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Australia

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From left: Director Baz Luhrmann, actresses Ryoko Yonekura, Nicole Kidman and actor Hugh Jackman attend the Japan premiere of "Australia" at Toho Cinemas Nichigeki in Tokyo on Thursday night. The film opens in Japan on Saturday.

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tclh at 05:47 PM JST - 27th February Strong men are wearing full clothes to keep them warm... do the ladies feel cold at all?

Nicole Kidman feel cold? That's rich.

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Luhrmann almost looks Japanese in this photo (almost as if the caption should read "Ryoko Yonekura and her father"). By the way, where is Luhrmann's other hand?

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Yonekura has nothing to do with the film. They need a local to be on hand so the other locals show some interest.

sad but true

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Yonekura has nothing to do with the film. They need a local to be on hand so the other locals show some interest.

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What does Yonekura have to do with the film?

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Yeah, Yonekura is stealing the show. Kidman ought to hire a different stylist. But that's a personal opinion. I love her as an actress, though.

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Thanks for all the Aussie info. Let me try this again: Youch!

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Although I admire Luhrmann's vision as a director and artist, I don't always enjoy what he produces. I really enjoyed Strictly Ballroom, which was also a shot-in-the-arm for an Australian film industry in malaise at that time early 1990s). However, he does go way over the top with many of his films, and Australia sounds like it follows his recent directions. I also think he's very much like the UK director Ken Russell who is known more for excesses than anything else!

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The first and main raid on Darwin was way back in February 1942. My father was on an Australian Naval Ship in the harbor. Few Japanese alive today have anything to feel guilty about except to know it happened by another generation, with a different outlook, three generations ago. It is just history now. I was at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne last year and saw an old Japanese man crying. He came to pay his respects to his father who served in the Japanese Navy in WW1 and his father's ship was one of the escort ships that escorted our troops from Melbourne to Egypt, and possibly then to Gallipoli in 1915. That was another generation of Japanese, just one generation earlier. That is life. Japan has been a wonderful business partner and a great ally for Australia since 1945. The movie "Australia" is just entertainment - and little attention is paid to the facts. It gives you a Sydney "we a are all ockers", view and sound of what Australia is like. I cringed all through it, as did my sister in San Francisco. The aboriginal actors were great and the war scenes were exciting but looked digital. Still worth 1000 yen to see.

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This movie shocked me.I had no idea Australia was such a racist place.It's racist past is now SEARED in my memory!Said racism should have no place in our world.

Anyway, I like the director's necktie very much.It's very festive.Australians have made fuchsia THE colour for this year.

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Strong men are wearing full clothes to keep them warm... do the ladies feel cold at all?

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Also Timborder, the guy who got shot down over Darwin gave a false name to his imprisoners to spare his family the indignity of having a captured serviceman in the family. And apparently he blew the bugle that signalled the breakout at Cowra to begin (if my memory of a book i can`t find is correct).

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Timorborder Mate, one of ya mates turned her down? Well, lets face it, 1983 was BMX Bandits days and big ranga hair, so i`m not surprised. how could he have known wot awaited her o/s?

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The young actress looks more like early 20s. Must be some of the make-up but the rest has to be her. My compliments to the young woman.

Nothing extraordinary about this. There are many women in 30s who look 20s.....I think Ryoko does look her age. In fact I thought she's 37.

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On a more somber note, my mate worked on this film (and others including Star Wars) up until he died of brain cancer last year.

Good on 'ya Matty!

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haha, look at her LCD forehead... and that dress... why does she wear such hideous things?? Nicole used to be such a wild ginger when she was young. Now she's just well.. boring and weird.

Ryoko looks way better!!

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Ms. Kidman, your gorgeous dress is a bit too short, IMHO. Otherwise, thanks for the info everyone. All news to me, except I knew Au was in the war (sort of knew).

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Baz Luhrmann = box office poison

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The Imperial Army (or navy in this case) penetrated as far as Tasmania with reconnaissance flights over the island from a sub launched sea plane. This information can be found on the net from reliable sources. Also the Curtain government had made a concession to divide the country in half laterally, with the Japanese having the top end. The Japanese war time government had even printed a new Australian currency and this is a fact. A good read on the era; 'The Heroes of Rimau'.

Moderator: Readers, please focus your comments on the movie and the photo.

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dude on left... your suit is too tight man.

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The young actress looks more like early 20s. Must be some of the make-up but the rest has to be her. My compliments to the young woman.

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Ha ha ..that's what the movie is all about..Thanks guys for sharing your ideas. And thanks OssanAmerica for the kind infos...:) have a good weekend!

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Don't know if any Japanese troops landed or not. There were some reports from Melville Island of Japanese activity around the time of the raids on Darwin, but I dont know if anything was ever proven. The thing I remember about the Darwin raids was that a Japanese pilot was shot down (his fighter took a round in the fuel tank). I think his name was Toyoshima. Anyway, he went on to become one of the core group of Japanese POWs who tried to breakout at Cowra in 1944 (don't know where they imagined themselves breaking out to). I believe he was killed in the breakout.

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sydenham -- "smokin" is an understatement. I don't care if Ryoko has any connection to the movie or not. She absolutely steals this scene.

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There was no plan for a full invasion. It was a carrier-based raid, and all 4 of the carriers that raided Darwin were lost a few months later at Midway.

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donkusai is correct. Troops landed on a few islands, but not on the mainland.

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Nikki Kidman has always been rather tall. I remember meeting her in about 1983 at a private party in Sydney (through a mutual friend). She had this shock of curly red hair at the time that made her look even taller. I still cannot believe that one of my mates turned her down.

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A lot of the real story about Darwin was suppressed for reasons of morale. Many details have only just been declassified. I don't see how a mythical land attack portrayed in the film would offend the Japanese anyway.

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I believe there were instances of Japanese troops on the ground, but I think they were off-shore and not at Darwin, and I don't think they were involved in the initial bombing. The Japanese troops definitely invaded Christmas Island. So yes, I believe OssanAmerica is correct, mind you, it's a movie and I'm sure there are other inaccuracies there too.

All up, Australia was bombed about 100 times during the war. After Darwin, the attack on Broome where 88 people were killed was the second largest.

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I've seen Hugh Jackman before in Australia. I am 176cm, but he is alot taller than me.. i guess he is about 186, cause my first impression of him is: OMG, I didn't know Hugh Jackman is that damn tall!!

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Nicole Kidman is 5`10" and wearing heels that look about 2" minimum to me. And Hugh Jackman is still taller which would put him around 6ft.

But I didn`t know the age difference between Nicole and Ryoko - she IS holding up well! She has always had fabulous skin.

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I go see this movie. It's just a movie. Not a documentary. In a movie, there are always the bad guys and the good guys. White Hat & Black Hat.

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" It was mentioned by an Australian poster in another thread about this movie. That althogh Port Darwin was bombed from the air by the Japanese during WWII, they never actually landed and invaded. "

I think they did some kind of reconnaissance. Either a small group of soldiers on the ground or they had a spy their. Japan had alot of submarines back in the days. They could have done a night mission. Just like Pear Harbor. They has spies on the mountains giving ship positions. I can't agree or diagree about the invasion. But if they were bombing them. They must have planned for a full invasion as well.

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She plays the female ninja who lead the land Assault on Darwin, the land >assault that Ossan would have us believe never happened. Isn't there enough revisionism on JT without comments like yours, Ossan? ;)

Very cute Nessie. As I said It was mentioned by an Australian poster in another thread about this movie. Anyway, I've looked up the Japanese attacks on Port Darwin and other Australian ports and it appears that the original poster was correct. I see no mention of anything other than air and naval attacks. If anyone has any links suggesting otherwise I's appreciate seeing them. Also, if anyone has seen this movie, is there a scene depicting Japanese troops landing in Port Darwin?

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wow - only three months since the real release date.Must be something uniquely Japanese about this film to have been given fast track treatment.

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33yrs Vs 41yrs. Nicole is holding up pretty well.

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So what's Yonekura's connection with the movie? Is she the one who attacked Australia?

She plays the female ninja who lead the land Assault on Darwin, the land assault that Ossan would have us believe never happened.

Isn't there enough revisionism on JT without comments like yours, Ossan? ;)

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Kidman gets more ghoulish-looking with every ghostly flash of the paparazzi flash bulb.

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Funny how all the people in the background are only looking at Jackman >and Kidman, while the two japanese celebrities are trying hard to >pretend people are looking at them.

I had no idea Baz Luhrmann was Japanese.

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ossanUSA: what would that be?

It was mentioned by an Australian poster in another thread about this movie. That althogh Port Darwin was bombed from the air by the Japanese during WWII, they never actually landed and invaded. But apparently, the film contains a segment of such a land invasion. That was essentially the gist of it. Unfortunately I'm no expert as I share in the typical American "What? Australia was involved in the war?" level of global ignorance.

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By the way, you're aware that Nicole Kidman is a tall woman, right? She towered over Tom Cruise. If Hugh Kackman is taller than her he's doing ok.

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To be honest, I think Kidman is quite tall, even without her high heel shoes.

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Baz Luhrmann is the director of a few movies you may have heard of- Romeo and Juliet with DiCaprio and Moulin Rouge, for example. He has been nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes, so is not a nobody.

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3 reactions: Youch! Whuh? and ???????

1-Youch! Ryoko is smokin'! 2-Whuh? Is Hugh really that short? 3-???? Who the hell is Baz Lurmann?

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Funny how all the people in the background are only looking at Jackman and Kidman, while the two japanese celebrities are trying hard to pretend people are looking at them.

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ossanUSA: what would that be?

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So what's Yonekura's connection with the movie? Is she the one who attacked Australia?

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can't imagine this will be too popular in Japan.

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So...are they going to keep what I understand is a historically erroneous part of the film in the Japanese release version?

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Ryoko Yonekura...kurakura...what a dazzling beauty !

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Even though I do not care for Yonekura, she does look good in this photo.

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