A live-action movie version of the Japanese anime 「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」 (“Space Battleship Yamato“) has recently hit the movie theaters in Japan.
It stars Japanese sex-symbols Takuya Kimura and Meisa Kuroki (whom I wrote about in this post).
Japanese movies usually have theme songs by Japanese artists but this movie’s theme song is titled “Love Lives” and is performed by Steven Tyler (lead vocalist of the American rock band “Aerosmith“).
Here’s the official trailer which features a bit of the song:
And here’s the entire song:
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Last year I wrote a post about “Cup Noodle” in Japan giving away miniature Gundam figures with purchase of their instant ramen.
Well, Nissin Cup Noodle has teamed up with Gundam again.
In Japan you can buy a special, limited-time-only Cup Noodle that comes with a plastic reusable “Gundam” ramen cup.
The package of the Cup Noodle with the Gundam cup
The Gundam cup and the package of ramen noodles
Tokyo Five 
I really hope they release the Yamato movie in the USA. I know it won’t have a theatrical run, but a region A blu ray release would be quite lovely. 🙂
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I guess they’d only spend the time and expenses to translate it to English and release it overseas if there was enough of a market for it.
Do you think many people in America are interested in 「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」 (“Space Battleship Yamato“)?
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Not as many as I’d like, but subtitling probably wouldn’t be that expensive.
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>subtitling probably wouldn’t be that expensive.
Subtitles are popular for foreign movies in most countries but not in America (at least when I lived there)…so using them would limit the potential audience even further.
Inexpensive or not…the studio needs to feel assured that they’d make a profit in an overseas market otherwise they keep the movie domestic.
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They aren’t as popular as I’d like them to be. But given the Yamato fanbase here, and the fact that every single crappy anime ever made seems to get a DVD release, I’m at least slightly confident we’ll see something here. I certainly hope so anyhow. 🙂
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Do you have many Japanese movies subtitled in English in your DVD collection?
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I do have some, actually. Notably Battle Royale and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, or, to give it its Japanese title, Fainaru Fantajī Sebun Adobento Chirudoren, which amuses me to no end. 🙂 I keep meaning to pick up some of Ozo’s and Kurosawa’s movies, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
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I like “Beat” Takeshi…but “Battle Royale” is too violent, I think.
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It’s a touch on the intense side, yeah. Not one that I’ve watched more than once, though the novel was interesting.
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It caused a mild controversy when it was released in Japan.
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Are you going to go see it? I think I’ll rent it when it is released on DVD.
I’d pay to see a live-action Gundam though.
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We may watch it in a theater…but probably just wait to rent it at TSUTAYA too.
When we do see movies at a theater, we go on “Ladies Day” so that my wife and daughters can get a ticket for only ¥1,000 each…and I get my ticket from a “discount ticket shop”.
Do you know about those discounts?
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By the way, did you know that 「大和」 (Yamato, meaning “Great Peace”) is the original name of the country of Japan? (In other cases 「大和」 is pronounced “Daiwa”.)
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The Japanese are so clever — like American McDonald’s Happy Meals!!!
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McDonalds in Japan have “Happy Meals” (or “Happy Set”, as they’re called here)…and the toys that come with them are better than the ones in American McDonald’s, I’ve heard.
Also I heard that fast-food places in California had to stop giving toys with kids’ meals.
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