Actors salaries

[Stephen Cremin]

I don't know about Japan but in Korea top film actresses can expect around
US$200,000 a role at the moment and I guess its similar in Japan.  That's my
understanding anyway.  The Hong Kong press give pages to those tax figures
too: with singer Utada Hikaru coming out on top in 1999 with something like
three times what Kitano was bringing home.  But like Aaron says, its
impossible to work backward from those figures.

Stephen Cremin

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>From: gstarr at gol.com (gregory starr)
>To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
>Subject: Re: BR / Charisma
>Date: Fri, 12 Jan 2001 08:40:27 +0900
>

>Don,
>I got a chuckle out of your following comment:
>
>>Well, my top 10 won't get published (for good reason probably), but
>>Charisma was my number one.  Plus, it's always nice to see Yakusho Koji in
>>something other than a TV commercial.  Isn't the guy rich enough that he
>>can stop making an arse of himself?
>
>I know he's in a lot of commercials, but he's also got to be the hardest
>working man
>in Japanese films.  I think he's an excellent actor, but I wouldn't mind seeing
>more films that he "isn't" in.  Maybe give some other actors a chance at some
>plum roles.
>
>Re: the "rich" comment; unfortunately, I'm not sure that there's an actor
>or actress in Japan
>who can make a living just from films.  In fact, I know a few who make the
>average New York actor/waiter seem like John Rockefeller.  Asano has been
>adamant about not doing
>TV and sticking to film, but the lucrative lure of commercials seems to have
>been too much for him, since he's seen on the screen often enough now that he
>might as well be in one of the dramas.
>
>I have found it extremely difficult to get more than a glimpse into how
>much the top actors make
>from their films here.  It's another black hole that the industry protects
>so well.
>Aaron, do you or Mark have any ideas?  Is it possible for someone to pay the
>rent without dressing in a ketchup bottle and cavorting on the tube?
>
>Greg Starr
>Premiere Japan
>
>