Takeshi Kaneshiro

[Little Chilli]

Japanese/English: Takeshi Kaneshiro
Mandarin: Jin Cheng Wu
Cantonese: Gum Sing Mo
Korean: Kum Sung Mu
Nickname: Aniki (Means 'Big Brother'),Aniki Jin or TK
Height: 180cm
Weight: 72 kg (Can change)
Blood type: O
Religion: Buddhist
Chinese Zodiac: Ox
Horoscope: Libra
Date Of Birth: October 11, 1973
Birthplace: Taipei, Taiwan
Lives: Japan but goes back to Taiwan to see family
Nationality: Taiwanese / Japanese
Company: Fu-Long Productions
Family: Japanese father, Taiwanese mother & 2 older brothers
Languages: Japanese, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Cantonese & English
Concert: 1993.7.12
Takeshi's Father: He was the first man to import the cultural of eels into Taiwan. I was told that he is now an author & has a number of books published.
Education: Attended a Japanese school at the age of 6. He then enrolled in a Taipei American School after being constantly harassed at a regular Taiwanese high school about his mixed blood.
Fav. Flower: Purple Roses
Fav. Food: Dumplings
Fav. Colors: Black, white, blue & red
Fav. Game: Ultima Online
Hobbies: He likes playing his guitar, travelling, basketball, volleyball, bowling, golf, swimming, sketching & playing video games
Fav. Music: He likes various kinds of music & listens to many of the J-pop singers
Fav. Fruit: Those little yellow watermelons & also cherries (*Yum*)
Fav. Actors: Andy Lau, Chow Yun Fat & Al Pacino
Fav. Movies: Ghost, Jurassic Park & his favorite movie so far is L.A Confidential (*That was at the time I found this info so it may have changed since then*)
Accessories he wears: His watch & a necklace with a buddha Pendant
Fav. Brand of Clothing: PRADA. It fits for his style & looks really good on him
First Album: His debut came in 1992 with Polygram Records. Later contracted to EMI Records, he composed & wrote many of his songs & singing in both Mandarin & Cantonese he became a hit among the young chinese people.
What he prefers to wear: He likes comfortable T-shirts, Jeans & Hats
Health and Body: His always so busy which prevents him from having a scheduled routine of exercise. When he does have the time, he does fitness
Does he smoke: Yes. He started in High school (*Naughty boy*) but stopped when he started his career. He then started again after "Fallen Angels"
Favourite Vehicle: Motorbikes. He wanted a motorbike so bad when he was younger, that he tried out for a TV commercial to get enough money to buy one
What he likes and disikes about himself: He likes his eyebrows the most, but he doesn't like his teeth very much. (*Explains why he is always trying to hide his smile....He has a lovely smile and shouldn't hide it ever*)
Type of woman he likes: He looks at her eyes & hairstyle but also wants a mature woman
What is his most favorite country: Of course Taiwan, because that's where his family is living & where he was born. He also likes all the countries his visited, for instance Japan, Korea, U.S.A etc. He was raised in Taiwan & visited Japan for the first time at the age of 18.
His personality: I once read, when he gets really mad, he throws or breaks things around him, but usually his quiet and nice. When his with people, he thinks his pretty outgoing, because he makes them laugh with funny jokes.
His career dreams when growing up: When he was a child, he liked dumplings so much, that he wanted to be a dumpling restaurant owner. In his teens he wanted to be a singer (*Which he accomplished*). Right now, he wants to be a filmmaker, so his studying it now

[Little Chilli]

[Little Chilli]

[Little Chilli]

[Little Chilli]

[topnotch97]

ah!!! THE RETURNER!!!!

[Little Chilli]

nung nag-guest sha sa bistro smap...
si taku kaya napili nya? hmm...

[Little Chilli]

Mitsubishi Galant (2002) (TV / Print)

Japan Asia Airline with Ken Shimura (2001, 2002 & 2003) (Japan, TV / Print)

Volvic Bottled Water (2001 & 2003) (Japan, TV / Print)

Lycos Internet Site (Japan, TV / Print)
?ECafe Version (2001)
?ERoof Version (2001)

Shisedo Hair Spray (2000) (Japan, TV / Print)

Ericsson Mobile Phone (Taiwan, TV / Print)
?ET65 (2002)
?ET68 (2001)
?ET29sc (2001)
?ER380 (2001)
?ER310sc (2000)
?ER250 (2000)
?ET28 (1999)
?ET18 (1999)

NTT (Japan, TV / Print)

Bolty (1999 & 2000) (Japan, TV / Print)

Morinaga Chocolate (1999) (Japan, TV / Print)

Geos Internetional Language School (Japan, TV / Print)

UCC Coffee (Japan, TV / Print)

ONE2FREE (1998) (HK, TV / Print)

Prada Spring/Summer (1998) (International / Print)

Kadokawa Shoten Publishing (Japan, TV / Print)

Japan Asia Airline (Japan, TV / Print)

Life Card (Japan, TV / Print)

Nissan Motor (Japan, TV / Print)

Pocari Sweat (Japan / Taiwan, TV / Print)

Citiphone (Taiwan, TV / Print)

Da-Fai-Woo-Hamburger (HK, TV / Print)

Mentholatum Lip Ice (HK / Taiwan / China / Thailand, TV / Print)

Max Well Coffee (Korea, TV / Print)

Kings Contact Lens Solution (Taiwan, TV / Print)

U2 Fashion Series (Taiwan / HK / Korea / Singapore / Malaysia)

Charity CF - For Disable Children (Taiwan, TV / Print)

Da-Chuo Motor Cycle ( China, TV / Print)

NET Fashion Series (Taiwan, Print)

Charity Commercial - For Facial Distortion Children (Taiwan, TV)

Shei-Lu Youger Drink (1993)(Taiwan, TV / Print)

Hey Sun--Root Beer (Taiwan, TV)

Hi -To Facial Wash (Taiwan, TV)

So-Fe Hair Spray (Taiwan, TV)

Kiwi Champagne Soda (Taiwan, TV)

[Little Chilli]

Takeshi Kaneshiro became a superstar playing oddball characters. Is this typecasting?

When Johnny To signed on to direct the wistfully romantic Turn Left Turn Right, the Hong Kong filmmaker knew exactly whom he wanted to play the male lead. In the illustrated novel by Jimmy Liao, from which the new movie is adapted, the protagonist is so estranged from society that he's depicted floating above the city, like a melancholy blimp. When you want someone who practically oozes that kind of ethereal alienation, whom are you going to call?

Answer: Takeshi Kaneshiro, the half-Taiwanese, half-Japanese movie star who, thanks to his protean good looks and versatile acting skills, has become the Asian film industry's Johnny Depp—a quirky, unpredictable leading man capable of seducing audiences no matter how dark or oddball the role. Kaneshiro is "mysterious," says To. "He doesn't belong to Hong Kong, Taiwan or anywhere." Indeed, in his eclectic 10-year career, Kaneshiro—who speaks five languages and has made films in four countries—has trained his chameleon-like talents on a remarkable array of characters. In Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, he played a mute who rode the carcass of a pig like a cowboy. He made love to an HIV-infected teen in the blockbuster Japanese TV miniseries God Please Give Me More Time. In Returner, he played an orphaned assassin-for-hire, and he was a bowling-addicted stockbroker in another Japanese TV series, Golden Bowl. "I don't let myself follow in anyone else's footsteps," says Kaneshiro, 29. "Let other people do what has been done before. All I want is to do something special."

In life and on film, Kaneshiro has proven impossible to typecast. The son of a Japanese businessman and a Taiwanese homemaker, he grew up in Taipei straddling two cultures. "When I went to Japanese school, everybody told me I was Taiwanese," says Kaneshiro. "But when I hung out in the neighborhood, people told me I was Japanese." School-yard taunts about his parentage were a part of his education, but Kaneshiro soon learned that being an outsider offers certain advantages. Pulled over for speeding in Taipei while still a teenager, he produced his Japanese-school ID card instead of a driver's license (he was too young to drive) and babbled at the cop in Japanese. Taking him for a befuddled foreigner, "the cop just got frustrated and waved me off," Kaneshiro says.

A Taipei artist-management company recruited him to be a pop idol when he was 15; Kaneshiro had the requisite looks but not the drive. "It took us two years to make him realize what he needed to do to be a pop star," says Eva Yao, Kaneshiro's longtime manager. "I would have to explain a lot of things to make him understand why he couldn't smoke or why he had to cooperate." His biggest shortcoming: "I couldn't sing," says Kaneshiro. Still, he endured voice and dance lessons and released Mando-pop albums with titles such as Tenderhearted Superman. When the time came to parlay his local celebrity into a film career (routine for Taiwan's idol factory), he perversely shunned roles in safe, saccharine vehicles, insisting instead on quirkier character parts. He won acclaim in his second movie for his role as a lovelorn cop in Wong Kar-wai's 1994 cult hit, Chungking Express

A copy of Chungking Express and Wong's followup, Fallen Angels, landed on the desk of Hiroyoshi Koiwai, a producer for Fuji TV. Koiwai wanted to make a miniseries about a musician who falls in love with an HIV-positive high-school girl, but it was a controversial premise, and the lead part was seen as a potential career killer. "No Japanese musician would take the role," Koiwai says. He was going to give up on the idea—until he saw Kaneshiro, who was only too happy to sign on. "I wanted to use actors who were different," Koiwai recalls. "I needed a cool actor." The series, God Please Give Me More Time, sizzled. It drew an astonishing 28.3% of Japan's viewing audience and was even credited with sparking a 62% increase in the number of Japanese getting HIV-aids tests. Kaneshiro followed up in 2000 with his third Japanese movie, the offbeat action-comedy Space Travelers, which broke box-office records in Japan. His latest Japanese movie, Returner, was the top-grossing domestic film last year.

Kaneshiro's ability to act convincingly in several tongues helps explain his pan-Asian appeal. Because the characters of his name are read differently across the region, he's known as Kam Shing-mo in Cantonese, Kin Chengwu in Mandarin and Kim Sung Moo in Korean. "I feel weird sometimes," he says as he sips iced coffee in a secluded hotel caf?Ein Tokyo. "When people call me Mr. Kam, I'm like, who is Mr. Kam? Or they call me Mr. Kim, and I have to remind them that I'm not Korean." He admits his shape-shifting attributes, which are a powerful acting tool, may stem from personal rootlessness. He owns two apartments, one in Tokyo and one in Taipei, but says that he's never in either long enough to decorate. "I don't have a sense that I live anywhere," he sighs. By nature, he suggests, he's a fickle character with no fixed center: "My thinking changes all the time. People may read an interview I gave a year before and assume that's who I still am. But usually I've changed altogether." He tried vegetarianism then went back to red meat. He enrolled in a film class at New York University but never completed it. He sought enlightenment through meditation then gave up: "When I try it, nothing happens."

So who is he this month? In Turn Left Turn Right he plays "a normal guy leading a normal, lonely life," says Kaneshiro. Next, he's looking to conquer mainland China. Kaneshiro is scheduled this month to begin closed-set shooting with fabled director Zhang Yimou (Hero, Raise the Red Lantern) in an as-yet-untitled film set in the Tang dynasty. As always, his challenge is to test the boundaries of his craft, making each role fresh and unexpected. "A melody can be made with only a few notes, right? In acting, it's the same," says Kaneshiro. "There are only a limited number of characters and a limited number of ways to play them." He seems determined to hit all the high notes.

[Little Chilli]

alin kaya *** minomodel nya dito, *** handphone or *** hair spray? hehe...

[avonlea]

'yan na ba itsura niya ngayon??? hehe...
i love this guy since i saw him in Chungking Express... tapos ang cute pa ng commercials niya ng Ericsson...
just have a question... Fallen Angel is his movie with Kelly Chen right? i saw a poster here in Korea pero it's titled Lavender... is it the same film? or may iba pa siyang movie with Kelly Chen na angel din ang role niya?

[avonlea]

birthday niya... solar or lunar calendar?

[Misa Hayase]

Originally posted by avonlea
'yan na ba itsura niya ngayon??? hehe...
i love this guy since i saw him in Chungking Express... tapos ang cute pa ng commercials niya ng Ericsson...
just have a question... Fallen Angel is his movie with Kelly Chen right? i saw a poster here in Korea pero it's titled Lavender... is it the same film? or may iba pa siyang movie with Kelly Chen na angel din ang role niya?

I'm not sure if Fallen Angel also stars Kelly Chen... pero he did have a movie entitled Lavender...with Kelly --(not sure if kelly CHEN nga surname nun)...playing an angel. The movie was ok ok lang, nothing wow like Chunking express... (makes you wanna eat more canned pineapple)

He has a movie with Mira Sorvino ah... kalimutan ko na title... it was shown way back pa sa cinemax

[sugarplumfairy]

i saw that. yun prang one day to live siya and theme.

oo! kelly chen ang name name dun!

fave movie ko pa rin niya yun chungking express and gusto ko yun series niya with kyoko fukada.

one of the most good-looking actors out there talaga!

[LadyMarmalade]

wow wow! nice pics!
i've been a fan of Jin Cheng Wu since he first came out with his debut album in 1992. man this guy's come a long way since then!
his movie, Tempting Hearts is currently showing in cinemas here in Manila. watch it if ur a fan, u won't regret it

[xyzseaman]

Takeshi... akala ko, yung leader ng Takeshi's Castle, hehehehe...

[sugarplumfairy]

according to TIme ASIA which recently did an article about him, he's Asia's Johnny Depp because of his preference to play queer roles despite his leading man looks!

[london1821]

May napanood akong 2 movies nya together with Jimi Lyn ( tama ba spelling?) I think nung early 90's pa yung movie. wala masyadong pinagbago hitsura nya. Pero mas mukha talagang japanese sya kahit half-japanes half-taiwanese sya.

[avonlea]

he's starring in a movie with Zhang Ziyi... gwapo niya!

[moonshine]

Siya ba *** sa Turn left turn right?