TOKYO —

Actress Maki Horikita, 20, will star in “Lost Memory,” a film directed by Hans Canosa, whose 2005 film “Conversations with Other Women” won the Special Jury Prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the same year. “Lost Memory” is scheduled for release in Japan next year and in the U.S. in 2010.

When Canosa came to Japan, he was fascinated by Japanese actors and actresses, and expressed his interest in making movies in Japan. He reportedly watches a lot of Japanese films, and expressed his desire to cast Horikita.

Horikita plays a high school girl attending an international school in Japan. She falls down the stairs and loses four years of her memory. About one third of her lines are in English, so she is taking English lessons. This is in between working on “Innocent Love,” a drama in which she plays the lead role and is showing now on Fuji TV on Mondays at 9 p.m.

Filming of “Lost Memory” starts on Wednesday. “I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out, with a foreign director filming in Japan. I want to concentrate working on each and every scene,” Horikita said with enthusiasm.

Kenichi Matsuyama, 23, who stars opposite Horikita, said: “I took the part because I wanted to work with a foreign crew. And I wanna have a sword fight with them!”

Wire reports

Latest 15 of 18 Total Comments Show All

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  GJDailleult at 10:16 AM JST - 26th November

  rid jr - are you saying that The Last Samurai, Black Rain, Mr. Baseball, etc. would have been better movies with a Japanese actor playing the role of the Caucasian guy in Japan??? About accents and English ability, if it fits what the character's accent and ability should be, then no problem, even if memorized phonetically. If not, then thepro is right. In the worst case it can really screw up the movie. Anybody remember "Snow Falling on Cedars"?

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  neverknow2 at 11:17 AM JST - 26th November

  Can you eat Japanese food? Only Japan has four seasons! Perhaps these can be the first lines that she will learn.

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  BlackFlag at 11:36 AM JST - 26th November

  since it's a foreign director she probably wont have to do a standing in the rain crying/shouting scene but she should probably practice a little just in case.

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  thepro at 12:59 PM JST - 26th November

  Maybe also prepare for the riding on the back of the bike of her highschool boyfriend who is a baseball pitcher scene, too.

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  soldave at 04:20 PM JST - 26th November

  There will have to be a scene in a far too clean and quiet hospital, with an angry mother/aunt/relative.

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  Nessie at 05:51 PM JST - 26th November

  I'm sure he'll have no trouble speaking English like an amnesiac. In Japan it's par for the course.

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  seggahme at 08:04 PM JST - 26th November

  why this named "Maki learning english"? She learned it in school.

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  presto345 at 08:58 PM JST - 26th November

  Oh, boy, another drama about memory loss. Trite subject.

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  BlackFlag at 10:20 PM JST - 26th November

  haha seggahme

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  Good_Jorb at 03:56 AM JST - 27th November

  why this named "Maki learning english"? She learned it in school.

  Considering the level of English teaching(both Japanese and more so foreign teachers), learned is the key word here. For her sake, I hope she can find an actual English teacher in Japan.

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  soldave at 08:51 AM JST - 27th November

  Good Jorb - there are plenty of them. English teachers are probably in almost every high school, the vast majority of senior high schools, eikaiwa etc.

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  Good_Jorb at 12:00 PM JST - 27th November

  there are plenty of them. English teachers are probably in almost every high school, the vast majority of senior high schools, eikaiwa etc.

  Note the actual part before English Teacher in my sentence.

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  Richard_the_First at 01:53 PM JST - 27th November

  About scenes, don't forget the standing in the middle of the night with a dock or bridge as a backdrop and declaring her love (or not) for xxx. Some kind of rooftop scene is also a must.

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  ultradodgy at 09:18 AM JST - 28th November

  I'll teach her.

  Speak into the microphone, darling.

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  judochick at 11:02 AM JST - 28th November

  hans canosa, eh? he has a unique taste in actresses he likes.

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