One Fine Day in December...
December 18, 2008 was the day the Earth stood still for me... well, it was supposed to be. Not quite, but well, it was a very interesting experience. Nelly and I went to the Japan Premiere of Keanu Reeves' latest movie The Day The Earth Stood Still. I originally bought the tickets for the premiere movie show after the redcarpet ("blue carpet" this time), but I didn't win the invitation for the redcarpet myself. Like three days before the event, a very kind person whom I had come to know through a Japanese fansite offered me invitation cards as she won double. Lucky me!
The invitation cards for the redcarpet:
I hear those who are so-called "core fans" took the earliest trains in the morning to get there for the best spot. As I was stuck with my work and didn't have time for that, I had given up to get the good spot and got there a bit before 2:00 p.m. when they would start exchanging the invitation cards for the actual tickets.
The "Blue Carpet" waiting for the big night...
:
Before getting to the event itself, some pics from the Press Conference on December 17
As you can see from the last pic, Keanu seems to have done some promotions for Street Kings as well.
Here's some links to the short clips for the press conference:
http://sankei-hito.iza.ne.jp/blog/entry/839665
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/stream/m_entertainment/1217keanu.htm
And pics from Blue Carpet on December 18 at Roppoingi Hills Arena. The first some pics were taken by my fellow Keanu fan named nanami-san who generously allowed me to use her pics. She was at a better spot than us. As these are not mine, please do not use at another sites without permission!
And my own arts (LOL!) -- I was far to take them directly, so I basically took the images on the big monitor.
And some professional pics...
If you have time and nothing else to do, you can watch the whole event here: http://event.movies.yahoo.co.jp/theater/chikyu/
It's about one and a half hours long, and Keanu shows up after 40 minutes. Click either 500 K or 1 M in the middle.
Keanu and the gang went to the adjacent screens (3 screens in turn) following the Blue Carpet Event. No pics as the photos are not allowed. During the whole event -- blue carpet and at the screen, he seems to be in a really good mood. Very relaxed.
On December 19, only Keanu moved to Osaka; first he met the Governor of Osaka:
http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20081219_keanu_in_osaka/
Then he went to attend a smaller premiere event at Nishinomiya, Hyogo (close to Osaka).
http://gigazine.net/index.php?/news/comments/20081219_keanu_nishinomiya/
I'm not sure if he has already left Japan... probably he did. I'm pretty sure that he must be exhausted by now. I hope he had some time to enjoy his favourite ramen noodles and/or sushi.
On the side note, I had a really great time with Nelly. We met each other for the first time, and she was just aweful as she always had been on LJ! Kidding. She was fabluous! Thanks for the dinner, Nelly! ]
I will write about the movie itself in a separate post. Basically, it was pretty much as I had expected, which means, I wasn't impressed.