picture of the day

Flesh eaters

36 Comments

Actress Milla Jovovich, second right, and her husband and film director Paul W S Anderson, second left, joke with Japanese comedian Miyuki Torii, left, and Yoshio Kojima, right, at the Japan premiere of "Resident Evil: Retribution" in Tokyo on Monday night. The 3D film, the 5th in the series, opens in Japan on Sept 14.

© Japan Today

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

36 Comments
Login to comment

Paul is holding an American small size drink.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

go kojima!!! wait a minute its not his show aaaa sonna ni

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Did she throw that popcorn on Kojima or did he put his head in the bucket?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

as most Western actors who leave and say on the plane... "Did you get any of that?"

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Can everyone say "AWKWARD".

4 ( +5 / -1 )

They should have been joined on stage by a dead horse.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

hopefully the last movie in the series.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Anyone notice the director wearing nail polish?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Anybody notice Anderson's fingernails? The nails on his right hand are blue, and on his left orange and yellow.

I'm looking forward to this movie but I hope it's better than the last. And I really don't want to see zombies wearing only underwear (at least not men!)

2 ( +2 / -0 )

You ain't biting flesh on me! As I pay taxes!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hey, that ain't butter on my popcorn!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

These events are always so boring & lame, these hollywood twits must feel an immense sense of relief when their plane lifts off

1 ( +2 / -1 )

We can expect to see Milla and husband on SmaSma next (cue 3 mins of costumed stupidity from Shingo) and a couple of breakfast shows before they jump back on their plane and reflect on a week in the bizarre, fluorescent, noisy twilight zone that is Japanese entertainment. I used to scream 'Japan's not really like this!!' at the television, and feel deeply embarrassed for the country, but I learned to cope simply by sticking to NHK.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

OPAPIcorn...

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Why do these so called J-talents go on stage and makes themselves look ridiculous. It is sooo embarrassing.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Let us take a look at these so-called "comedians" for a moment. Miyuki Torii's sole bit is to open her eyes wide and pretend to look deranged. It was interesting for first couple times I saw it 5 years ago or so, but the fact that she still makes a career out of it...well I guess it's the public that's deranged. And then of course there's Yoshio "Hey-I'm-in-my-underpants,-isn't-that-hilarious" Kojima. A real Richard Prior, there. Again, sort of amusing the first time I saw it 5 years ago. But wow, dude. Time to get another gimmick. Or at least a new catch-phrase? Do people still genuinely laugh at this guy pumping his arm in his undies? Heck even Carrot-Top mixed things up a bit with the inclusion of steroids and plastic surgery into his act.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Combinibento, I think the Japanese are bored of them too. That's why you don't see them so often now. Jp news reported that Kojima only appeared because Sugi-chan who was supposed to attend was injured and couldn't make it. This happened at another event too. I guess Kojima is now a stand-in comedian rather than a stand-up...

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Went to DomaDoma last night and noticed they are getting in on the Resident Evil theme. The have 'flesh' vegetables on the menu. :P

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I feel for these people who have to put up with Japanese "talento" when here.

Wonder if she met up with Nakata seeing as how they used to date years ago.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

tmarie - I agree. It must be agonising having to stand there pretending there is any humour whatsoever in this infantile capering. It's astonishing that the japanese don't demand entertainment slightly more elevated than shouting, slapping someone and falling over while other paid "talents" (good work, Misnomer-man!) roll about laughing at the comic genius on display.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Ivan Coughanoffalot:

It's astonishing that the japanese don't demand entertainment slightly more elevated

Somewhat reflected in the overall "terebi banare" phenomenon I presume. Also a generation issue - older generation rely more on TVs and may infact like more of the traditional slapstick, while the 20s watch 25% less TV as compared to a decade ago. In the midst of it all groundwave TV broadcasting is losing track and focus on which core audience group to target.

Having said that, believe nonetheless that Japan TV is generally "calming down" a bit as perhaps compared to a decade or so ago when your observations may have made more accurate sense, amid the social changes the country is currently undergoing.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Time to get another gimmick. Or at least a new catch-phrase? Do people still genuinely laugh at this guy pumping his arm in his undies?

Of course they do! This is Japan - Land of the One-Trick Pony.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Having said that, believe nonetheless that Japan TV is generally "calming down" a bit

I agree. You don't see many plastic hammer head smackings or plastic nose clips being jerked out of peoples' noses much anymore.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I remember when Lost in Translation came out and it took nearly two years (despite the Academy Awards it won) to come out because the Japanese Film Board felt it misrepresented Japan, but for a person visiting for a short time -- especially a celebrity who is treated to all sorts of bizarre stuff like those above -- it's pretty bang on. Hope they have fun, at least.

I agree with posters commenting on the 'tarento', but it's absolutely nothing new, and probably will never change. I'm just surprised the 'tarento' above have lasted as long as they have. Usually their silly gimmicks only last a few months and then the people are forgotten.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Debucho:

I agree. You don't see many plastic hammer head smackings or plastic nose clips being jerked out of peoples' noses much anymore.

Maybe the posters here watch more TV than I (or others) to perhaps know better, but in my view the mindless slapstick variety is clearly fading. Many are also aware that the tarentos most frequently used for hollywood films and other promotion tend to be B grade tarentos and/or tarentos just undergoing a certain gossip or scandal who are called upon to say or do something extraordinary or gossip newsworthy for info TV programs and yahoo news and other internet media to cover for their headlines. The fact of the matter is that nowadays these hollywood movies would not be covered as much if otherwise (hollywood is clearly losing attention).

As such, I would not be overly hung up on this. Most see through the intentions behind the craziness of all this. Wonder if the posters here are familiar with the traditional "chindon-ya"s?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

You don't see many plastic hammer head smackings...

What? What?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Maybe the posters here watch more TV than I (or others) to perhaps know better, but in my view the mindless slapstick variety is clearly fading

Totally agree. The one-hit wonders like Kojima Yoshio who rely only on slapstick, fade fast. Only comedians who actually say funny things with good timing like Taka & Toshi and Sanma-san survive.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

People who think this is fading are clearly not stuck with a Japanese spouse who watched this crap - until I complain so loudly the channel is changed. There is still numerous amounts of hammers, bullying, physically dangerous stunts, lame one trick ponies... The whole industry here is infantile at best. A new one trick pony every year who still haunts a few years later - like this guy. If I have to listen to the "wild" guy with his denim vest anymore I will scream. He's better than that annoying counting guy or the "gu" (runninGU" chick a few years back. There is slapstick and then there is this crap.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Meh. To each his own. Regional humor can be hilarious to those in the region but a head-scratcher to those outside the region. To this day, my mom simply does not understand why Monty Python is funny while my dad and I completely "get it".

Without trying to psychoanalyze anything (mainly because I have no qualifications to do so), I would guess over-the-top emoting is funny to those who are used to having their emotions kept under wraps.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I'm with tmarie above. Slapstick, done well, is timeless. Laurel and Hardy are fifty years dead and there is still nothing funnier. Shouting and hitting with a squeaky mallet, on the other hand,no matter how much you're paying the rest of the freaks to clap and fall about laughing, is lazy and facile.

And contrary to alliswellinjapan's post, this crap is on all night, every night of the week.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Not to mention my personal pet peeve on tv- the "reaction box". You know what I mean, the little box in the corner of the TV screen that shows the reaction of one of the celebrities to what is happening on the main screen. Why should I care what some brainless automaton thinks of the topic? Am I to take my cue from them, to feel the same?

God bless skyPerfect....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What people think is funny is like what people think is beautiful. It's all in the eye of the beholder (or in each person's sense of humor). I remember back home there were people who really never got Eddie Murphy's jokes at all, and then there were people who loved him. The same could be said of every comedian in history. I mean, look at Andrew Dice Clay .. I never thought he was funny at all, but he kept popping up on and on ... To me, Cheech and Chong were funny, but others hated them.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As if in illustrayion of my point above, not ten minutes ago on Channel 4, the Disco version of the Star Wars theme was used to introduce the side-splitting spectacle of a fat man breakdancing. The disco version of the Star Wars theme. I'm a middle-aged man, and I have to struggle to remember finding that exciting. Yet the panel of clapping goons lapped it up like nectar.

And as I've been typing this, another fat man dressed as a sumo wrestler was also dancing, this time to the Jackson 5 - is anyone else noticing a pattern here with regard to when the creative geniuses at the programming department stopped trying? - but he fell on his arse.

Please don't expect me to believe " the mindless slapstick variety is clearly fading". It isn't. It is all night, every night.

On the plus side, I get a lot of reading done here.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Agree sense of humor cannot be all equal everywhere. Also hope others agree that this particular article has only to do with promotion by way of attracting people's attention through something irrelevant from the subject matter. All in all I maintain my view that people should not take television overly seriously, whether it be Japan or anywhere else.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Looks like a typical JR commuter !!!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ivan Coughanoffalot: I do understand where you are coming from. I am merely saying the demand for slapstick is fading, not saying it has gone completely. Take that particular program you were watching for example. Although I did not see it personally, I can safely assume the fat guys dancing were not the highlight of the show. Knowing what that program is usually about, I am sure the highlight was rather in showing people from within Japan and elsewhere, usually teenagers, who can actually dance. However, as with the hollywood movie promotion nowadays, focusing only on that (ie showing real talent) may not be enough to maintain viewers attention throughout the show. Hence the program directors and producers would prefer to mix in some slapstick or some of the usual "hinadan (tiered platform)" comedians et al to play the role of the "reactions box" celebrities (similar to the clowns in a circus) seeking merely to maintain attention of as wide of an audience group as possible. My point is not in making an assessment of whether this now very common practice is good or not, but rather in trying to make a point that the significance of slapstick is fading as a whole due to a variety of reasons mainly concerning the social changes Japan is going through. I am assuming one of the reasons we debate here is to seek to capture these gradual changes, rather than sticking to the conventional thinking that Japan tends to never change (which may be often true)

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites