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Masami Nagasawa

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Masami Nagasawa
File:Nagasawa masami.jpg
Occupationactress

Masami Nagasawa (長澤 まさみ, Nagasawa Masami, born June 3, 1987 in Iwata, Shizuoka) is a Japanese actress under Toho Entertainment. She has performed in many famous movies and television dramas including Crying out Love, In the Center of the World, Nada Sousou, Dragon Zakura and Proposal Daisakusen. She graduated from Horikoshi High School in 2006. She is also known as "Ma-chan" or as Yamashita Tomohisa calls her "Maa-tan". On her radio show, she introduces herself as "Gasawa," a nckname chosen by fans. She is the daughter of Kazuaki Nagasawa, the former manager of the J. League team Júbilo Iwata.

Biography

Nagasawa graduated from Horikoshi High School, which is famous due to notable performers like Ayumi Hamasaki, Ayase Haruka, Aya Ueto, Jun Matsumoto, Tomohisa Yamashita and Tanaka Koki having studied there.

Career

In 2000, she auditioned in the 5th (Year 2000) Toho "Cinderella" Contest at the age of 12, and emerged as the youngest winner ever out of a total contestant pool of 35,153 individuals. This marked the beginning of her career in the entertainment industry. She made her debut in the movie, Crossfire, released in the same year. In the following year, she appear to have commented, "I did wonder if it's true that becoming a "Cinderella" mean that I will immediately become a famous actress". Afterwards, she became a professional model for the popular teen magazine, Peach Lemon.

In 2002, her appearance in the Nabisco CM earned her the title of "The Pretty Girl from the Nabisco CM" in magazines and TV shows, as her name was not yet well-known at the time.

In 2003, she had her very first leading role in the movie, Robokon. This is a movie about a high school girl who reluctantly participates in the National Robot Contest for High School Students. Masami was awarded the Best Newcomer prize in the 27th Japanese Academy Awards for her excellent performance in this movie. Later, she commented that it was this movie that first brought out her acting skills, and that it remains one of her favourite works to this day.

She co-starred with Chihiro Otsuka, the Judges' Special Award winner from the 5th Toho "Cinderella" Contest, in the 27th movie of the Godzilla Series, Godzilla: Tokyo SOS in 2003 and the last movie of the series Godzilla: Final Wars in 2004. The two actresses also sang the track, The Song of Mothra, which was later released as part of the Godzilla: Tokyo SOS sound track CD.

In 2004, Masami starred as the heroine of the story, a teenage girl who died of leukemia, in the big hit movie, Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World. The movie was a box office hit in Japan, earning 8.5 billion Yen in total. It was in this movie that she decided to shave off all her hair to accommodate her role as a leukemia patient. Her outstanding performance in this movie gave her recognition as an actress and earned her numerous awards including the Best Supporting Actress Prize (the youngest ever) in the 28th Japanese Academy Awards. She would then be nominated for Best Actress at the "30th Japanese Academy Awards" for her performance in "Nada Sousou".

Since then, she has also starred in other movies and has also been actively involved in dramas and other TV shows. In 2005, she starred as a student along with several others in the all popular high school inspiration drama, Dragon Zakura. Then in 2006, she starred as a female ninja in her first NHK Taiga Drama, Komyo ga Tsuji, which was immediately followed by her appearance as the female protagonist in the drama remake of the 1981 big hit movie, Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu (starring Hiroko Yakushimaru). Her first single was subsequently released under the name Hoshi Izumi, the name of the female protagonist from Sailor Fuku to Kikanjuu.

In April 2007, she co-starred with Tomohisa Yamashita for the second time in the fantasy love comedy, Proposal Daisakusen (first time was in Dragon Zakura). The show enjoyed high ratings and the cast also swept the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix Awards for Spring of 2007, winning in all 5 categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Drama.

She also spent nearly one month in India filming for her latest SP drama, Butterfly Stroke in Ganges River, based on Takano Teruko's original travel biography.

A special episode of Proposal Daisakusen was announced for spring of 2008. The vague ending caused viewers to ask for the rest of the story and so a two-hour special began filming in late January 2008. The story continues where the last episode left off and will feature the wedding ceremony of their friends in Hawaii. It aired on March 25, 2008 and featured a kiss scene between Tomohisa Yamashita and her.

In April 2008, she starred in the Fuji TV drama, "Last Friends" with Juri Ueno, Eita and Ryo Nishikido. The shows deals with issues like domestic violence and sexual identity. It aired on Thursday at 10:00 pm and enjoyed high viewership ratings with a special episode aired a week after the last episode, titled, "Mou Hitotsu no Last Friends."

She starred in the remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1958 film "The Hidden Fortress" with Jun Matsumoto and Abe Hiroshi. She played the role of the princess and it was released in theaters on May 10, 2008.

In June 2008, it was announced that she will play one of the major characters in the 2009 NHK Taiga drama, "Tenchijin". The lead is played by "Nada Sousou" co-star, Satoshi Tsumabuki. It started airing in January 2009.

She was also cast as the lead in the first episode of the drama special, "Fujiko F. Fujio no Parallel Space." The episode, "Nebumi Camera" aired on October 31, 2008 at midnight on WOWOW channel.

She was chosen to star in a move called "Gunjo," based on a novel by Ayako Miyagi and directed by Yosuke Nakagawa. It is the second Japanese movie produced by 20th Century Fox. Filming finished on August 5, 2008 and includes her first actual love scene. It will be released in Spring 2009, although Fox aims to have it premier at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.[1]

The popular drama series, "Galileo" aired a special episode that included her in the cast where she played a student lab assistant. Entitled, [["Galileo: Episode Zero," it aired the same day as the flm was released and received a rating of 20.8% In another drama special, "Souka, Mou Kimi wa Inai no Ka," she played the young version of Saburo Shiroyama's wife. It aired on January 12, 2009 on TBS

On February 11, 2009, it was announced that she and Odagiri Joe will star in the new TBS drama, "Boku no Imoto". They will play siblings and the drama will start airing in April on Sundays at 9:00 pm.[2]

For winter 2010, a movie titled, "Magare! Spoon" will be released with her as the lead. It is said to be her first time in a situation comedy. She plays a clumsy assistant director of a Tv show about the paranormal, unaware that the men around her possess psychic powers. Filming has started and is expected to finish on January 2010.[3]

Popularity

For three consecutive years since 2005, she has been the cover girl for Toho Calendar, which has a history of over 50 years.

In March 2006, she was voted the Most Popular Actress in Oricon Style. According to the movie magazine Kinema Junpo, Nagasawa is also said to be one of the "top amongst young female movie actresses".

In Summer 2007, Masami was ranked 9th in 2007 Most Influential People In Japan and was the only female in the ranking. The order is as follow: Kimura Takuya, Kitano Takeshi, Suzuki Ichiro, Matsui Hideki, Mino Monta, Akashiya Sanma, Katori Shingo, Matsuzaka Daisuke, Nagasawa Masami, Nakai Masahiro, according to magazine Flash.

She currently is ranked as one of the top celebrities for CMs, being the spokesperson for several products.

She regularly appears in Oricon rankings.
Oricon: Wonderful Smiles (2009)- placed 5th
Oricon: who do you want as your lover? (2007 and 2008)- placed 2nd
Oricon: best-looking in yukata(2008)- placed 3rd
Oricon: who would you want as a child?(2008)- placed 3rd
Oricon: Golden Week dates (2008)- placed 1st
Oricon: Golden Week surveys (2008)- placed 3rd
Oricon: fast food smile (2008)- placed 8th
Oricon: women's spring styles (2008)- placed 2nd
Oricon: cherry blossom beauty (2008)- placed 10th
Oricon: adventure with a celebrity (2008)- placed 3rd
Oricon: ideal girlfriend (2008)- placed 2nd
Oricon: who do you want as a receptionist? (2008)- placed 2nd
Oricon: who would you want nursing you? (2007)- placed 1st
Oricon: who do you want as your girlfriend? (2007)- placed 2nd
Oricon: wonderful voices (2007)- placed 5th
Oricon: the true "hataraki man" (2007)- placed 5th
Oricon: Kohaku hosts (2007)- placed 2nd
Oricon: best face (2007)- placed 4th
Oricon: nice teeth (2007)- placed 5th (although she won Best Smile of the Year award)
Oricon: who do you want to make your bento? (2007)- placed 1st
Oricon: which celebrity would you want to be? (2007)- placed 5th
Oricon: fall hairstyles (2007)- placed 3rd
Oricon: Tanabata survey (2007)- placed 1st
Oricon: the new "hime sexy" trend (2007) - placed 5th
Oricon: summer hairstyles (2007)- placed 4th
Oricon: hanabi dates (2007)- placed 2nd
Oricon: Fresh Star Ranking (2007)- placed 1st
Oricon: who do you want to wake you up? (2007)- places 1st
Oricon: choose your secretary (2007)- placed 4th
Oricon: who do you want to marry? (2007)- placed 1st
Oricon survey: cutest lively voice (2007)- placed 3rd
Oricon survey: who would you want as a coworker? (2007)- placed 5th
Oricon survey: most beautiful female celebrity without makeup (2007)- placed 5th
Oricon: Who would you spend Tanabata with? (2006) - placed 5th

Movies

Television dramas

Radio

  • Nagasawa Masami All Night Nippon R (NBS, February 18th, 2005)
  • Nagasawa Masami All Night Nippon R (NBS, October 16th, 2006)
  • Nagasawa Masami (Title: Undecided), All Night Nippon, (NBS, April 8th, 2007 ~ present)

Endorsements


Other

PV

WEB

CD

Singles

Awards

  • (2003) 8th Nifty Movie Awards (aka Nihon Internet Movie Award):'Best Newcomer'(Actor Field) Prize in Robokon&Yomigaeri.
  • (2004) 25th Yokohama Movie Awards:'Best Newcomer' Prize in Robokon&Ashura no Gotoku.
  • (2004) 27th Japanese Academy Awards:'Best Newcomer' Prize in Robokon.
  • (2004) 17th Nikkan Sports Movie Awards:'Best Newcomer' Prize in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2004) Hochi Film Awards 'Best Supporting Actress' Prize in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2004) 1st Platinum Film Actress Award in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2005) 47th Blue Ribbon Awards:'Best Supporting Actress' Prize in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2005) 29th Élan d'or Awards:'Best Newcomer' Prize in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2005) 28th Japanese Academy Awards:'Best Supporting Actress' Prize in Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2005) 28th Japanese Academy Awards:'Most Popular Performer' Prize for Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World.
  • (2006)Vogue Nippon Women of the Year
  • (2007) 18th Nihon Jewelry Best Dresser Age Under 20
  • (2007) 30th Japanese Academy Awards:nominated as the 'Best Actress' in Nada sousou
  • (2007) 4th Cotton USA Award in Japan
  • (2007) In June, she was announced as the "Woman Most Men Want To Marry". This was a survey done by Oricon and was released under the title "June Brides".
  • (2007) For the Award Most Influential People In Japan, Masami ranks 9th as the only female among its Top 10.
  • (2007) November 8th, the Japan Dental Association announced Masami as one of its 2007 Best Smile of the Year awards recipient.[4]
  • (2007) Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (Spring) - Best Actress for Proposal Daisakusen.
  • (2008) Video Research Ltd. TV commercial data for 2007 revealed that for the Kanzai region of Japan, Masami overtook Yukie Nakama to be "CM Queen" by just a couple hours. In Nagoya, Masami took the 2nd place.[5]

References

  1. ^ Gunjo - Nippon Cinema
  2. ^ Odagiri, Nagasawa co-star as siblings in Boku no Imouto - Tokyograph. Feb 11, 2009
  3. ^ Masami Nagasawa versus the paranormal - Tokyograph. Jan 21, 2009
  4. ^ Oricon: nice teeth - Tokyograph
  5. ^ Nakama continues reign as CM queen - Tokyograph
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