Japanese Actors in Hollywood

Japanese actors in Hollywood will gather to talk about their unheard experience in Los Angeles.

When I was covering Japan Film Festival Los Angeles 2010, I met many Japanese actors on-site. And I was able to meet some of them as well.

Although I've lived in LA for about 7 years, I've never really worked with Japanese actors. And I also had a question how they are doing in LA.If I am wondering about how they are doing in LA, I'm sure many people would wonder how they are doing.... so I decided to call a couple people, and decided to do a Ustream program about their lives.

No-holds-barred!

Let's have them talk about their honest experienece!

This program will be divided into two (2) 1-hour sessions.

The 1st part was done in English. The 2nd part was done in Japanese.

Recorded Video

Other Recorded Video

Japanese Part

• ダダ漏れ座談会・ハリウッドにいる日本人俳優たち・まえがき
• ダダ漏れ座談会・ハリウッドにいる日本人俳優たち・本番
• ダダ漏れ座談会・ハリウッドにいる日本人俳優たち・あとがき

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Guests

Yoshi Ando
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2090377/

Born and raised in Yokohama Japan, Yoshi has always loved and influenced by films and intrigued especially by epic, thriller and drama...a story which enriches, empowers and nourishes us as a human being. Moved to Los Angeles weeks after 9/11, Yoshi soon joined actor's unions. Inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis and Mifune Toshiro, he had been honing his craft making his strong impressions to his numerous lead roles in independent films and an Oscar-nominated film, Letters from Iwo Jima by Clint Eastwood. His voice can be heard on The Pacific (HBO), Babel, Fast and furious Tokyo, etc.

Yoshi is the start-up member of a Japanese language theatre group, Arigato Kai, the very first of its kind in US.

His agencies include: RPM (film, TV), CESD (CM), TAG (Print), ABRAMS ARTISTS(VO, Hosting)

Yutaka Takeuchi
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1798276/

Born and raised in Gifu, Japan, Yutaka Takeuchi started by an inspiring speech Will Smith had given on the Art of Acting. Then, he worked non-stop and saving up money to take upon himself the challenge of pursuing an acting career in LA. He landed his first role in a major film, "The Last Samurai', shortly after arriving on American shores in Mar of 2000.

He was, then, guest starred "Grey's Anatomy", featured in "Letters from Iwo Jima". He also appeared in a number of music video including "Rain Falls Down of Rolling Stones, "Flash Dance" of Deep Fish, as well as TV commercial including IBM, Six Flags, and KFC.

Kayako Takatsuna
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2648260/

Kaya started her acting career during her university as well as dancing. Her performance includes "Carmen" (Toho Musicial), "Chikyu Georgous Carte" (Nissei Theatre).

In 2004, she moved to the US and enrolled Stella Adle Acting School. Since school, she was involved many films including "White On Rice" (directed by Dave Boyle) which was premiered in last March in Japan.

Also Kaya is contemporary Calligraphy artist. Her exhition will be held in June Downtown LA.

Yuu Asakura
Website: http://www.yuuasakura.com/
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1938675/

Born and raised in Japan, she moved to Hollywood in 2001 to pursue her career in entertainment world.  Trained in theater and dance, she started with numerous small projects: stages to films, comedy to drama, Japanese to English - and now moving onto bigger projects.

Her credits include films (Bedtime Story, Love Talk, Balls of Fury), TV (Passions, Weeds promo, Identity), CM (Honda, San Pellegrino), theater (Hereandnow Theater Company, Lizard Theater), and she is one of the main models for Koi brand.

Currently she is a member of Polynesian Paradise Dancers.  Having B.A. in linguistics and literature, she also works as a translator in production companies and appears as an on-line Japanese teacher in Expertvillage.com.

Hiroshi Nakajima
Filmmaker guest.

Hiroshi Nakajima was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. During his childhood, numerous weekend trips to the theater with his father to watch Hollywood movies inspired Hiroshi to eventually write his own story at the mere age of 11.

He later graduated in 2003 from San Francisco State University with a degree in Cinema. Hiroshi soon joined a local San Francisco film production company as a screenwriter. He continued to pen feature length screenplays, which received critical acclaim at various screenplay festivals and competitions.

In 2006, Hiroshi moved to Los Angeles to direct a short film, “Lily (Short Film)”. The film won and nominated for best short film awards at numerous film festivals around the world. In 2008, Hiroshi shot his first theatrical feature directorial debut, “Lily”, which is based on the awards-winning short film that he has directed in 2007. The feature film “Lily” will be released in summer 2010. ( http://Lily-Movie.com/ )