Nicholas Cage - Sankyo Pachinko ad

whats the commercial about???...pearls

Pachinko, it's a type of pinball machine gambling game in Japan that involves tiny silver balls like that.

tons of hollywood stars do similar commercials in foreign countries, they can't do this stuff in the U.S. because they got an image to maintain there

That really doesn't matter anymore, seeing how via the Internet and more importantly YouTube, a celebrity can be exposed doing anything anywhere. That's probably one of the reasons why Hollywood celebs are hardly seen in Japanese commercials anymore (and the sagging economy). The cheesy commercials they participate in out of avarice will be here for the world to see in MINUTES of its debut.

lol, not really, look at Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz doind commercials for Softbank, or Tommy Lee Jones making a whole series of commercials for Boss Coffee playing an alien spy on Earth, you don't know much about Japan, do you?  Anyway, what I said is the truth as reported on CNN, etc. Hollywood agencies want their stars to maintain a certain image in the U.S., that's why they can only do such commercails in foreign countries, were the majority of Americans will never see it, even with youtube

I live here....check my profile. Notice that they don't say a word in the commercials you mentioned. Before YouTube, celebs would ham it up a lot. You couldn't stop Brad Pitt from talking on the Edwin commercials before viral video. Gone are the days where Arnie and Nicolas would act like a court jester out of avarice. Now it is in these guys' best interest to keep their mouths shut. Also, notice in Orlando Bloom's 3 minute commercial, he doesn't say a blessed word.

uhhh...Tommy Lee Jones has had more than a few lines in his series of commercials, all in bad Japanese. I think him dressing up in various outfits speaks volumes over what you're arguing.

Uhh...him dressing like a store clerk or in a smart suit or in a yukata at an onsen is not hamming it up. In fact, his entire coffee commercial series he says 3 or 4 words and sings a couple of words from an enka song. Finished. watch?v=au-2mFi1SaE In fact, the series itself has the undertone that these subcultures are silly and he "deserves better" than this. If this was 5 years ago, he'd be totally milking it like all the celebs here once were.

Also, I like how you went to Tommy Lee Jones trying to prove me wrong and totally forgot about your previous examples I disproved as if a few words across 12 commercials proves that there has been no paradigm shift in Hollywood talent's approach to the Japanese CM circuit.

it's pinball/digital slot machine, look it up on wiki