NHK Drama "MUSASHI"

[iwatekenshi]

Has anybody here seen this year's new NHK Taiga Drama based on Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi novel? So far I have watched it every week and I have found it entertaining (it certainly has taken tons of dramatic license however).

Right now in Japan at the bookstores you can't escape all the Miyamoto Musashi based books including the new manga Vagabond based on him. It's like a boom going on.

[aru-ma]

I've read vagabond before, it ok, not my type of manga though. just wondering though, why the sudden boom? its not like it's anything new there.

[KhawMengLee]

haven't seen the drama but I was watching a sumo tournament on NHK and the actor playing Musashi for the drama series was there as a guest commentator.

[munenmuso]

I've seen one episode. But how faithful is it with the real one?

[Ares2907]

Given that it is based upon a work of fiction, I'll give you one guess how faithful it is to the real Musashi. . .

btw, hate to be spelling police, but just can't resist.
You used 'lose' correctly and incorrectly in the one sentence - is this some sort of ploy to give usenet users apoplexy?

[Inouye02]

when is it on ?

[M.K. Kawai]

As far as I know, here in L.A. it should come on Ch. 18 on Saturdays starting at 9 p.m. in the next couple of weeks after "Toshie to Matsu" finishes. I think it will start on Feb. 8th.

Also, I think people in Hawaii will see it about a month later in March. For some reason, they start the NHK drama later than So. Cal... Go figure.

MKK

[ShÖgun]

what is the name of the station it comes on ???

[Hyaku]

I went Okayama Ken early January working for NHK TV to do the last in a series of demonstrations to promote this new series.

Last year I did demonstrations down in Kokura. Aso the present Musashi San was interviewed

Some of the actors appearing were interviewed this time. Also The NHK producer along with Yoshikawa Eimei who has been working with them.

This present drama like the old one twenty years ago finishes like the book after the duel on Ganryu Jima. But in the drama Ganryu is depicted as someone of similar age to Musashi.

The Tateshi (fight arranger) for this series is again Hayashi Kunishiro Sensei.

The producer spoke of a possible follow up depicting Musashi's life after Kokura. This would naturally include his later life in seclusion. This work would be done with Yoshikawa San. This also brings up the question of where all the present fictional characters would go.......Otsu, her mother etc.

They mentioned that Musashi obviously must have had a normal eventfull life apart from what made him famous. This is what the drama is about!

The lead role was chosen particularly for his eyes hoping to portray that famous Musashi metsuke (looked similar to the last actor to me).

This drama will last a year. So dont expect any run up in the near future.

Hyaku


The pre

[iwatekenshi]

The past episode was a bit dry, but he arrives at the Houzouin. Looks like the next episode he discovers nito-ryu. Should be good.

[hamish]

Neatly ignoring the fact that he'd already been taught nito ryu by his father. . .

[iwatekenshi]

Right!! A self portrait of him at supposedly in his early teens shows him handling two swords.
I dunno but dramatic license I guess:(.

[hamish]

There's an awful lot of dramatic license taken with Musashi and his one famous battle. Its a shame that more talented swordsmen get forgotten in the Musashi mystique.

[iwatekenshi]

That's NHK for ya! I think the majority of viewers really don't give a rat's arse! Well the way history is taught here doesn't surprise me :(.

[Inouye02]

what do people think of the new tv series ?

[DCPan]

The producer spoke of a possible follow up depicting Musashi's life after Kokura. This would naturally include his later life in seclusion. This work would be done with Yoshikawa San. This also brings up the question of where all the present fictional characters would go.......Otsu, her mother etc.


For some strange reason, the book "Musashi after Ganryu Island" written by Koyama was never as famous as Eiji Yoshikawa's book.

The Chinese translation of "Musashi after Ganryu Island" was published in the last year or two. I thought it was a more interesting read because the author focused on how Musashi started thinking about what was it that he did correctly all this time....

Perhaps the NHK folks could base the drama loosely on Koyama's work?

:ko:

[DCPan]

On topic,

I pretty fast-forwarded through the parts that didn't have Musashi or Yagyu in it.

I can't stand Matahachi's mother...couldn't stand her in the book, can't stand her on TV...reminds me of one of my aunts :rolleyes:

The actress who play Otsu is pretty, but looks a little too "modern" for the role.

Like someone said earlier in the thread, things didn't really get interesting till he got to Hozoin temple.

My signature quote is actually from the English subtitle of the NHK drama :wink:

For his duel with Zion in the river, he DID use a kata from Niten Ichi Ryu...at least the finishing position look quite similar to one of the 5 nito katas in the budokan video.

I really like how the chreography of his movement "evolve" with the show too...you can kind of get the sense of the actor growing into the role, though I'm not so sure they filmed chronologically.

The duel with the kusari-gama guy is great too...while drawing the opponent's kodachi against himself was too much, the principle of use anything available is there....

His encounter with Yagyu Sekishusai, which I don't think happened in the book, was also well-choreographed. I believe the posture that Yagyu used against Musashi was actually borrowed from the encounter where the shogun attacked Yagyu during an interview to see if he was good, and got disarmed by Yagyu from that posture, as described in Wilson's translation of Heiho Kaden Sho....

:smiley:

I can't wait to get the rest of the tape from my friend!

[senki-kendo-jos]

Anyone know where I can get a pic of the guy who played Kojiro? He's drop dead gorgeous!