{"id":10944,"date":"2025-09-12T03:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/10944\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T03:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T03:56:08","slug":"netflix-announces-koji-yakusho-led-did-someone-happen-to-mention-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/10944\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix Announces Koji Yakusho-Led \u2018Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNetflix<\/a> continues to deepen its investments in live-action Japanese content, betting on the country\u2019s continued domestic growth potential and cross-border appeal. Friday marks the 10-year anniversary of the company\u2019s launch in the Japanese market, and the streamer unveiled a trio of buzzy local titles to mark the moment and build on its momentum.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe new series include the comedy-drama Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?, starring Japanese screen icon Koji Yakusho; Straight to Hell, a dramatization of the life of celebrity fortune teller Kazuko Hosoki; and JoJo\u2019s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run, the latest anime adaptation of Hirohiko Araki\u2019s hit manga.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cLooking ahead to the next decade, Netflix will continue to push boundaries and bring unforgettable entertainment from Japan to the world,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid Someone Happen to Mention Me? is an original comedy drama from hitmaker Kankuro Kudo (Netflix Japan breakouts Let\u2019s Get Divorced and Extremely Inappropriate!) and his longtime producing partner Aki Isoyama. Yakusho, one of Japan\u2019s most recognizable stars and winner of the Cannes Film Festival\u2019s best actor prize in 2023, plays Gen Takasegawa, a once-lauded Japanese actor who made history as the first from his country to lead at London\u2019s Globe Theatre, only to return home after two years abroad and find that he has been inexplicably forgotten by everyone. The series probes the human obsession with recognition through the prism of a man whose reputation, family and money have vanished overnight.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBased on Kankuro Kudo\u2019s brilliant script \u2014 which is intricate, wild, funny, and strangely moving \u2014 I\u2019m having a great time filming with the cast and crew, even in the intense summer heat,\u201d Yakusho said. \u201cThis is the second time in my life that I\u2019ve been given the role of \u2018an actor.\u2019 The shoot will be a long one, spanning into the next year, but I\u2019ll do my best until the very end to make this a work that everyone can enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tKudo added: \u201cKoji Yakusho pours his heart and soul into even the most trivial lines I write \u2026 Whether you\u2019re an actor, a screenwriter, or just someone with a social media account, everyone has a surplus of desire for recognition \u2014 they perform, exaggerate, edit themselves, and sometimes tweet unnecessary things late at night and end up feeling self-loathing. It can\u2019t be helped. That troublesome human tendency \u2014 I\u2019ve portrayed it as a comedy, without denying or affirming it. I hope you enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIsoyama said Yakusho\u2019s casting felt inevitable: \u201cI never could have dreamed that Koji Yakusho would end up taking the role \u2026 He has taken on an incredible number of challenges, shown us so many different sides of himself, and turned this into an unmissable drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDid Someone Happen to Mention Me? is currently in production and slated to launch on Netflix in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tStraight to Hell revisits the extraordinary life of Hosoki, a fortune-teller who dominated Japanese media from the 1980s through the 2000s. Hosoki became a household name \u2014 and something of a social phenomenon \u2014 with her blunt, sometimes brutal predictions (\u201cYou\u2019ll die,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll go to hell\u201d), while her fortune-telling books set Guinness World Records for sales. The series, starring Erika Toda, explores the darker, lesser-known chapters of her early life and her rise from postwar poverty to national notoriety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI knew of Kazuko Hosoki, but I didn\u2019t know what kind of person she really was,\u201d Toda said. \u201cI just thought a flashy fortune-teller had shown up on TV \u2026 This story portrays the real life of Kazuko Hosoki from not so long ago \u2014 one you don\u2019t know \u2014 and I\u2019m certain it will draw you into this world and toss you around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tErika Toda as Kazuko Hosoki in \u2018Straight to Hell.\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNetflix<\/p>\n

\n\tDirector Tomoyuki Takimoto admitted, \u201cI disliked Kazuko Hosoki. Whenever she appeared on TV, I changed the channel. And yet I accepted this reckless project for two reasons \u2026 her little-known rise from post-war poverty is immensely compelling \u2026 and the powerful partner I had in Erika Toda. Through her performance, I discovered how that once-in-a-generation trickster came to be.\u201d Straight to Hell streams in 2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tJoJo\u2019s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run brings one of manga\u2019s most celebrated arcs to the screen. Araki\u2019s JoJo\u2019s Bizarre Adventure has sold more than 120 million copies worldwide and spawned a vast multimedia franchise with its flamboyant characters and operatic storylines. Steel Ball Run, set in 19th-century America, follows paraplegic former jockey Johnny Joestar and mysterious outlaw Gyro Zeppeli as they enter a perilous, cross-continental horse race that tests their bodies, beliefs and fates.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSteel Ball Run is a story that depicts characters running through a grand race, staking their own beliefs,\u201d director Yasuhiro Kimura said. \u201cMy heart is pounding with excitement to be entrusted with directing this anime adaptation. The entire staff shares this feeling and is pouring their passion into daily production. I look forward to sharing our enthusiasm for this work with all of you and hope we can ride this journey together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series reunites much of the acclaimed creative team behind earlier JoJo\u2019s anime seasons, with David Production once again leading animation. Netflix will host a special event in Japan on Sept. 23 to unveil more details about the series and its launch.<\/p>\n

\n\tJapan remains one of Netflix\u2019s key growth engines in the Asia<\/a>-Pacific region, as streaming deepens its foothold across demographics. The company surpassed the 10 million subscriber milestone in the market late last year. Some of Netflix\u2019s biggest Japanese live-action titles are coming in the weeks ahead, including season 3 of sci-fi series Alice in Borderland, set to stream worldwide on Sept. 25, and the Meiji-era battle royale Last Samurai Standing, bowing globally on Nov. 13 (after a showcase at the Busan International<\/a> Film Festival on Sept. 18).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Netflix continues to deepen its investments in live-action Japanese content, betting on the country\u2019s continued domestic growth potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[337,146,85,399,46,400],"class_list":["post-10944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-asia","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-international","tag-israel","tag-netflix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}