[Image credits to Yam.com]

Chage and Aska have been singing since early 80s, and are one of the all time best selling Japanese artists. Their career peaked in the early 90s, but started to fade in mid-90s.

Chage and Aska are quite popular in Chinese region, thanks to their songs that have been remade into Chinese version and sang by famous stars like Emil Chau and Rene Liu etc.

I first learned about them from one of Emil’s song, and I was one of Chage and Aska fans. In fact I bought one of their compilation albums when I was young… not sure where the tape has gone though.

[Image credits to QQ.com]

The Asian stars include Japanese hunk Takuya Kimura (pic right), Korean star Lee Byung-hun (pic left) and Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu Shawn Yue.

Josh is starring as a detective that is mentally disturbed after capturing a serial killer. He is assigned to help a Japanese to find his missing son (Takuya Kimura) and encountered various situations in Asia.

Lee Byung-hun is playing a Hong Kong gangster; Daniel Shawn’s role is not revealed, but I am guessing that he is a policeman in Hong Kong helping Harnett in his case.

Josh, Lee and Shawn are currently filming the movie in Hong Kong; Takuya Kimura will be joining them in early September.

Update – it seems that Daniel Wu has to pull out from the filming because of injury; his role is taken by Shawn Yue instead.

The movie is an ‘extension’ of the same title popular drama in 2001, which was a great hit back then. Besides starring Takuya, Takako and most of the main casts from the drama, the movie will also feature popular Korean actor Lee Byung-hun.

Below is the movie trailer…

[The official website of Hero (movie)]

Takako is very popular in 1990s; her fame peaked in 2000 after starring in drama “Beautiful Life” with Takuya Kimura. Ironically, that’s probably her last memorable role for her fans… although she is still starring in dramas and movies, her popularity is far from what she used to have.

[Image courtesy of Eastday.com]

Jackie Chan…

Chris Tucker…

Chris and Jackie…

Chinese actress Zhang Jingchu…

What is Paris Hilton doing here?

The movie is schedule to open in USA on August 10.

[Official website of the movie, image credits to Sohu.com]

Japanese magazines have earlier speculated about her pregnancy, but she and her husband, actor Takashi Sorimachi, have not confirmed about the rumours back then. The celebrity couple however decided to announce to the public on July 31 about Nanako’s pregnancy.

Congrats about the pregnancy, have a healthy baby soon.

Ayumi and Tomoya were together for around 7 years. Their relationship encountered some mini-crisis in 2005 when Ayumi was rumored getting close with someone else (Tomoya had his fair share of rumors too), but they seemed to be getting well in 2006/2007.

In fact their relationship seemed so steady recently that the Japanese press began to speculate about their marriage… they didn’t see the split coming though.

Ayumi didn’t state the real reason for their split, but mentioned that they split in peace and will remain as close friends.

Some of netizens are skeptical about the split though… as Ayumi is going to release her latest single on July 18; some people actually see this as a publicity stunt the end of the relationship.

Nanako was once the most popular Japanese actress before going into pregnancy hiatus. Her popularity dropped rapidly since then… and her drama’s ratings since her comeback were very disappointing by her standard.

Another problem is that despite her fading popularity, Nanako is one of the highest paid Japanese actresses… unless she is willing to cut her pay, she will face tough challenge to attract producers for her next drama or movie.

It’s a pity if Nanako is ‘forced’ to retire this way, she is an excellent actress.

[Image credits to avexnet.or.jp]