the anterior articles

[kimiko]

So much to do, so little time
Sunday Times, The (Singapore)
January 23, 2000
Author: SUZANNE
Estimated printed pages: 3

JACK OF ALL TRADES

Is there anything actor-singer Takeshi Kaneshiro - also known as Aniki Jin - will not take on? He is on film, TV, ads and fashion spreads

WITH such devastatingly dashing good looks, of course Takeshi Kaneshiro is not content being just a singer or an actor.

The tireless man has his elegant fingers in every pie - from acting in drama serials to movies, from recording his own albums to providing voice-overs, from hawking soft drinks on TV to strutting the catwalk as a model.

In addition, the Taiwanese-Japanese actor - also known as Aniki Jin, an adaptation of his Chinese name Jin Chengwu - is not content with just conquering the Mandarin, Hokkien and Cantonese audiences in Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong and just about anywhere else with Chinese people.

His fluent Japanese, courtesy of his Japanese businessman-father, has also given him a first-class ticket to the Land Of The Rising Sun, where his career has risen to new heights.

In a rare and exclusive interview with the media-shy star, 26, conducted via fax, he says that being able to straddle the Japanese and Chinese markets has been a boon to his career, and adds: "Well, of course, that's a help, and I am very lucky to have those chances."

Jet-setting between Taiwan and Japan, with occasional forays into Hongkong movies, the actor is currently filming a drama serial, Love 2000, in Japan.

In an unprecedented move, the drama serial made its debut on Jan 10 in Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong and Thailand, and is being filmed on the run.

Starting last Sunday, the brooding hunk also hogged screen time on VarietyVision in yet another Japanese serial, Precious Time, where he plays a musician in love with a girl stricken with Aids.

And not too long ago last year, he made heads turn and hearts wrench on the silver screen with his tender portrayal of first love in Tempting Heart.

Wherever he goes, legions of female fans scream out his name and swoon at the Prada-shod feet of their immaculately-dressed idol.

All of which he regards with bewilderment, even after years of exposure to this.

"I've never thought that I am popular," he says modestly, adding that his Dad and Taiwanese housewife Mum keep him grounded.

After all, not only is he pleasing to the eye, he has also received raves for his roles in films such as Hongkong director Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express in 1994 and Fallen Angels the following year, and more recently, Sylvia Chang's acclaimed Tempting Heart.

"My parents didn't really say too much about my success," he reveals. "They are more likely to tell me what I should do or say, and to mind my manners."

The obedient good son, who is also a staunch Buddhist, adds: "Oh! I really wish to have more time to be with my family. I have dinner with them every time I come back to Taiwan.

"Even if it is very late, we'll just stay at home and talk."

But a quick flip through his bursting appointment book reveals that there might not be time for chit chat with them.

The squeaky-clean actor is slated to be in a Japanese movie, Space Travellers, and some advertisements.

Time is valuable for this star, who first made heads turn in an ad for a kiwi fruit drink in Taiwan at age 15.

He launched his showbiz career as a teenybopper singer in 1992 with his debut album, Heartbreaking Nights. "I've always wanted to do my music ... if only I've got more time," he says.

It has been more than three years since his last musical offering.

His time has been taken up with a variety of ventures, including providing his husky voice for the Mandarin version of the animated feature Tarzan, and modelling that lean lanky frame for fashion bigwig Prada.

* Love 2000 airs on TCS 8 on Monday at 10.30 pm, and Precious Time airs on VarietyVision (Channel 55 and 56) on Sunday at 8.15 pm.

HOT ACT: Screen snapshots that put Kaneshiro in the picture in HK

CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994) This Wong Kar Wai film gave Takeshi Kaneshiro his big break in the Hongkong scene. As an undercover cop, he is smitten with a hustler, played by screen queen Lin Ching-hsia.

FALLEN ANGELS (1995) In this unofficial sequel to Chungking Express, he plays a con artist. He falls for Charlie Young on screen and is also seen giving a dead pig a shiatsu massage.

LOST AND FOUND (1996) He is the adorable Mr Worm, rummaging through garbage bins in search of missing items and hope for leukaemia-stricken Kelly Chen.

ANNA MAGDALENA (1998) As an honest, nondescript piano tuner, he pines secretly for his neighbour, the gorgeous Kelly Chen, who tortures the piano with an ear-grating Bach composition, the Anna Magdalena suite.

TEMPTING HEART (1999) A story on first love shows him as a gangly teenager. Gigi Leung tempts him, but he faces competition from her kooky friend, played by Karen Mok.
Page: SUNPLUS20

Copyright, 2000, 2004, Singapore Press Holdings Limited

[kimiko]

"Too Tired to Die" (director: Wonsuk Chin) This gripping, if sometimes confusing, tale of a thoughtful young man with only 12 hours to live features American actress Mira Sorvino as a shapely manifestation of the Grim Reaper. She pays a visit to Kenji (Takeshi Kaneshiro of "Chungking Express") and sets him to work on using the last half-day of his too-short life to explore some unanswered questions. This quest brings him into contact with a beautiful German girl and a cynical artist played withcrusty charm by Ben Gazzara. A slick-looking production, "Too Tired to Die" is lots of fun in places, but a stronger script could have made it more profound. Director Chin will be present at the April 11 screening only.

[kimiko]

If looks could kill -
He smoulders onscreen, but Takeshi Kaneshiro, one of the sexiest men in Asia, is cold in person. Pinning down the movie heart-throb at an interview is like having a root canal as he is elusive, bland and prickly
Straits Times, The (Singapore)
September 5, 2003
Author: Teo Pau Lin
Estimated printed pages: 4

THE first sign that interviewing Takeshi Kaneshiro would not be easy looms when you enter the room and see only his back. With arms akimbo, the Taiwanese-Japanese movie star is standing by the window of a Four Seasons Hotel suite surveying the view before him.

No one in his pack of publicists introduces you to him. There seems no need to.

After all, he is to his fans a movie god, one of the sexiest men in Asia, a miraculous confluence of the best genes in one dreamboat package.

And, in Singapore last week to promote his latest movie, Turn Left Turn Right, his publicists want you to give him due respect.

For example, questions for this interview - to be written in Chinese and related only to the movie - were to be faxed over a few days before his princely arrival from Tokyo last Wednesday.

Surely, Kaneshiro, who plays a lonely violinist opposite Gigi Leung in the romantic drama, needs no introduction.

He turns away from inspecting his kingdom only when you meekly signal your arrival by clearing your throat.

His handshake is civil. His eyes, usually probing and soulful on film, look cold in person. He offers a weak smile.

He turns 30 on Oct 11. Last month, he was voted the biggest sex symbol in Taiwan, ahead of Hollywood's Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Keanu Reeves.

And, dressed simply in a well-pressed white shirt, black trousers and half of his jet-black hair pulled back into a ponytail, you can see why.

He stands at 1.80m tall, has clear skin, virile sideburns, and a magnificent nose and jaw that are sculpted straight for movie stardom.

But while the view is amazing, talking to it is like a painful leopard-crawl through a minefield.

He hates interviews. You can tell by the way he dismisses every question with a bland, non-committal reply.

You ask, as a harmless ice-breaker, whether he is tired after clocking close to 30 movies in 10 years.

'I'm still okay,' he replies in Mandarin. 'I've always been tired. Guess I'm used to it.'

So what gives him the drive?

'I like to act. It's fun,' he says, not elaborating.

Has he always wanted to act then?

'No, it's all fate. I've never thought about working in this line when I was young.'

So what did he want to do when he was young?

'I've forgotten,' he snaps, irritated.

Suddenly, you realise that you have encroached upon his famously guarded personal space.

Three publicists sit a metre away, shooting darts out of their eyes. You slink back to safer territory.

Does he agree with the movie's theme, that lovers are destined to be together?

'Of course, I want to believe that you will ultimately be with someone you love. If she's meant to be yours, she will be yours,' he answers.

Then, he casts a conspiratorial glance at his attendants and adds with a derisive chuckle: 'How can anyone not agree?'

Personal encounters with Kaneshiro had not always been this imperial.

Ten years ago, he was a freshly scrubbed 19-year-old singer from Taiwan who eagerly plugged roadshow promotions in humble Clementi and traded cheerful banter with DJs on local radio.

Born and raised in Taipei, he is one of three sons of a Japanese businessman father and a Taiwanese housewife mother.

At 17, he appeared in a soft drinks TV commercial. A record company spotted him and promptly groomed him into one of Taiwan's Little Four Heavenly Kings.

REMEMBER OH-SO-CUTE ANIKI JIN?

ALONG with Jimmy Lin, Alec Su and Nicky Wu, he was packaged into an all-singing, all-acting teenybopper with the cuter former name of Aniki Jin.

Even with a flat and emotionless singing voice, he went on to record eight albums - six in Mandarin, two in undecipherable Cantonese - to lukewarm sales.

Those were the days when he was gushingly forthcoming.

He had gamely shared with reporters how muddle-headed he was (he once lost a motorbike because he could not remember where he parked it), how pretty girls made him stammer, and how sad movies made him cry.

Shortly after filming Wong Kar Wai's Chungking Express (1994), in a breakthrough role of an undercover cop which launched his acting career, he even said how the legendary beauty of co-star Lin Ching-hsia made him 'feel so small in her presence'.

From there, he began to headline Hong Kong blockbusters like Downtown Torpedoes (1997), Anna Magdalena (1998) and Tempting Heart (1999).

His career arc soared another notch when he branched into Japan, acting in TV series and movies such as Misty (1998), Space Travellers (2000) and Returner (2002).

His face was endorsing everything from Prada menswear to SonyEricsson mobile phones.

But, as his fortunes rose across the region, he shrank into reclusivity.

No snooping paparazzi could unearth who he has been dating in recent years. No one knows where he lives in Japan.

Back home in Taipei to visit his mother, he wears a bike helmet to hide his face when he goes out for a bowl of noodles.

In an interview with Chinese Vogue in 2001, he let slip this rare bit of personal insight: 'I'm the sort who will get married, settle down and have kids.

'I'll cook delicious food for them, do household chores and help take care of my kids,' he added.

HE WANTS TO BE FORGOTTEN

NO SUCH luck in this interview. His dour, lifeless quips reveal absolutely nothing.

He says he is proud of every phase of his career because each had led to where he is today.

He looks forward to all types of movie roles. He does not have any goals, he just does whatever comes along.

Venture anywhere near his filming projects in Japan or his upcoming movie, a gongfu flick by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and you incite the wrath of his three pesky attendants.

So, when he finally reveals this sliver of personal detail - that he enjoyed watching the Hollywood movies Finding Nemo and Pirates Of The Caribbean - it is a moment of journalistic triumph.

After 12 life-sapping minutes, one attendant decrees that you have time for one last question. So you go for gold.

How would he like to be remembered at the end of his career? 'Just forget me,' he spits.

Why?

'No reason. When it ends, it ends.'

A photo shoot follows. Kaneshiro sits through it with his left foot tapping edgily. He lets out a huge, man-sized sigh in between a change in poses.

Then, the camera gets stuck. The battery has died and the photographer shuffles to his bag for a spare.

Frozen in his pose, with eyes still focused on the spot where the camera had been, Kaneshiro lets out a loud mutter: 'Gao cuo.' You've got to be kidding, he gripes in Mandarin.

His minions dare not utter a word. They just motion to you to finish up and leave.

The emperor has had enough.
Index Terms: Life!
Copyright, 2003, 2004, Singapore Press Holdings Limited