Filming Sites of "After-Dinner Mysteries" 「謎解きはディナーのあとで」の撮影場所

Not enough of "After-Dinner Mysteries 謎解きはディナーのあとで (Nazotoki wa dina no atode)"? Then, catch up on the making of the movie:
あなたも「謎解きはディナーのあとで」のファンですか？じゃあ、映画のあとで、「謎解きはディナーのあとで」の特集をご覧ください。


「映画　謎解きはディナーのあとで」公開記念!“謎解きはディナーのまえに”!？in シンガポール... by PModel

Still not enough? Why not (re-)visit the places that the filming took place?
物足りないですか？たったら、自分で旅しましょうか？シンガポールの撮影ところへ。

Marina Bay Sands

Opening scenes with Marina Bay Sands (MBS).
最初は Marina Bay Sands (MBS)の撮影です。

In the day, like in the movie...
昼の MBS、映画のような…



At night, MBS lights up...
夜の MBS も素敵ね…





Probably, the first time that MBS is featured on Japan national television, would be the Softbank ad which starred SMAP:
多分この SMAP が参加するの Softbank CM は MBS が日本テレビをデビューのときでした。



Yup, MBS is the one with the infinity pool.
そうです、あのすごいプールは MBS にあります。

Packed with lavish hotel suites, loads of shops and eating options, theatre, even a museum, MBS has it all. It is also one of the best locations to observe fireworks displays for locals.
贅沢ホテルだけでわなく、いろな店やレストラン、劇場、博物館までがあります。

How to get there?　アクセスは？

Take the MRT to Bayfront Station. You won't miss the exits to MBS. (Yeah, there's more than one exit to MBS)
地下鉄(MRT という乗り物)を乗って、 Bayfront 駅まで。 MBS 入り口は一とつだけではない。見つけるは簡単だ。

View Larger Map

Superstar Virgo

And of course, the main filming site, the Superstar Virgo, luxurious ship. Like 北川景子 has described, it's like an island by itself.
もちろん、大部撮影がとるの場所は Superstar Virgo です。北川景子と言ったとおり、あの船は島みたいだ。いろな設備があります。

How to book? 予約は？

Book via the Star Cruises website.
Star Cruises ウェブサイトで予約ができます。

P.S: I have yet to try out any Star Cruise ride, do let me know how it was!


Merlion Park

How can we forget Merlion, the icon of Singapore?



P.S: The above advertisment never fails to tickle me. :P

Merlion Park is located at the heart of Singapore, near many tourist attractions such as MBS, the Singapore Flyer, Singapore River. Unfortunately when the crew was filming the K-Lion ceremony scene, the Merlion was under renovation, as 椎名桔平 has shared in the making-of-the-movie video. Seriously, in all my life as a Singaporean, I have only seen the Merlion being boarded once, in my own eyes, and that was for the Art Installation of the Merlion Hotel. Hence, it is actually pretty lucky for the crew to see the Merlion-on-holiday, as it's very rare!

Merlion Park はシンガポールの中心であって、近くはいろな観光名所があります。例えば MBS とか Singapore Flyer とか Singapore River があります。一年前、 K-Lion の式を撮影のとき、Merlion　が修復工事をしました。椎名桔平も特集で残念の気持ちを伝われました。でも、シンガポール人の私も、一回だけMerlionの休み中の姿が見ました。あれは、日本人アーティストの西野達氏のシンガポールビエンナーレの参加作品- Merlion Hotel の立った時だけです。だから、 Merlion の休み中の姿が見えれることもらーキと思いませんか？すこく、珍しいだから。

How to get there?　アクセスは？
Take MRT to Raffles Place MRT, and use Exit H.
地下鉄(MRT という乗り物)を乗って、Raffles Place 駅まで。H 出口を使ってください。

View Larger Map

Water Taxi Along Singapore River

Can't forget the "I'm flying!" scene from "After-Dinner Mysteries"? Here's your chance to try it yourself on the water taxi, which cruises along the Singapore River. Soak in the cityscape view as you romance with your partner.

あの「謎解きはディナーのあとで」の"I'm flying!"シンが忘れない？じゃあ、今回は Singapore River に water taxi の上で自分でやって見ましょう！ロマンの時も、シンガポールの景色をたっぶり見ましょう。

How to book? 予約は？
Book via the Singapore River Cruise website.
Singapore River Cruise ウェブサイトで予約ができます。

Raffles Hotel

Lastly, the filming site for the ending scene, Raffles Hotel. Seems like 桜井翔 and other casts have stayed here during their movie shoot too.
最後の撮影場所は Raffles Hotel です。桜井翔とほかのカスト皆さんはあそこ泊まれたらしい。

Do not forget to visit the Hall of Fame when you are there. 桜井翔's photograph is also displayed there!
Raffles Hotel へ行ったとき、あそこの Hall of Fame も行ってみよ。桜井翔の写真もあそこで飾れました。

How to get there?　アクセスは？

Take MRT to City Hall MRT, and use Exit A.
地下鉄(MRT という乗り物)を乗って、City Hall 駅まで。A 出口を使ってください。

View Larger Map

And that concludes the "After-Dinner Mysteries" Tour. Hope to see you in Singapore!
以上は「謎解きはディナーのあとで」の旅です。シンガポールへ、ようこそ！

Other related posts:
- After-Dinner Mysteries World Movie Premiere in Singapore

A Glimpse of After-Dinner Mysteries World Movie Premiere

26 July 2013. 7pm.
A moment of elation, when my friend informed me that she has won a pair of World Movie Premiere tickets for "謎解きはディナーのあとで After-Dinner Mysteries" from Golden Village Club! We have been trying to get our hands on the tickets for the past one week, since the ticket contests were open for entry.

This is the first time an 嵐 member has held a public event in Singapore! This time Singapore is picked because the location shoot for the movie was in Singapore - Raffles Hotel, MBS, Merlion Park, Star Virgo, Harbourfront...

It was definitely a period of sweet relief from my bad day and I spent the night rambling my belongings, looking for Arashi goods in excitement. And I found this:

TIP
In future, when I am buying Arashi goods, I am going to zoom in on big uchiwas (fans) and bags! They are the most practical for such events!

27 July 2013. 5.30pm.
Wow... look at the crowd at the Red Carpet Event at MBS Expo.





We came too late, unable to join the other Singaporean fans along the carpet area.

But wow... there are actually quite a number of Japanese fans who flown in to catch a glimpse of the cast.

27 July 2013. 6.30pm.
They are here!!! 嵐 fans, scream!



27 July 2013. 7pm.
"謎解きはディナーのあとで After-Dinner Mysteries" started.





Packed with more punch, unexpected twist, and pockets of humour. I really enjoyed the movie. Do you remember Nodame's teacher, Franz Strezemann, the really funny guy in "Nodame Cantabile"? The actor, 竹中直人, also appears on "After-Dinner Mysteries", too, livening up the mood.

Of course, 桜井翔 looked as 格好いい as before. (Mmmm.. I think this is my first time seeing him on the big screen!)

Do remember to catch "謎解きはディナーのあとで After-Dinner Mysteries" on the big screens when it opens on 22 August!

27 July 2013. 9.20pm.
After the movie screening, Director Masato Hijikata, Sho Sakurai *scream*, Keiko Kitagawa and Shiina Kippei joined us on stage for the interview led by 杨君伟.



Ok, I take back my words. 桜井翔 looked much better in person! Though he looks very small from where I was seated. (I'm on the second floor!)



And here are some snippets for fellow 嵐 fans: (The video quality is not good, but the sound capture is not bad.)


桜井翔 greeting Singaporean fans in Singlish :D His English opening peppered with our local favourites like "alamak", "hor", and even Malay greeting "terima kasih" which means "Thank you", surprised many of us. 好亲民啊！


桜井翔 shared about his makan experience in Singapore. P.S: He seemed to like our chicken rice a lot.

This segment is in Japanese. Hence here's a fan service, by me, translated in English. Pardon any amateur mistakes. :P

I've tried the chicken rice in Singapore. *cheers from the crowd- proud of our hawker heroes!*

At a place which I think it's called Little India. It looked like a food court, somewhat like yattai (outdoor food stalls in Japan).

I sat together with the locals. There were 2 girls, one of them was eating, and I sat near them. However, no one noticed me.
*"Eh?!" from the crowd. Yeah. We can't believe no one has spotted him! He is so famous/格好いい/etc~*

*Tickled by our response* Thank you! *cheers from crowd*

It was delicious.

After I returned to Japan, I ate Singapore Chicken Rice again (in Japan). But as expected, the local one in Singapore tasted better.

If I am back in Singapore, I want to eat chicken rice again.

*looks at watch* But I think I can't (tonight).

Finally it ended with a wide-angle photo shoot of the cast and the Director with the audience.



And that marked the end of a magical night.

Btw. 桜井翔 left on a midnight flight back to Japan after the event. 真是来去如风啊。

*additional updates on 3rd Augusr 2013*

Golden Village will have having a fan screening on:

Date: 14 August 2013
Time: 7pm
Venue: GV Plaza
Complimentary: All cast poster
Price: $16 for Golden Village members and $20 for the general public
How to book: Tickets on sale here.

Other related posts:
- Catch the filming sites of "After-Dinner Mysteries" 「謎解きはディナーのあとで」の撮影場所

Let's solve Gantz's mysteries!

Yeah! I finished watching Gantz and Gantz 2. Today's the 2nd day of screening in Japan. :) The theatre was exceptionally crowded, with mostly teenagers making up the audience. I think they were probably drawn by star power though. Umm.. like me... hahaha.. seriously, if 二宮和也 is not starring in the movie, think I wouldn't spend 1800yen x 2 to watch the movies on big screen too. :P



Anyway.. first a disclaimer, if you intend to watch both movies, then perhaps, you should skip this post, as there will be lots of spoilers. I will practically rumble on about the many mysteries of Gantz, which will likely spoil your fun. Go watch them first!

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Ok, so you have watched the movie? Here we go. I watched with 2 Japanese friends. They are both Japanese, so naturally, they wouldn't have any language problems when watching the movies without subtitles. And one of them read the manga (up till book 25), while the other finished watching the anime. So, the following discussion, includes their inputs :)

Mystery 1 - What exactly is Gantz?

The movie didn't explicitly explain this. So we are left to speculate. I think Gantz is like a game, whereby the game-master, which is that guy in the huge black ball, will choose the players. The players chosen are all dead, so they literally have nothing to lose to join the Gantz game, since by joining, they can continue to lead their lives as normal, outside the Gantz game. I think Gantz game is out of our reality realm, that's why only dead people are picked to join.

Mystery 2 - Why are the 'graduates' called to join the game?

In Gantz 2, a second black ball appeared. This smaller black ball is used to call players instead. Usually the huge black ball will select from the pool of people who had just crossed over to death, but this time, Gantz has specifically called upon certain people, and to do that, someone has to kill them first.

And hence a 'graduate' (other players who had played the game, and left the game after exchanging 100 points for forgetting the entire episode) is called upon to start killing these chosen people.

Mystery 3 - Why is Gantz so bent on killing Tae Kojima (main female lead)?

Gantz has tried to kill Kojima twice. Once by asking his 'graduate' to kill her via the instructions on the small black ball. And another time as an emergency mission to his current players to kill her.

This, I do not understand too. Though, the production crew has specified that it is been explained in the movie.

My friend who read the manga, said that, in the manga this is how it was explained: Kojima has accidently taken pictures of the actual Gantz game (players killing aliens), hence she has to be silenced.

In retrospective, maybe, her manga are the reason she has to die? Referring to her drawings, they resemble the 葱-alien episode too much.

Mystery 4 - Why are the 'graduates' called upon to join Gantz game again?

In the movie, it said that maybe they are called upon to assist the existing players to kill the last boss, just like a computer game.

Otherwise, it may also mean that Gantz is running out of battery as Nishi (the very smart but selfish player) has suggested, since Gantz had been acting weirdly. Eg. real people are in the fighting scenes, and real people are being killed. Emergency missions, etc. And so Gantz is running out of time, and needed as many players as possible to end the last game.

Mystery 5 - Why are there so many aliens? And now there's the 黑服人...

黑服人 are the last boss, probably the most intelligent and strongest form of aliens who are coexisting with Earthlings. They fight because they want revenge, as their fellow aliens are continuously being killed by Gantz players.

In Gantz 2, the aliens have repeatedly questioned the Gantz players why they fight, what are they fighting for.

I think Gantz players are fighting for only 3 reasons though.

One, they have someone in mind to revive, so they are fighting for their loved ones. Once they get 100 points, they want to revive their loved ones.

Two, they just want to end the game. They hated the game, resented the fact they are chosen, but yet had no choice, so they struggled to get 100 points to leave the game without any memories of the game.

Three, they like the game, and violence??? I wonder if Nishi falls in this category. He is a deep character I can't really fathom.

Mystery 6 - Why are real people killed?

Gantz is running out of battery, so he can't 'masked out' the real people, or bring the players and aliens in an alternate reality... perhaps.

Mystery 7 - Why did the clone (黑服人) have to kill Katou in Gantz 1?

This is subtly explained in the movie when the clone stabbed Nishi's dead body once more to change its appearance from Katou to Nishi. In the manga, the alien has to stab the person/ body to 'download' information into itself for it to transform and clone him.

Mystery 8 - Why did Kei Kurono have to die in the end?

:( I dislike the ending. The ending says that Kei sacrificed himself and became the next Gantz game-master (person in the huge black ball). He probably asked Gantz how to stop the game after the entire room exploded, and Gantz had told him that to do that he had to be the game-master, and to be a game-master, he had to gain full marks. That is why he had to kill the last alien. The alien who cloned himself into Katou and Nishi, though deep in his heart, he really wanted to stop killing.

By being the game-master, means he can't return to the reality. So the movie ended with his existence being erased from Earth, which is so sad! Why can't people just remember him as dead, or having faded memories about him. He did existed before Gantz game afterall! But neh, he was just erased. Just like that.

I cried when I saw the scene when Kei's love confession message is broad-casted on the ferris wheel, all staged, waiting for Kojima. Kojima was there, saw the message, but she didn't remember him at all. (T_T)

But is it really the end of the game? If so, why didn't the last game-master end the game like Kei did?

By the way, if Kei had to die, I do hope he died together with Kojima though in that romantic scene. Typical huh :P I just hated the fact that his existence is erased :((

Mystery 9 - What is the message behind the 2 movies?

The recurring question in Gantz 2: Why do you fight? What do you fight for? Why are you following the instructions of a black ball?

And Suzuki (cowardly uncle) answered that he is fighting for his loved ones. Pretty typical of shonen manga... 大切な人を守りたいから。

According to my friend, in the anime, the message was humanity. The aliens questioned the players why they fight, why did they kill aliens? And many other ugly facts of mankind like selfishness, thirst for violence, etc. But then, Kei pointed out to them that, yes, some people are like that, humankind has these traits. But humans can also change, so given a chance, they can turn over a new leaf. Learn from mistakes and become a better person.

But I think the movie was trying to convey more of who or what are you fighting for, and also the theme of sacrifice. Marked by Kei's sacrifice to revive everyone who died in the game.

And that's all...

There are lots of Gantz goods for sale as well. My favorite is the 0点 T-shirt. Those who watched Gantz 1 will probably get the 0点 -> いたの？ joke. :P

Thank you... I managed to catch Nino-kun 3x on big screen this one-year stinct in Japan. ども　ありがとう　ございます、 神様!

Catching 二宮 from the Big Screen

:D



Yes, I couldn't resist it. I had to catch 二宮和也 (Ninomiya Kazunari)'s latest movie, 大奥 (ooku).
Initially I was a bit hesitant because of the steep prices. (1800yen for a person, 1000yen on special discount days- eg. 14th of every month/ Wed for ladies, and 1000yen/person for couples)

I was glad I went in the end.
This is the first time I watched a Japanese period drama and viewing 二宮 from the big screen. I love his dramas. He's my favourite Japanese artiste :P


A sneak preview of 大奥:



It is based on the manga by Fumi Yoshinaga. It is a historical fiction set during the Edo period. A mysterious disease strikes Japan’s male population, reducing their numbers to just 1/4 of the female population. Most male-dominated jobs are now being carried out by females, and the shogun is also a female too. The story starts from the shogun's inner chambers (大奥= ooku), with 3000 young men, and when Nino's character, Mizuno, enters ooku.

Mmmm... this is also my first movie experience in Japan. Watching a Japanese period movie... with conversations mostly in keigo... is challenging. I understood the sequence, but I can't catch all the conversations, and is quite baffled still, like, I still wondered about the reasons behind certain actions and happenings. I hope to catch the translated movie again, so that I can understand the story fully.

Neverthless, it was a great experience! I manage to catch Gantz's trailer and Harry Potter's trailer before the actual start of the movie, too!





Harry Potter is also available in 3D in Japan's cinemas. :) Good thing about 3D movies here, they cost about just 300-400yen more than normal ones, so the pinch is not that great compared to Singapore's.

Oh ya, in case you are wondering, English movies are not dubbed. They will be in English audio and Japanese subtitles. And of course, there are no subtitles for Japanese movies.

I hope to catch Harry Potter and Gantz next!

Oh ya, to complete the entire movie experience, I bought a popcorn set, which includes a medium popcorn and a medium drink, for 600yen. A popcorn set stand is also given. You can attach it to your cinema seat, and it works just like the mini table on lecture chairs.



You can choose between caramel or salted popcorn. Mixed flavours is only for large sizes, which is a pity, I love mixed flavoured popcorn. The popcorn was too much for me. Maybe because, I made a terrible mistake of saying yes to adding butter to my salted popcorn. It made me queasy.

So, maybe I will skip the popcorn set for my next 2 movies.

Getting a sneak of "My Girlfriend is an Agent"

Thanks to my colleagues, we managed to get 3 free tickets to the movie premiere of the latest Korean blockbuster "My Girlfriend is an Agent".



There were many fans crowding around the waiting area at the box office area, when we reached "The Cathay". A small stage was set up in the corner, waiting for the 2 main stars of the show - Ha-Neul Kim (sidetracked: I love her acting in drama serial "On Air") & Ji-hwan Kang to start the interview. The short interview session at the box office was a real challenge, with human traffic crossing from the escalators to the box office, and throngs of fans armed with cameras of all sizes - handphone, point-and-shoot, DSLR, etc, the entire area was packed.

Lucky for Suqi and me, we managed to grab a very 'scenic' spot. We were along the walkway of the stars, hence we managed to catch them closeup when they enter and leave the stage.

Then in the theatre, before the start of the movie, there was another round of interview on stage. Armed with only a point-and-shoot camera, the video and pictures were very dark and grainy, but nevertheless, do enjoy snippets below:





I didn't have much prior knowledge of the movie before I watch it. Briefly I knew that it's about a couple whom met again after their breakup, and they were surprised to find out that each other is actually an agent. I had assumed that it would be somewhat like the romantic comedy such as "My Sassy Girlfriend".

However, to my surprise, the movie exceeded my expectations. The very rookie actions of the main male lead, Ji-hwan Kang, were so funny, that it filled the theatre with much laughter. I thoroughly enjoyed the comedy.

Do catch this high action comedy at the cinemas when it opens in 5 November in Singapore: