Latest news with #FirstLove
GMA Network
18-05-2025
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Hikaru Utada sings 'First Love' on 'First Take' 26 years after song's release
Hikaru Utada took us all back to 1999 as she performed her hit song "First Love" on the Japanese YouTube channel "First Take." Accompanied by piano, she delivered a heartfelt and emotional version of her hit song 26 years after its release. "First Love" was among the tracks included in Utada's debut Japanese-language studio album with the same name. Shortly after its release, the song quickly became a classic hit. The album also remains the highest-selling Japanese album with nationwide sales of eight million copies. In 2022, Netflix released the Japanese series "First Love," which took inspiration from Utada's songs. It starred Takeru Satoh and Hikari Mitsushima. —Jade Veronique Yap/MGP, GMA Integrated News
SoraNews24
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- SoraNews24
Utada Hikaru sings incredible new one-take version of 'First Love,' 26 years after original release
J-pop mega star returns to the biggest hit of her career as an adult, with some help from a special musical partner from her past. They say you never forget your first love, but it's just as true that no one ever forgets Utada Hikaru's 'First Love.' Though it wasn't the J-pop recording star's first single release, 'First Love' is by far Utada's biggest hit, and also the title of her first Japanese-language album, which was released in 1999 and remains, to this day, the best-selling album of all time in Japan. Originally recorded when Utada was just 15 years old, 'First Love' was a pop cultural phenomenon in Japan, and is one of a handful of songs that just about everyone in the country under the age of 50 has sung at least once at karaoke. But no one has ever sung it quite like Utada has, and so she's returned to sing 'First Love' once again in a brand-new video. This isn't some slickly edited, heavily sound-engineered self-cover, either. Utada was the most recent guest on YouTube video series The First Take, in which famous Japanese musicians have exactly one take in which to perform their biggest hits in a single live recording session. So with only one shot, how did she do? She absolutely nailed it. After putting on her headset and letting out a 'Hmmm…okay, let's do this,' Utada waits for the first notes of the melody to play, then throws her voice into a rendition of her signature song that starts out startlingly familiar to those who've heard the original, but then goes on to reveal new layers. The sole instrumental accompaniment is a piano played by Kei Kawano, who produced and arranged the original recording of 'First Love.' According to The First Take this is the pair's first time to perform together since that recording, and with no other instrumentation or backing vocals to get in the way, there's an extremely pure quality to the combination of Utada's voice and Kawano's piano. At the time of release of the original 'First Love,' Utada was praised for her plaintive vocals, which felt mature beyond her years as she sang of a love that couldn't last, but which she'd never forget. Now, 25-plus years later, her performance is just as strong, but with an added vocal weight that comes from maturity and life experience acquired in the ensuing quarter-century. Utada recorded the original 'First Love' as a teen, but she's now a full-grown adult who's been married and divorced twice, given birth to a son, and lost her mother. She's undoubtedly gained several new perspectives on her feelings about love and loss, which give this new recording of 'First Love' its own unique character without contradicting the original's emotion. As she finished the song, Utada somewhat sheepishly says 'I always say thank you when I finish singing at concerts, so it feels weird being silent and not saying anything here,' revealing that she was very much in a live-performance frame of mind while singing before adding 'Thank you so much.' It's a moving video for fans, who've reacted with comments including: 'National treasure.' 'Just like that, I'm taken back to my youth.' 'The original version feels like it's someone singing who's about to cry because they broke up with someone they still can't let go of. The new one feels like someone looking through an old photo album, thinking back tenderly on the feelings they had at the time.' 'It doesn't matter how talented of an artist covers it, no one can sing it like she can. Utada Hikaru is one of a kind.' 'I can't believe it's been 26 years since 'First Love' came out…I bet people will still be listening to it 26 years from now.' Odds are that last prediction will come true, so maybe then Utada will come back for a third version of 'First Love.' In the meantime, though, fans will likely have the new video on repeat, and if you need another The First Take masterpiece for your playlist, there's this amazing cover of the Pokémon anime theme from Satoshi's/Ash's Japanese voice actress. Source, top image: YouTube/THE FIRST TAKE ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Japan Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘The Killer Goldfish': The future of cinema, or just indie cosplay?
Anyone stumbling unawares into a screening of 'The Killer Goldfish' at K2, a dinky independent cinema in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa neighborhood, would be forgiven for assuming it's an archetypal midnight movie — one of those schlocky, low-budget productions made for cult infamy rather than commercial success. Superficially, this loopy tale of murderous pets and esoteric evolutionary theory bears the hallmarks of a true outsider effort, complete with a no-name star and a single-screen theatrical release. But look closer and the figure at the helm isn't some aspiring auteur: It's Yukihiko Tsutsumi, a veteran director whose recent output includes mainstream fare such as 'First Love' (2021) and '12 Suicidal Teens' (2019). There's nothing wrong with an established filmmaker going back to their roots, of course (as Tsutsumi himself did with black-and-white homelessness drama 'My House' in 2012). However, 'The Killer Goldfish' has a more ambitious goal in mind. It's the first feature produced by Super Sapienss, a project Tsutsumi started with fellow old-timers Katsuyuki Motohiro and Yuichi Sato with the aim of upending the Japanese film industry. Tired of the ubiquitous 'production committee' system — with its timid preference for movies based on existing properties, starring the same actors you see in everything else — they're proposing an alternative model. Super Sapienss is conceived as a decentralized organization that handles the entire process, from creating original IP to distributing the finished film. ('The Killer Goldfish' has already appeared as an online manga series.) It's a bold idea, even if the guys seizing control of the means of production are the ones who got us here in the first place. ('Bayside Shakedown', '20th Century Boys,' 'SPEC,' 'Strawberry Night' — need I go on?) Too bad 'The Killer Goldfish' is such a lousy movie. It does at least deliver on the promise of its title, even if the piscine carnage is all cutaways and bad CGI. There's been a spate of mysterious murders where the victims are mostly middle-aged men. The police are flummoxed, but occult specialist Erika Tamaki (newcomer Erika Oka, game but a bit grating) quickly deduces that the killings are being perpetrated by angry goldfish — and someone else is pulling their fins. The story quickly branches out to reveal an alternative history of human evolution, in which the Japanese people turn out to be descended from interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Yosuke Kubozuka pops up as a handsome university professor, who explains how this led to the appearance of people with superhuman powers. Ever wondered what seventh-century mystic En no Gyoja has in common with postwar artist Taro Okamoto? Now you know. The action is interspersed with bursts of psychedelic animation, clips from a 'Love Island'-style reality TV show and a balaclava-wearing YouTuber who provides a running commentary of sorts. We even get a couple of parkour-inspired action sequences, featuring a teleporting antagonist with an enormous ping-pong ball on his head (played by Kubozuka's son, Airu). If this sounds like wacky fun, that's because it really should be, yet the outlandish concepts and discordant stylistic flourishes never cohere into an entertaining film. Only a brief appearance by Jiro Sato reaches the heights of sublime ridiculousness 'The Killer Goldfish' seemed to promise. Too often, it feels like Tsutsumi and his collaborators are just flinging ideas at the wall without checking what sticks. Evolution is a messy process, I guess.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Cop's offer of a cigarette leads to a confession and a body: "Smokin' and jokin'"
When Aaron Friar, 50, and daughter, Ellie Friar, 15, vanished from their Medford, Oregon, home on Oct. 2, 2017, investigators quickly deduced that there was foul play. "They saw blood spatter behind the couch, on the ceiling, all the way across the room," said lead Detective Bill Ford. "There was … a potential that this was what we could refer to as a no-body homicide. That there had been a homicide, but we don't have a body." But who was dead? Was it Aaron Friar, Ellie or both? Natalie Morales investigates the pair's mysterious disappearance in "First Love, Then Murder" an all-new "48 Hours" now streaming on Paramount+. The search was on. "We probably had 70, 75 [officers] out on the streets of Medford," says Ford. Then, just four hours after she had been reported missing, Ellie was located by police. She was alive, unharmed, and had been walking down a busy street with two young men: her boyfriend, Gavin MacFarlane, 19, and Gavin's friend, Russell Jones, 22. "So, now we know Ellie is safe," said Ford. But what about her father, Aaron Friar? Based on the bloody crime scene at the house, time was quickly running out to find him. But could Ellie have been involved? Ford kept an open mind. Ellie and the two men were separated and brought to the Medford Police station for questioning. Ellie seemed perplexed when she was told by police that her father was missing. "I haven't been home and now I'm really concerned about what's been going on," Ellie told a detective. She even offered a suggestion as to where her dad might be: "Maybe he was looking for me." Around that time, Ford began interviewing Russell Jones. "He's a talker … very, very talkative," said Ford. "So, I kind of knew if I could get in there and get him talking, he would … have a hard time keeping his mouth shut." Ford's theory was correct. Jones was eager to talk, but he wanted something first: a cigarette. "I talk better when I have a cigarette," Jones told Ford during his taped police interview. Ford took Russell outside of the station for a cigarette break. "Just kind of smokin' and jokin' is what we call it," Ford explained. But Ford was serious about the task at hand: finding Aaron Friar. "I look at him and I'm like, 'You know, Russell, I don't want a child to find Aaron, Ellie's dad, out there somewhere, come across something like that,'" Ford recalls saying. "I said, 'Can you take us to Aaron?' And he didn't beat an eye. He's just like, 'Yeah, I'll take you to him.'" Ford was shocked: "Holy smokes! That's a big moment, you know?" He immediately loaded Jones into his police car. As the veteran investigator and his suspect began their drive, Jones confessed to Ford. "He ends up saying he wasn't responsible for Aaron's death, but he helped load the body," Ford recalled. "You're driving along with him, now he's starting to sing like a canary," said Morales. "Exactly," Ford replied. But who had killed Aaron Friar and why? As their journey continued, Ford says Jones began going off on tangents. But Ford says he didn't mind. It was all part of his plan. "Keep talking, keep him happy," said Ford. "He even asked for another cigarette … and I said, 'You've had two already. Once we get out there, I'll give you another one.' And that's a tactic." "He's gotta give us something," said Ford. "Nicotine is a powerful tool." And then, as they ascended a rural mountain pass 20 miles outside of town, Jones made an announcement: Ford said, "All of a sudden, Russell says 'Stop! … Stop right here.'" To see more of the case, watch "First Love, Then Murder" an all-new "48 Hours" now streaming on Paramount +. How could Trump's trade war with China end? Commemorating 250 years since the start of the Revolutionary War reignites old debate WWI soldier's headstone finally marked with Jewish Star
CBS News
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Oregon cop's offer of a cigarette leads to a confession and a body: "Smokin' and jokin'"
When Aaron Friar, 50, and daughter, Ellie, 15, vanished from their Medford, Oregon, home on Oct. 2, 2017, investigators quickly deduced that there was foul play. "They saw blood spatter behind the couch, on the ceiling, all the way across the room," said lead Detective Bill Ford. "There was … a potential that this was what we could refer to as a no-body homicide. That there had been a homicide, but we don't have a body." But who was dead? Was it Aaron Friar, Ellie or both? Natalie Morales investigates the pair's mysterious disappearance in "First Love, Then Murder" an all-new "48 Hours" airing Saturday, April 19 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. The search was on. "We probably had 70, 75 [officers] out on the streets of Medford," says Ford. Then, just four hours after she had been reported missing, Ellie was located by police. She was alive, unharmed, and had been walking down a busy street with two young men: her boyfriend, Gavin MacFarlane, 19, and Gavin's friend, Russell Jones, 22. "So, now we know Ellie is safe," said Ford. But what about her father, Aaron Friar? Based on the bloody crime scene at the house, time was quickly running out to find him. But could Ellie have been involved? Ford kept an open mind. Ellie and the two men were separated and brought to the Medford Police station for questioning. Ellie seemed perplexed when she was told by police that her father was missing. "I haven't been home and now I'm really concerned about what's been going on," Ellie told a detective. She even offered a suggestion as to where her dad might be: "Maybe he was looking for me." Around that time, Ford began interviewing Russell Jones. "He's a talker … very, very talkative," said Ford. "So, I kind of knew if I could get in there and get him talking, he would … have a hard time keeping his mouth shut." Ford's theory was correct. Jones was eager to talk, but he wanted something first: a cigarette. "I talk better when I have a cigarette," Jones told Ford during his taped police interview. Ford took Russell outside of the station for a cigarette break. "Just kind of smokin' and jokin' is what we call it," Ford explained. But Ford was serious about the task at hand: finding Aaron Friar. "I look at him and I'm like, 'You know, Russell, I don't want a child to find Aaron, Ellie's dad, out there somewhere, come across something like that,'" Ford recalls saying. "I said, 'Can you take us to Aaron?' And he didn't beat an eye. He's just like, 'Yeah, I'll take you to him.'" Ford was shocked: "Holy smokes! That's a big moment, you know?" He immediately loaded Jones into his police car. As the veteran investigator and his suspect began their drive, Jones confessed to Ford. "He ends up saying he wasn't responsible for Aaron's death, but he helped load the body," Ford recalled. "You're driving along with him, now he's starting to sing like a canary," said Morales. "Exactly," Ford replied. But who had killed Aaron Friar and why? As their journey continued, Ford says Jones began going off on tangents. But Ford says he didn't mind. It was all part of his plan. "Keep talking, keep him happy," said Ford. "He even asked for another cigarette … and I said, 'You've had two already. Once we get out there, I'll give you another one.' And that's a tactic." "He's gotta give us something," said Ford. "Nicotine is a powerful tool." And then, as they ascended a rural mountain pass 20 miles outside of town, Jones made an announcement: Ford said, "All of a sudden, Russell says 'Stop! … Stop right here.'" To see more of the case, watch "First Love, Then Murder" an all-new "48 Hours" airing Saturday, April 19 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount +.
