Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:48 am Post subject: Gunshi Kanbee 2014 Taiga Drama
Was over at Sanseido today and saw they had the book that NHK puts out every year for the Taiga so thought I would start a thread.
'Gunshi Kanbee' 2014 Taiga Drama
Synopsis:
July 1590, Odawara. Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army had surrounded the Odawara Castle for over three months, hoping to conquer this last obstacle to his dream of the country's unification. Standing at the gate of the castle, a lone man facing the menacing guards shouted out: "Do not throw your lives away. Treasure living!". Not long after, the castle gates opened and the reigning lord surrendered. The name of that man is Kuroda Kanbee. An excellent military strategist, he worked hand-in-hand with Hideyoshi to unify the country.
Kanbee's family had fled to Harima, and were relatively poor. As the protege of Kodera Masamoto, Kanbee was very much trusted and relied upon by his lord liege. However, Kodera was suspicious of Kanbee's father, Mototaka, thinking that he was trying to usurp his power. One day, Kodera decided to match-make Kanbee with the daughter of Kushihashi, another one of his vassals. Kushihashi's son, who was of the same age as Kanbee, intensely disliked Kanbee and objected to the match. Since this was the order of Kodera, they had no choice but to marry the youngest daughter, Teru, to Kanbee. On Kuroda clan side, in order to assuage their lord liege's suspicions, Mototaka decided to step down, and made Kanbee the head of the clan. Kanbee was but 22 years old. Kanbee and Teru were married, and they were blessed with a son soon after, but when many years had passed and yet Teru couldn't seem to conceive a second child, Kanbee decided to adopt the young children of his vassals as his proteges who became known as "Kuroda's warriors".
When Kanbee turned 30, a revolutionary young lord was slowly laying siege to all the various shogunates, aiming for a unified Japan. Harima became the place where the clash between Oda and Mori Terumoto was set. Kanbee was very attracted to Oda's unification plans, and had gone to Gifu Castle to meet up with him. There, he became acquainted with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and soon became Hideyoshi's right-hand man, marking the birth of Gunshi Kanbee.
Cast:
Kuroda Clan
Okada Junichi as Kuroda Kanbee Wakayama Kirato as Mankichi
Nakatani Miki as Teru
Ryu Raita as Kuroda Shigetaka
Shibata Kyohei as Kuroda Mototaka
Toda Naho as Iwa
Matsuzaka Tori as Kuroda Nagamasa
Yoshimoto Miyu (�g�{���J) as Ei Hime
Kuroda Clan's vassals
Shiomi Sansei as Mori Kohee
Nagai Masaru as Mori Buhee
Hamada Gaku as Kuriyama Zensuke
Hayami Mokomichi as Mori Tahee
Takahashi Issei as Inoue Kuroemon
Tsukamoto Takashi as Goto Matabee
House of Nobunaga
Eguchi Yosuke as Oda Nobunaga
Uchida Yuki as Nou
Shunputei Koasa (�t��������) as Akera Mitsuhide
Kondo Yoshimasa as Shibata Katsuie
Katsuno Hiroshi as Niwa Nagahide
Tanaka Tetsushi as Araki Murashige
Kiritani Mirei as Dashi
Ikuta Toma as Takayama Ukon
House of Hideyoshi
Takenaka Naoto as Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Kuroki Hitomi as One
Tanihara Shosuke as Takenaka Hanbee
Tanaka Kei as Ishida Mitsunari
Pierre Taki as Hachisuka Koroku
Citizens of Harima (current day Hyogo Perfecture)
Kataoka Tsurutaro as Kodera Masamoto
Takaoka Saki as Kon
Masuoka Toru as Kushihashi Sakyonosuke
Kaneko Nobuaki as Kushihashi Sakyonoshin
Sakai Wakana as Riki
Bito Isao as Ibuki Zenemon
Minamisawa Nao as Otatsu
Others
Fukikoshi Mitsuru as Ashikaga Yoshiaki
Tsurumi Shingo as Kobayakawa Takakage
Yamaji Kazuhiro as Ankokuji Ekei
Mashima Hidekazu as Kennyo
Bessho Tetsuya as Yamanaka Shikanosuke
Jinnai Takanori as Ukita Naoie
Writer: Yoichi Maekawa
Directors: Kenji Tanaka, Taku Ohara, and Kazuhiro Motoki.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 10:54 am Post subject:
Started last night, the first half of episode 1. It looks like Naho Toda's character won't make it much further. Why not give a short part like that to some talent challenged ex-idol instead of wasting it on a good actress?
They did the same thing in 'Taira no Kiyomori'. Kazue Fukiishi got killed off before the end of episode 2.
And after 7 episodes the ratings are underwhelming:
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 9:21 pm Post subject:
Watched the first 4 episodes. Pleasantly surprised by what a good actor Okada Junichi is. It's hard to think of another young actor better than him. Nothing very dramatic so far, but it's quite engaging, time passed by fairly effortlessly. Takenaka Naoto reprises his role as Hideyoshi after nearly 20 years. That looks like another highlight of this drama.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 10:33 pm Post subject:
xploring wrote:
Takenaka Naoto reprises his role as Hideyoshi after nearly 20 years. That looks like another highlight of this drama.
I think he'll be one of the highlights of the taiga. Only seen two episodes so far, one thing I like is that all the battle scenes so far have been done outdoors. A lot of the fighting in 'Yae no Sakura' was done by CG which while not all bad isn't the same as the real thing.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 1:48 am Post subject:
Just watched episode 7. I was surprised they didn't focus more on the strategic aspect of warfare during battles. That was most appealing thing about this drama for me, watching Kanbee make brilliant plan or decision to turn defeat to victory. There has been a couple of moments so far, but they were rather brief. At the end of episode 7, it's getting exciting, Kanbee meets Nobunaga for the first time.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 10:19 pm Post subject:
Up thru episode 5. It seems like in every episode Kanbe has either had a close friend or relative die or get killed. If I were Miki Nakatani I might be reconsidering this marriage.
That's an average of around 15.9. I think the days of taigas getting over 20% are gone for the forseeable future.
Up thru episode 8 here. There was one scene where Kanbe and Toyotomi (he's still Hashiba to this point) have been out the night before with geisha. When they get home Toyotomi keeps telling Kanbe, "If anybody asks we were in Gifu last night. Got it?" Kanbe, "Got it." Hitomi Kuroki is Toyotomi's wife O-ne. She asks where they were and everybody says, "Gifu." O-ne says, "Really? Someone said they saw you in town last night." Toyotomi knows he's been caught but he keeps trying to weasel his way out of it but just digs himself deeper. It was hilarious. Straight out of 'The Honeymooners' like Ralph and Alice. Can't remember the last time I laughed out loud during a taiga.
Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 2061 Location: Melbourne Country:
Posted: Sun May 18, 2014 9:36 pm Post subject:
Watched through to episode 17. Rather disappointed. The buildup to the big showdown between Mori and Oda was slow and felt a bit like time-wasting. And then the main event itself was almost a non-event. Not sure if I will keep watching. The cast and quality of the drama is fine, I am only disappointed with what/how they concentrated on.
Up to episode 21 "Shojumaru's Life". Miki Nakatani was great. It looked like she was really about to come unglued when she heard about Shojumaru. I thought the reaction of most of the men was a little bit unrealistic. I don't think they'd have gone off like they did. Back then they probably would have said, "Well, he was the hostage, that stuff happens."
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2014 7:07 am Post subject:
Up thru episode 31 now. Still pretty good.
Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:
Looks like they're taking some liberties with history but all taigas do. This episode had Kanbe meeting back up with Murashige. Supposedly he's training under a monk. In reality, nobody knows what happened to Murashige after the castle siege, so who knows? Maybe it could have happened, but I doubt it.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2014 10:26 am Post subject:
^ Follow up, now up to episode 33. What happened to Murashige (now called Dokun) may have been totally made up but at least it gave them a chance to bring in Fumi Nikaido as Chacha.
With that hairstyle and her pissed off attitude, now I know what Joan Jett would have been like if she'd live in the Sengoku Jidai.
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:36 am Post subject:
Episode 35. Chacha,who will later be known as Yodo, (Fumi Nikaido) is trying to get her hooks into Hideyoshi. Like most men presented with this situation, all of Hideyoshi's blood has gone from his head to his crotch. O-ne (Hitomi Kuroki) is not happy.
Last edited by gaijinmark on Mon Dec 01, 2014 4:05 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 12122 Location: It was fun while it lasted. Country:
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 8:39 am Post subject:
Episode 37. I thought the final scene where Utsunomiya gets his was well done. Takehiro Murata was very good as Utsunomiya. I couldn't remember where I'd seen him before, but he was one of the klutzy neighbors in the asadora 'Churasan'.
If there's any Yui Ichikawa fanboys out there she has shown up as Utsunomiya's daughter Otsuru. But she only has a couple of scenes.
I think the days of a taiga averaging over 20% are about over unless some storyline or particular actor catches the publics' fancy. Asadora's were dying a slow death and then for some reason 'Gegege Nyobu' with Nao Matsushita caught on and they've been doing great ever since. Maybe the same thing will happen with taigas.
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