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NEWS: Fumika Shimizu Retires From Acting to Join Happy Science Religious Organization


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ZetaZaku



Joined: 18 Mar 2014
Posts: 137
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 4:13 am Reply with quote
I hope they already filmed Hentai Kamen 3 before she retired. Crazy lunatics and their stupid sects ruining masterpieces.
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sirdano1



Joined: 06 Jul 2011
Posts: 291
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 4:45 am Reply with quote
From one Hellhole into another. Poor girl.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 5:24 am Reply with quote
Quote:
31 days every month


I really hope those lawyers didn't actually put that statement in her lawsuit...
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MrTerrorist



Joined: 20 Oct 2010
Posts: 1348
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 5:42 am Reply with quote
I'm worried that this "Happy Science" group used her frustration with her agency to make her leave and join their cult full time. This feels like something Scientology does.
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KH91



Joined: 17 May 2013
Posts: 6176
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 5:48 am Reply with quote
Well ain't that a piece of drama.
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AmuroNT1



Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:13 am Reply with quote
I'm really suspicious of this lawyer statement about how her time working on Kamen Rider was a nightmare. At the time the show ended, there was a blog post about the final episode where the director said that the cast had become as close as family over the course of filming, and Shimizu herself said she considered intentionally messing up her lines because she didn't want it to end.

Part of me suspects that this is very much like Issac Hayes' "quitting" South Park, which by all indications was actually Scientology quitting the show for him
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AJ (LordNikon)



Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Posts: 502
Location: Kyoto
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:24 am Reply with quote
AmuroNT1 wrote:
I'm really suspicious of this lawyer statement about how her time working on Kamen Rider was a nightmare.


Hey in mind to someone of that age, the hours involved in the entertainment industry probably do feel like hell. While there are a lot of people in the industry child labour laws keep those under 13 under extremely tight restrictions, but from 13-20 they are lessened quite a bit. For people in that age group who would normally live a teenager/you adult (college type) life, entertainment industry hours would obliterate said teen life. Add in some slick sleazy lawyers whether they be yak, industry, or new religion and things go south real quick.

I'm pretty sure those lawyers and the religious leaders pointed out and drove the point hard that the talent agency robbed her of a normal healthy adolescence, and that's probably pretty much true. It reminds of having been given a choice, do you want to flee a hanging mob by jumping off a cliff or trying to run through it.

It's like playing Let's make a deal, with both boxes containing the booby prize, either choice and Shimizu-san is going to get bamboozled.
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Wandering Samurai



Joined: 30 Mar 2014
Posts: 875
Location: USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 6:32 am Reply with quote
She is getting her fair share of criticism for this decision by some of her fellow geinoujin. I was watching the lunch time show and Higashikokubaru was calling her irresponsible for coming to this decision. One of my work sempais told me that this Happy Science community is kind of loony too, almost comparable to Aum.
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:09 am Reply with quote
Quote:
The statement claimed that during the filming of her Kamen Rider role, she had only three hours of sleep a day, and worked 31 days every month for only 50,000 yen (about US$438) without a bonus


I do hope that's a per day amount and not for the entire role. If not then I don't know what the complaint about a lack of a bonus would be if the pay's that small. The three hours of sleep a day only matters if the other 21 hours were written out as part of her contract.

I think some of these may be a mistranslation as she may have been paid for 50,000 yen a day for 31 days each month. That sounds like the sort of thing you'd find in a contract agreement.

If she or her agency would sign a contract for just 50,000 yen for a role that would last long enough to be expressed in days if not months then someone belongs in a cult.

For their own safety if nothing else.
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Surrender Artist



Joined: 01 May 2011
Posts: 3264
Location: Pennsylvania, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:36 am Reply with quote
It's hard to imagine that she is not making a mistake. The name, "Happy Science," screams, "WARNING THIS IS A CULT!" so loudly and blatantly that it sounds like it was created by a satirist and not a very subtle or clever one. Given the circumstances described in the article and likely attendant deep disillusionment, she seems like an easy mark for just such an organization.
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Ryuhei



Joined: 10 Jul 2014
Posts: 16
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:49 am Reply with quote
Where did you find the info about the organization? Come on, of course they don´t have 10 million members haha... That´s maybe what they claim, but it´s obviously false!.
How can you post that without realizing it? Those data are just propaganda from them, with stupid inflated numbers. That´s what these religious groups/sects do, in any country.
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Sparvid



Joined: 06 Oct 2009
Posts: 240
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:52 am Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Quote:
31 days every month


I really hope those lawyers didn't actually put that statement in her lawsuit...


November 31st was a particularly exhausting day.
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Snakebit1995



Joined: 25 Apr 2015
Posts: 842
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 7:54 am Reply with quote
Surrender Artist wrote:
It's hard to imagine that she is not making a mistake. The name, "Happy Science," screams, "WARNING THIS IS A CULT!" so loudly and blatantly that it sounds like it was created by a satirist and not a very subtle or clever one.


Yeah the name just screams danger zone. I didn't have to read the article to take a shot that this was basically Japanese Scientology, and then I read...and was kinda right.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2228
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:14 am Reply with quote
I've lived in Japan long enough to have an opinion on Happy Science: They're pretty harmless, all things considered.

They run some book stores that actually sell normal books (but also serve as a place where they push their own propaganda on you), and I've had them come to my door a few times handing out info.

But they don't go around blaring in sound trucks as far as I know, and their temples(?) which are in some pretty high profile places, look perfectly innocent. I don't know too much about their beliefs but I'd liken it to like a health fad that's gone all the way to "religious cult" level...
Maybe one day they'll go all Ren and Stimpy Space Madness on us, who knows?
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Eigengrau



Joined: 09 May 2015
Posts: 104
Location: Belgium
PostPosted: Mon Feb 13, 2017 8:21 am Reply with quote
You'd think I'd get a large following if I founded a cult called "Miserable Woo"?
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