Japanese Entertainment: From special effects actor to action superstar

Chapter 634 was introduced as the largest-scale Taiga drama in history.
The first season was filmed over nearly four months, and Gu Mingzhen stayed in Zhouguo for four months. Afterwards, he obtained the tapes from the first to the thirteenth episode, up to the point where Lü Bu was bound at the White Gate Tower, and returned to Japan.

The average cost per episode was $3, compared to $1 in history. This price delighted the Japanese.

Now that Gu Ming has doubled the price, his return to Japan still makes several TV stations quite happy.

This historical drama is fantastic! The Great Zhou Dynasty drama is truly excellent! The investment is on a national scale! Forget 30,000, we could agree to 300,000!

After being re-dubbed in Japan and with added subtitles, it will be broadcast in Japan.

The various television stations paid Gu Ming tens of millions of yen just for the commission fees.

The opening theme song, "The Mighty Yangtze River Flows Eastward," was specially dubbed and re-edited into a Japanese version, sung by Gu Ming himself.

It wasn't until winter that Romance of the Three Kingdoms was officially broadcast in Japan, almost simultaneously with the Zhou Dynasty, only a few months later.

The slogan they used was, "The largest-scale Taiga drama in history."

The promotional photos released one by one really whetted the audience's appetite.

……

……

Danjiro Kinoshita, Section Chief of the Broadcasting Department at TBS.

A few years ago, Kinoshita Danjiro had some issues with his personal life. He had an ambiguous relationship with a new female colleague named Chacha. Eventually, Chacha's father came to his door and almost caused him to lose his job. In the end, the matter was finally settled, but it further lowered Kinoshita Danjiro's status in the family.

In the evening, during a television program, Kinoshita Danjiro, whose status in the family had plummeted, personally washed the dishes before returning to watch TV.

"Where did you put it?"

The wife responded: "Mengde presented the knife to assassinate Dong Zhuo."

"Oh, this is great!"

Kinoshita Danjiro sat up straight and watched TV.

I was quite surprised to see Akira Furuya on TV a few days ago. He already liked stories about the Three Kingdoms period, and now he was even more satisfied.

But at that moment, the television was showing a scene of Cao Cao attempting to assassinate Dong Zhuo, only to have his plan exposed by Dong Zhuo, and then Cao Cao suddenly escaping by leading his horse.

Even though Kinoshita Danjiro knew this story, his palms still broke out in a cold sweat as he watched. Both the stout Dong Zhuo and the cautious Cao Mengde seemed to be giving excellent performances.

Only when the episode ended did Kinoshita Danjiro let out a long, satisfied sigh.

"It's amazing! No wonder it's the largest-scale Taiga drama ever made; the production quality is better than any other Taiga drama! But what's amazing is that I always feel that many of the actors in this drama performed exceptionally well, as if the roles were tailor-made for them!"

……

……

CCTV's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" achieved a viewership rating of over 40% in the Zhou Kingdom. Marketing accounts generally claim that it reached a 70% viewership rating in Japan, but the actual rating is not that high because this only counts the affluent areas covered by NHK.

In fact, CCTV's "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" would likely achieve a viewership rating of around 50% in Japan.

It was an unprecedented success, because even Japan's own Taiga dramas couldn't achieve this level of success afterward.

The last thing that could achieve this level was "One-Eyed Dragon Masamune," which was funded by descendants of the Date family and tells the story of the one-eyed Date Masamune.

Because it was imported early, only thirteen episodes of the first season were broadcast.

The story reached its peak ratings during the battle between the three heroes and Lü Bu, and even when it reached the White Gate Tower, the ratings did not drop, with the combined ratings consistently remaining above 50%.

It can be said that this work has had a greater impact in Japan than any previous work.

After the broadcast of "White Gate Tower" concluded, the first season temporarily came to an end, awaiting the completion of the second season's filming of the Battle of Guandu in the Zhou Kingdom. At the 91 Video Store, a strange man in a suit walked in and specifically requested to buy a videotape of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

The shop assistants were also helpless.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't expect this work to be so popular. The number of videotapes printed by the main store in advance was not enough, and we need to restock for the time being."

"Damn it, isn't there any stock available? I'll pay a premium!"

The shop assistant could only lower her head and apologize even more.

No, we don't have that!

The man in the suit went to more than a dozen video stores, and finally bought the complete set of the first season's videotapes from a passerby for three times the price.

He tiptoed away like a thief, carrying the entire set of recordings, and eventually ended up in Chiyoda Ward.

In Chiyoda District, Japan, the Emperor lives.

Emperor Akihito, now nearing sixty, is no longer a young man. Yet, at this moment, holding the videotape in his hand, he is as excited as a child.

"I finally bought it! This is fantastic! I'm going to watch the videos all night long!"

He carefully inserted the videotape into the machine, and as he watched the images appear on the screen, Emperor Akihito immediately showed a satisfied expression, which was even more exciting than... well, you know.

The Emperor currently has little political power, so naturally all he has left is this little bit of amusement.

As the majestic music of the mighty Yangtze River flowing eastward began, Gu Ming's voice, dubbed by Gu Ming, echoed in the screening room.

The film officially begins with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, a time of widespread desertification, and a defeated general leaving in disgrace.

Emperor Akihito frowned deeply, showing no sign of relaxation.

This scene was actually quite brilliantly done! The desolate colors, the banners and wreckage scattered everywhere, were reminiscent of the bold color grading used by Akira Kurosawa when he filmed Shadow Samurai.

Such a large-scale scene cannot be handled by one or two directors; it requires the intervention of the state apparatus. Even the actors are local soldiers, not ordinary actors.

He stayed up all night, and although he wanted to persevere a little longer, he was just too tired to continue.

"Until the Battle of the Three Heroes against Lü Bu, three actors from the Zhou Kingdom took turns challenging him on horseback, which was dazzling to watch."

"Incredible! All the actors were actually riding horses, and no stunt doubles were used!"

This scene was quite shocking for Emperor Akihito, because the biggest difference between Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the later New Three Kingdoms was that the actors almost never used stunt doubles, and all the scenes that required horseback fighting were performed by the actors on the battlefield with real swords and spears.

"Oh my! There's even a bonus video included!"

Akihito forced himself to stay awake while watching the bonus scene.

In front of the camera, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Gu Ming are seen devouring braised pork offal and baked buns, while Dong Zhuo watches them with a benevolent fatherly smile as they compete to eat donkey meat buns.

"Isn't this also a case of three heroes fighting Lü Bu?"

Emperor Akihito sighed with genuine emotion.

These things didn't appear in the original imported filming. Gu Ming made a special trip to film a lot of Easter eggs on set. They were actually behind-the-scenes glimpses of the filming process, and even some parts that were cut from the original storyline.

For example, the scene of Cao Cao petting a cat before assassinating Dong Zhuo.

This import truly satisfied the appetites of many people, so much so that even though the videotapes were quite expensive, they still sold out immediately on the day they were released.

(End of this chapter)