JAPAN: JAPANESE ACTRESS KEIKO MATSUZAKA AND SOUTH KOREAN TRANSSEXUAL HARISU ACCOMPANY HONG KONG FILM DIRECTOR YONFAN AS THEY LAUNCH HIS LATEST FILM "COLOUR BLOSSOMS" IN TOKYO

Record ID: 468552

  • Title: JAPAN: JAPANESE ACTRESS KEIKO MATSUZAKA AND SOUTH KOREAN TRANSSEXUAL HARISU ACCOMPANY HONG KONG FILM DIRECTOR YONFAN AS THEY LAUNCH HIS LATEST FILM "COLOUR BLOSSOMS" IN TOKYO
  • Date: 10th May 2005
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (MAY 10, 2005) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) DIRECTOR YONFAN SAYING: "If we are talking about filming an erotic and not a pornographic movie, what most directors fail to achieve is to arouse you to feel a whole series of emotions without showing too much visually."
  • Embargoed: 25th May 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA2DYXU02ARAHMF7BMADWQ6FGUX
  • Story Text: Japanese actress and Korean shemale star play
    transsexual character in film Colour Blossoms.


    Japanese actress Keiko Matsuzaka (PRONOUNCED KAY-KOH
    MA-TSOO-ZAH-KAH) and South Korean transsexual-turned-celebrity
    Harisu (PRONOUNCED HA-RI-SOO) accompanied Hong Kong movie director
    Yonfan (PRONOUNCED YON-FUN) in Tokyo as they launched his latest
    film Colour Blossoms.

    In the film, Matsuzaka and Harisu shared the role of the
    transsexual Madame Umeki in different stages of her life.

    "The character was initially of a Japanese lady but the
    script kept changing and in the end my part turned out to
    be a male part! I was very surprised but because this film
    is about love, I think it was more accurate for this
    character to be transsexual," said Matsuzaka.

    Harisu who gained popularity in South Korea as the first
    transgender star since coming out in 2001 said that she was
    initially hesitant to play the obvious role of Young Umeki.

    "I've always been labeled as a transsexual actress or
    transsexual singer which I didn't like but after meeting
    with Yonfan and reading his script, I realised actresses
    should be able to play any roles that directors offer,"
    Harisu said.

    The director, Yonfan is no stranger to the Japanese
    public.

    The bitter sweet gay love story "Bishonen...beauty"
    achieved greater success in Japan than elsewhere in the
    world and Peony Pavilion featured another Japanese actress
    Miyazawa Rie who won the Best Actress Award at the Moscow
    International Film Festival in 2001.

    However he is not without controversy.

    When Colour Blossoms was released in Hong Kong last
    October, the film was criticised by Hong Kong's tabloid
    media for what they called its pornographic elements but in
    Tokyo Yonfan strongly denied that Colour Blossoms was
    pornographic.

    "If we are talking about filming an erotic and not a
    pornographic movie, what most directors fail to achieve is
    to arouse you to feel a whole series of emotions without
    showing too much visually," Yonfan told reporters.

    Much of the film's publicity surrounded the film's
    heroine, Teresa Cheung, the ex-wife of the popular Hong
    Kong singer and actor Kenny Bee.

    Yet despite the criticisms the film, the Hong Kong Film
    Critics Society nominated Teresa Cheung - the ex-wife of
    the popular Hong Kong singer and actor Kenny Bee -- Best
    New Performer award and named Colour Blossoms one of nine
    "recommended films" of 2004.

    Colour Blossoms is set to open on May 14 in Japan.
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