My source in Japan has translated the October issue of Roadshow magazine. In this issue there are new interviews with the cast and crew, and today we’ll be posting the interviews with Justin Chatwin (Goku) and 87Eleven (stunts).

Justin Chatwin interview
First of all, it’s an honor to play Goku, because he is a very important and epic character. He is always seeing the positive side of things, does good things, and always trys to help and take care of the weak, not only pursuing his power. He is a dependable and loving man as well as a boy. So I like Goku.

In preparation for the role, of course I read the original manga (all of it), in addition, I read Monkey King a little, because Dragonball is based on Monkey King. And during the break time of shooting, I got into Goku’s character, telling jokes with other cast in search of the real communication which can be used in acting.

This is the most interesting movie for me. Because I have never fought with anyone though, I trained martial arts and acrobat, and then we shot it. That’s fun as well as challenging. Fighting with Eriko (Tamura), she punched me in the face, actually she intended to hit lightly, but…it was a clean hit (laugh) She said “I’m sorry!” and apologized to me, but thanks to her, we could shoot very powerful action scene. Through this work, I think I could learn a lot of things.

I like Durango very much. Because a lot of my favorite movie like “The Wild Bunch” was shot here. And there are locations like sand dunes, cave, lava field and rocky hill like the Grand Canion, so I think the background of this movie are very epic.

Highlights of this movie are the action scenes, and amazing visual effects will be made at post production, so I’m looking forward to see it. About Kamehameha I only can imagine it now. I’m so excited. And this movie is the coming-of-age story about a boy, though this is set in a sci-fi world, in my opinion, my best scene is the moment when the characters who got together for the same purpose relate to each other.

Action coordinator 87eleven staff interview
Each characters has a different fighting style. For example, Goku’s fighting style is a hybrid of capoeira, karate and so on. Chi-Chi’s fighting style is based on kick boxing (Muay Thai) style, Master Roshi and Gohan are based on traditional Chinese martial arts (southern style). Justin has good muscle strength of the lower body so to harness this strength, we let him do action. His capoeira motion is very good. He has no experience of martial arts at all, we had to teach him from scratch. But he is doing very well for two months training period.

Highlight of this movie is fighting with Goku and Piccolo, I think it has a tremendous impact. Goku and Gohan’s fight is comical, and Chi-Chi does Jackie Chan-like battle. Each character has a unique twist on martial arts.

Part 2 of this article »

Remember Jump Square’s manga set report last month? Well, here’s the thrilling conclusion to it in this month’s Jump Square magazine. A lot is revealed in these translations, and I had a lot of fun reading it.

Justin Chatwin (Goku) appeared in front of them. Goku had blue eyes. The author of this manga (Akiba Zaijuu) felt Justin has a boyish nature, as well as Goku. He was wearing the blue gi, not orange. Justin said “My gi with Kame mark (orange gi) is still in the making. I’m looking forward to see how it will be made. I hope it will become what you all like.” The author remembered he saw and talk with Mayes Rubeo (costume designer) before. She said “I kept trying for the children of the little village I grew up won’t be disappointed with it. I made more than thirty prototypes for only Goku’s gi.” She seemed to be ambitious and having fun, so he felt she sure can make a good costume. And about Justin, his blue gi was cool, but not only the costume design, but his buffed up muscle enhanced his look. Because he has been training for seven months for Goku’s role. The author remembered Goku also have trained for eight months under Master Roshi when Goku was a child in the original. Coincidence?

When the Japanese magazine press interviewed Justin, suddenly the tank top man came into the room. He shouted “Omochi!(rice cake)” in Japanese. He tried to eat Kusa-dango of Asakusa Tokyo (it was souvenir from Japan) there but he accidentally dropped it on the ground and it got dirty with sand. But he didn’t care, he picked it up and ate it. He was a very wild man. The author wondered who he was.

Next Emmy Rossum’s interview. She said her active and cheerful character resembled Bulma. She’s a brilliant young actress and also a good singer. Bulma’s hair is not all blue, but have blue streaks. Make-up artist Mr. Gomez told us the reason that all blue hair is too strong as a live-action, so he was requested not to do that. So he proposed sixteen hairstyle and make-up designs which kept the image of the original, but they were all turned down. After that time he came up with the present hairstyle and make-up. Emmy said, “Did you look at the three-wheeled motorcycle? There are two same motorcycles and they promise I will get one of them after the filming. Other one may be gotten by someone here!” they asked her what her favorite Mexican food was and she said “Gorditas! I like Gorditas.”

Then they interviewed Joon Park, he was [the] wild tank top man before. He resembled an early Yamcha very well, especially eyebrows and eyes. His cheerful character imparted a upbeat atmosphere there. He said, “I wanted to get any small part, I got to audition, and I got the role of Yamcha. I have Japanese friends and I asked him to send the video of Dragonball and I watched them over and over again. But I realized Yamcha didn’t appear in them a lot. Where is Yamcha? looking for him in the video, I studied him.” The author also thought certainly that Yamcha’s appearance is few in the original, and he wondered whether Puar (Yamcha’s pet cat) appeared or not. He asked his company editor, but the editor said “Who cares?” and the author didn’t really care either. Joon also said he collected toy figures made of metal like Mazinger Z.

Next, they interviewed Jamie Chung. She is a crisp girl, her face was expressive, like as a small animal, her lower lip and twinkling almond eyes were adorable. Press men got hot immediately. She resembled kid Chi-Chi rather than adult Chi-Chi. She said her type is a pretty boy.

Next they interviewed Chow Yun-Fat. He is different from the image of Master Roshi than in the original, but he surprisingly matched the lovable mischief and dirty old man perfectly. He said his favorite food is Japanese Ramen. He was very kind enough to take a photo with the author. He said, “I have never played such character, but I could play it happily and passionately.” The author looks forward to seeing him play Muten Roshi.

And James Marsters appeared at last. His cheek line looks just like Piccolo. he said “Were you wearing the Gold Jacket before? I passed you at the hotel didn’t I?” The man he saw at the hotel was James Marsters after all. James shouted, “I am Piccolo! Yes! I’m Picoolo, so I won’t let anyone play Piccolo!” He was full of spirit. His enthusiasm to the role came through intensely, he looked as if he was the real Piccolo for a moment to the author’s eyes. He thought this movie was worth seeing to see James Marsters as Piccolo by itself.

James Marsters (Piccolo) was recently interviewed by Total Sci-Fi, where he briefly mentioned his work on Dragonball. Thanks to Karen for the link.

How was it filming Dragonball in the extensive Piccolo make-up?

The first time we did the make-up, it took 17 hours, so four hours seemed like nothing. My costume looked great, but I couldn’t breathe in it.

Any surprises in doing a big budget movie?

I suspect it’s going to turn out really well, but so much is done in post-production, it’s difficult to gauge. In Durango, they wanted Piccolo to be more beautiful, and I wanted him to be old, decrepit and ugly. There are no mirrors in prison. [The character has been in prison for two thousand years.]

The character started out looking young and beautiful. I went to the make-up artist and said, ‘The producers want the character to be beautiful, but the producers ain’t here. And we’re going to put back with paint what they took away with the sculpt [prosthetics make-up].’ The director agreed with me. I would rather have been fired than mess up Piccolo.

Will fans of the Dragonball and Dragonball Z series like the movie?

There have been some changes, but it’s true to the heart of Dragonball.

As promised, my source has translated the interview with James Marsters (Piccolo) from the August issue of Jump Square magazine. Give it a read!

What is the difference between the original and the live-action movie ?

JM: Definitely the story of this movie is different from the original. But it’s a necessary change because we need to condense the long story of the original for a movie. For example, some characters in the original don’t appear in the movie. And we try to give it a more gritty and graphic (realistic) feeling.

Though there are differences between the two, I think it is all right if the core part of Dragonball remains. I let my son watch the anime’s Dragonball, DBZ and DBGT since he was eight years old. At first, I thought it was too violent, but I realized this is the best show for training to become a true man. True men need not to flaunt themselves. Their calm, gentle and modest but when it comes to the crunch they don’t hesitate to kill the enemy, and I think that’s what Goku is.

Goku is a real man. I know my son received such a message and applied it to his own life. My son doesn’t use violence to others, but he isn’t afraid of his own anger. I think it’s an important thing.

How many hours does it take to apply the make-up?

JM: It takes about four hours. Luckily, my make-up artist is very chatty, we have a lot of chat during the make up.

Please tell us the most remarkable scene in the movie, especially action scenes!

JM: It is the last battle after all! I like playing the battle scene. When I worked for a TV show for seven years, every Friday I fought till sun rise, I felt I would never have such a good time again until now. In addition, I have never gotten terribly hurt (laugh).

Do you talk with other co-stars as well?

JM: When I have a problem, I have a talk with Justin [Chatwin]. At first, we worried about the costumes. We thought it should reflect the spirit of the original, we persisted this thought to the producers. We didn’t want to make our characters beautiful and safe. I talked with Justin, and he agreed with me. So did the director.

What do you care about in acting for this movie?

JM: That’s a good question. Speaking of Piccolo, one word comes into my mind, it’s “loneliness”. Piccolo is always floating in the air in the beautiful landscape, but he never even admires the landscape, he is only thinking or musing and staring at his feet. I think that is a characteristic of piccolo more than anything else. Maybe it must be a characteristic for revenge. He hates himself and blames the people who has trapped him. His desire to kill not only them but their family, furthermore to destroy the city and the planet they live and protect. To get revenge is everything to him. Everything.

How was shooting in Durango?

JM: The desert of Durango is very cold at night (laugh). I was luckily wearing armor, but Goku was freezing at the beginning of shooting. The local people are very kind and get along with us. Besides they love to party very much! If I didn’t have work, I would be willing to join them. They are drinking and singing songs until 4:30 a.m. But I need to sleep for the shooting the next day, after all so I changed the hotel to get away from the partying people.

Finally, please give us a message to our readers in Japan.

JM: Japan is beautiful. Thank you for giving Dragonball to us! It’s an important show to us all and I want you to watch it, especially the young people. I thank the show for a lot of good times with my son. I’ll do my best to meet the high expectations the fans have.

Also, Dragonballfilm posted up a small interview with Texas Battle (Carey Fuller) about his role in the movie. Check it out here.

A new Dragonball poster has popped up online from Cinema Expo 2008 in Amsterdam. It features our first teasing glimpse of Piccolo at the top.

Source.

Chelo248 informs us of a comment left by Lucille of Emmy Rossum Fan. She states she met James Marsters at Collectormania, and learned the director was only allowing stunt doubles when absolutely necessary.

Random tidbit, but I gained a new appreciation today for how hard Emmy would have worked on Dragonball. I was talking to James Marsters (he plays Piccolo) and he said that it was the hardest job he’d ever had in his life because the stunts were simply so demanding and the director wasn’t letting anybody (including Emmy) fall back on stunt doubles unless it was desperately necessary. I don’t know the extent of Emmy’s stuntwork, but if it’s even half as much as James’ she worked her butt off.

According to this new information, we’ll be seeing plenty more of James Marsters in the upcoming trilogy.

“Dragonball – signed on for two more, nothing else currently in the works.”

People put their hands up and he picked them out. We didn’t need a microphone. I will try to remember some of the answers he gave.

* He is signed up for two more Dragonball movies.

That ends the speculation that the younger incarnation of Piccolo (Piccolo Jr.) would be played by another actor.

James Marsters (Piccolo) recently confirmed at The Rift that ki (energy blasts) would be used in the movie.

“PS I Love You - thinks he was boring. He went along planning to be a good boy, and it ended up boring. Has decided now he’s actually hired to be an arsehole. To make his character interesting. So with this new attitude on, he got hired to do Dragonball Z.

They started off with this total age makeup for his character, really old and decrepit and stuff. Then they decided that wouldn’t be pretty enough to sell. But JM thought it was essential to his character. It was his character’s whole motivation. He got locked up for ages, he got old, when he got out and saw himself for the first time he decided to get even. So he went to the makeup artist with a picture of the original old guy test makeup and told him to make it like that. Makeup artist said the producers were pretty sure, but JM said if the producers cared they’d be there. They weren’t even in the same country. So.

He has a lot of stunt work in the new film. When asked what the difference was between TV and film he said for TV he had a stuntman. So for the film he’s getting thrown off things and blown up and kicked in the face. One time his character is getting shot at by another character, power blasts, and he ducks and it blows up the rock behind him. So they got set up to blow it up and JM asked, said the quicker he stands up the cooler it will be. So he ducks, they blow it up, he stands up right away when there’s still chunks flying. The camera people, taken somewhat by surprise, leap to do their jobs. One person gets hit by something, and JM still feels guilty about that. (Be asks who was running stunts and how is it possible an actor can mess up the timing/safety issues?) (… what country were they filming in?) But JM’s logic is his character isn’t bothered by some rock blowing up. He only has to dodge his enemies’ blasts. Rock isn’t a problem for the supervillain.”

Thanks to Craig for the source.