Aya Ueto (Japan)

Aya Ueto
上戸彩

Date de naissance : 14 septembre 1985
Lieu de naissance : Tokyo
Taille : 162 cm
Poids : 42 Kg

Filmographie interne :
- Azumi (2003)
- Insutôru (2004)
- Azumi 2 (2005)

Photobooks internes :
Photobooks collection

Biographie externe :
Dramawiki

Aya Ueto,

I knew next to nothing about this actress and only stumbled across her in Azumi 1 when I was trying to gather information about the Japanese Entertainment Industry and look at some Japanese films. Kenji told me that Azumi was "GREAT MOVIE" and movies like this one are, BLAH! Azumi 1 had enough cheese in it for a ham sandwich! It was not what I expected and I was not impressed, but this is the first exposure that I had to this actress. After watching Azumi I said to myself I'll pass on anything that this woman is in. I've since learned that everything is way too youth oriented for my taste, but I got a few more clips of Aya when I was simply roaming around on You Tube looking for clips of Chiaki's movies or anything someone may have posted.

In Japan, cute cuts to the bone, which is one thing that I had to disagree with on the article about how cute isn't enough. Aya's entire CAREER revolved around cute to get her started. She has a slightly above average voice, but Japanese people are utterly fascinated by her... which... boggles my mind and shows that I'm clearly NOT Japanese. To me, she looks like a typical Japanese woman, but has a certain quality, but if I was to choose between her and Chiaki I would not hesitate to pick Chiaki and I'm sure I would be stoned by any Japanese people in the vicinity who witnessed this shocking turn of events.

All jokes aside, I really started looking into Aya when I started trying to envision people for the characters in my book and the new character of Takahashi Utsumi is a perfect fit for Aya Ueto. Takahashi Utsumi is the Chief Administrator of the Facility that Old Man controls and she has a checkered past in Spec Op Sun where she was expected to become a great field operative, but failed miserably enough to the point that she earned the unwanted nickname of the Black Widow because she often times killed her own people just as much as she killed the opposition.

This eventually led to her resigning, she was FORCED OUT, which was a HUGE LET DOWN since Spec Op Sun is a Japanese secret agency that is hereditary by nature, which means that her parents were members of the SOS and their parents, etc and now she has broken that line and gotten tossed out on her butt! She becomes an actual doctor in the civilian medical practice and is left with constantly being reminded of her failure and disgrace. Old Man when he comes to Japan in an attempt to beat O-Ren and Bill before they start fighting with the Tokyo Crime Council, recruits Utsumi after O-Ren and Gogo are defeated at House of Blue Leaves.

The tragedy of Utsumi's Takahashi is that she showed great promise when it came to the raw numbers and training at SOS Academy, but she was absolutely horrible when it came time to go to the field and thus ends up booted out after the last person tries to "make a name for themselves" by trying to figure out how to get Utsumi's test scores to match actual field ops results. Well, Old Man recruits Utsumi right after he completes the surgical procedures on O-Ren and Gogo for Project Phoenix.

What ensues is Utsumi having to earn the respect of her peers due to her old record while working with a foreigner who is considered extremely dangerous and has chosen two Yakuza for this project instead of normal, upstanding citizens that would have clearly been much more of a contribution to society then trying to save to people like O-Ren and Gogo. Utsumi has to re-learn how to have faith in herself and get past, her past, while trying to avoid getting caught up in the ensuing power struggle within Spec Op Sun over Project Phoenix.

I believe that Aya Ueto would be a PERFECT choice to portray Takahashi because frankly I don't think that she can smile anymore without hurting her face. I have collected some You Tube interviews where she is clearly being polite and cordial, but looks tired of being told smile a gazillion times and being expected to flash the Victory sign on command and look cute. Like I said, she wasn't nasty or rude, but every so often when they would ask her things she would look at them in an annoyed fashion, especially when she was foolish enough to let them go through her apartment and they started talking about how messy it was and then one of the host said that it looked like their was someone hiding under her bed and questioned whether or not she had a boy under her bed.

Between me and you... it did look like the top of someone's head and mind you she was knocked out in the bed, but she had the covers over most of her face so you couldn't see all of her face, but it did look like someone was under her bed. My own personal feeling as I watched some clips of her drama's; she lets this little boy fondle her in one drama... I kid you not. Ahhh Japanese TV, but anyway, I think she is tired of being "the cute girl."

She rose to high status by playing the role of an androgynous female that was trying to figure out if she was a girl or a boy, this drama's name escapes me, but I will post it when I have it and she was going through this crisis in High School of course. Either way, I have a ton of commercials with her where after five minutes my teeth start to hurt because she is shoved down your throat as being so sweet and cute. I have made a dentist appointment because of the tooth decay from her sugary, syrupy sweetness!

I personally believe that she is ready to try something that has some substance and Utsumi's attempts to get comfortable with herself range from self-confidence to the fact that she intentionally is aloof and ultr-prim solely so people will leave her alone so that she doesn't have to worry about making friends and then losing them because of her own faults or failures, so it's interesting drama if I can get my book approved and then if it sells well enough to become a movie, she is definitely someone that I have in mind to try to pry from her agency, with their permission of course.

many thanks for this post geesehoward4life, actually we don't know plenty things about Aya Ueto. this will complete our knowledge.
I've seen her only in the Azumi two volumes. We have an other movie, Insutôru (2004) english title should be Install, but we have not seen it yet. I heard about a participation in a poor drama Koukou Kyoushi 2003.

I'm still looking for more drama's for her, but they are mostly TV Drama's and those are the hardest to find when you are outside of Japan, at least for me they are. I wonder if these Agencies have thought of marketing their j-drama's. I'll look into it.

geesehoward4life, that's also the same here. only successful drama are found really. most jdrama are burried inside Japan and will never pops up one day if nobody from Japan will take time to do something in that way. I wonder if old jdrama could be resurected in case of one actress becomes more popular years after.

BTW, the picture you posted will be fine in our "actresses in traditional costume topic" project.

The Japanese Entertainment Industry is very closed off towards outsiders. Since TV is the more popular medium a TV Actress is more powerful and respected then a Movie Actress, but because of that? If that TV Actress manages to garner fans outside of Japan, it is nearly impossible to see her work without someone inside Japan taping the drama and then getting it onto youtube so that non-Japanese fans can see it.

I'm gonna be honest here and say; THAT SUCKS!

To me that hurts the actress from having a fanbase outside of Japan and I'm sorry, but I think that this is intentional. If the fanbase is Japanese only then Japanese entertainment industry does not have to change any of its methods and it does something that historically Japan has always been guilty of; Trying to keep foreign influence to a minimum.

BY no means am I trying to bash Japan but as I typed this I tried to think of the last INTERNATIONAL Japanese sensation as far as an Actress or Actor. Kitano Takashi is cool and I know of him, but he comes and goes as he pleases in Japan, but as far as an Actress? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... I got nothing!
LOL!
So when I look at the industry itself, it prevents this. Maybe if they put the drama's to DVD then people outside the country could buy them. Since I've still got nothing, all I have is this Aya pic... and I personally think that she is tired of doing fluff and smiling all the time.

Aya Ueto is... The Prisoner! She'll SMILE FOR YOU!

we're going to the Paris Japanexpo today with my friend. we hope to find some tips about various actresses here.
be back late this afternoon.

Okay, I have some new Aya Pics;
It's funny because in the Zanlius Forum Pineapple Soda is trying to figure out what the big deal is with why Japanese people think Aya's so hot or that she can act. I believe that she can, but I can't really argue with Pineapple regarding the limited stuff that I have seen of her.

I will post more later
Like a Star @ heaven

employee Aya Ueto requisitioned to support the Japan team in the worldcup.

nice smile anyways

_________________
there's something in this world that's more painful than death, it's letting you go... i think i can get anything in this world if i had enough money but, i can't buy time.... should i ask you to wait until i can get into your heart!

elle a un beau sourire, y a pas à redire. en plus elle semble assez sportive d'après le photos qu'on peut trouver.

I still got nothing on Aya.
karate

No drama's no nothing. I'm gonna see if Pineapple Soda can find anything on Aya cause I got no time to look.

I do... however... have pictures;

She seems so lifeless... it saddens me that she seems to live only to smile... a whole hell of a lot, but what exactly is she smiling for all the time? It's her absolute popularity in Japan. Mind you that Aya dropped out of high school to pursue her popularity. I would hope that she is happy. Like I said, if I can get far enough, I would love to cast her as Takashi Utsumi.

Like a Star @ heaven

geesehoward4life, I have nothing more from her. just found last year a videoclip of one of her songs but she seems to be more an absolute smiling idol before all. we have posted a picture from a fan collection, depicting a part of his own collection of magazine covers with Aya.
as you wrote, a life of smiling. in other hand she's young.

Well, even though Aya is nothing but smiles, I have seen that she has a string of J-Drama's that I will have to find so that I can see something other than what I have seen from her singing. I have a few Youtubes of her commercials and songs, but I start to suffer from tooth decay from too much viewing of her works.

Either way, today is her birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYA!

Later!

geesehoward4life, that's a good point, we have not yet put something in action to have a complete calendar of our girl's birthday. well, Aya it's today, fun !

We have just finished watching her in the Install movie. I've seen her actring not so bad, not always smiling in that movie. but she's very young in her mimics and it's very hard to think of her in a drama role. I still can't put her image out of the Azumi character.

I will look at the link. Like I said, I believe that she can act, but just like Chiaki, just like Lucy, they need people to challenge them and help them get better at their craft. How can someone get better when all you are asked is to stay inside your nice, safe and neat box that has been set aside for you!

BLAH! I say NO TO BOXES! karate

I believe that in regards to Chiaki and Aya in particular, they are young, but they are constantly going from one thing to the next to the next, when is the time to stop and reflect and look at things and see what needs to be worked on and then do that FIRST before running to the next project or commercials or photo shoots!

Aya needs to have her drama skills sharpened because of the fact that it is hard to see her as anything other than, smiling face Aya. I do not know if these things are said to her or if she says them, I don't know, BUT I do believe that she can portray the character Utsumi Takahashi and it would really garner a lot of attention for her and give her the chance to break out of that mold.

GO AYA BE FREE!