Harada Yoshio", "alternateName": "原田芳雄", "birthDate": "February 29, 1940", "nationality": "Japanese", "description": "Yoshio Harada (原田 芳雄 Harada Yoshio, 29 February 1940 - 19 July 2011) was a Japanese actor best known for playing rebels in a career that spanned six decades.
Born in Tokyo, Harada joined the Haiyūza theater troupe in 1966 and made his television debut in 1967 with "Tenka no seinen" and his film debut in 1968 with Fukushū no uta ga kikoeru. He came to fame appearing in New Action films at Nikkatsu playing youthful rebels. Leaving the Haiyūza in 1971, he appeared in films made by many directors, including Seijun Suzuki, Shūji Terayama, Azuma Morisaki, Kihachi Okamoto, Rokurō Mochizuki, Jun Ichikawa, Hirokazu Koreeda and Koji Wakamatsu, but he was particularly favored by Kazuo Kuroki and Junji Sakamoto. He starred in many independent films, including those of the Art Theatre Guild. According to the critic Mark Schilling, Harada was "a favorite of generations of Japanese helmers for his rugged features, low, rumbling voice and distinctive presence, with shades of darkness and wildness that made him a natural for antihero roles in his youth." Harada also appeared in many television dramas.
He died of pneumonia on 19 July 2011 while battling cancer. His last starring film was Ōshika-mura sōdōki, and it was at a press conference for that film on July 11 that he made his last public appearance.
A veteran of over 80 films, Harada won the best actor award at the 1990 Blue Ribbon Awards for Ronin-gai and Ware ni utsu yōi ari. He had earlier won the Blue Ribbon best supporting actor prize in 1975 for Matsuri no junbi. He also won the best actor prize at the Mainichi Film Awards in 1997 for Onibi, and the Hochi Film Award for best supporting actor in 1989 for Dotsuitarunen. He was twice nominated for the Best Actor Japanese Academy Award and won the award for best supporting actor at the 11th Yokohama Film Festival for Dotsuitarunen and Kiss yori kantan.
He received a Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government in 2003.
He died of pneumonia on July 19, 2011 from battling cancer.
[Wikipedia]", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/aVBQQc.jpg" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Koyama Shigeru", "alternateName": "神山繁", "birthDate": "January 16, 1929", "nationality": "Japanese", "description": "Koyama Shigeru was a Japanese actor born in [Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture. He graduated from the Naval Accounting School. His ex-wife is actress Fumino Tomoko. In his later years, he lived in Kyoto Prefecture.", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/WL0RD_5c.jpg" } ], "director": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kaneko Shusuke", "alternateName": "金子修介", "birthDate": "June 8, 1955", "nationality": "Japanese", "description": "Shusuke Kaneko was born in Tokyo, 8 June 1955. Drawn to film as a young boy, he filled his early years with science fiction and kaiju movies, giant monsters such as Godzilla and Gamera. Much of TV in Japan in the early and mid-60s was made up of imported shows from America, and Kaneko's imagination was captured by their seemingly endless supply of fantastic themes and far-reaching stories. Among Kaneko's favorites at this time were Star Trek, Lost in Space and The Outer Limits.
When not propped in front of the family TV or seated in local cinema houses, Kaneko drew pictures of his favorite monsters, going so far as to collect many of them in his own personal book detailing the history and abilities of the kaiju of the era. Kaneko also created his own manga series for his friends and himself.
During his late teens, a screening of the US film The Strawberry Statement perked his interest with its modern sensibility and attempt to express the turmoil the students of that day were experiencing. Armed with an 8-mm camera, Kaneko and some of his friends created their own version of the film. Discovering he enjoyed the filmmaking process, Kaneko felt he had found his calling. However, the Japanese cinema industry was in the midst of a severe crash and though wanting a career in film, Kaneko didn't believe it feasible. Instead, he majored in education at Tokyo Gakugei University with the goal of becoming an elementary school teacher.
Yet his desire to be a director never left. Upon graduating he applied for and took the entrance exam at Nikatsu Studios. To his surprise, out of the three-hundred applicants, only he and one other man passed. Kaneko was immediately hired as an assistant director.
At this time, Nikkatsu, one of Japan's oldest studios, had fallen upon difficult times. The once great studio, producers of some of the finest films in Japan, had seen ticket sales dwindle rapidly. Japanese sensibility had begun to experience a shift towards the more realistic and personal driven stories found in American cinema and the film industry in Japan was slow to keep up with this change. To stay afloat, Nikkatsu and several other studios took to producing exploitation roman-porno films (short for romance pornography). These movies were quickly made love tales spiced up with partial nudity and sexually provocative situations. Kaneko labored through thirty-five of these productions as an A.D. while at Nikkatsu. In addition, Kaneko also moonlighted as a writer of anime scripts, and penned several episodes of the then hugely popular Urusei Yatsura and Creamy Mami.
Kaneko directed his first film in 1984. The movie, Uno Koichiro no Nurete Utsu, was based on the works of erotic novelist Koichiro Uno. That year Kaneko also directed OL Yuri Zoku 19-Sai and Eve-chan no Hime, the latter netting him the "New Director Award" at the Yokohama Film Festival.
In 1985, Kaneko directed the film Minna Agechau (I'm All Yours). Though a sexual comedy about a young girl's quest to find true love and "lose it", it was the first mainstream attempt by Nikkatsu in five years. The story was derived from a popular manga of the time. While still considered a newcomer within the industry, Kaneko had become widely recognized for a visual style that reflected Japanese manga sensibility.
Kaneko left Nikkatsu and went freelance in 1985. His first film after leaving was the TV movie, The Samurai. This was a screwball comedy produced by Tsuburaya Productions, the creators of Ultraman, that featured several special effect sequences.
Two of Kaneko's most endearing films were shot in 1988: Summer Vacation: 1999 and Last Cabaret. Both films helped to cement Kaneko's reputation as a force in Japanese cinema. The two films also earned him the notoriety as a director with the ability to photograph women in rich and alluring ways. Kaneko's ability to bring out their personal beauty and character made him much in demand and to this day remains a staple of his work. Summer Vacation: 1999 was shown in New York City and became his first film released on video outside Japan. Last Cabaret was one of the final roman porno films made by Nikkatsu. The movie is considered an example of the best of the genre.
In 1993, Kaneko was invited to America to direct the sequence The Cold for the Brian Yuzna production Necronomicon. It was an experience that profoundly influenced Kaneko, as he has always revered the US style of filmmaking.
Kaneko continued directing for a variety of studios and quickly built an impressive resume.
When in 1993, Daiei Studios opted to revive their once popular Gamera series, Kaneko's name appeared on their short list of potential directors. Lobbying hard for the job, Daiei eventually awarded the directorial position to Kaneko. For this lifelong fan of kaiju, the task of creating his own film for the genre was the realization of a boyhood dream. Kaneko assembled a core creative staff consisting of then newcomer Shinji Higuchi, one of the cofounders of Studio Gainax, as effect director, and Kazunori Ito, writer of Ghost in the Shell, as scriptwriter.
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, released in 1995, was hailed for its sharp direction, realistic sensibility and groundbreaking effects. Kaiju films had originally begun in Japan with the original Godzilla in 1954 and remained more or less popular through the years. By 1995, however, they had been displaying a lack of originality and had fallen on tired clichés. Gamera was different, and the film successfully laid to rest any claims that the kaiju genre had gone dry. Kaneko followed the film with two successful sequels, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion in 1996 and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris in 1999. (wikipeda)", "image": "https://i.hndrama.com/image/people/XQjPJ_5c.jpg" } ]
}