Samurai shows still have some fight left

Associated Press

TOKYO — The setting is somewhere in feudal Japan, sometime in the 18th century, and bad guys are lording over the good townspeople.

Koji Ishizaka, left, Jundai Yamada and Yuji Kishimoto star in "Mito Komon," one of Japan's most popular samurai television dramas. The genre has been a staple of Japanese entertainment since 1908. Tokyo Broadcasting System file photo via AP

Then he utters the line that Japanese TV audiences have loved each week for more than 30 years: "Can't you see this honorable crest?" he snarls. The bad guys slump to their knees in awe.

Since Japan's first samurai movie was made back in 1908, the genre has been a staple of Japanese entertainment, filling theaters and commanding prime-time slots on television. (The shows have long had a loyal following in Hawai'i as well.)

The stories are usually simple variations on the same theme: Bad guys always get what's coming to them.

Unlike the plots, however, the television audience has evolved over the years.

"I don't watch such shows. I'm not interested in people wearing topknots, speaking old language," says 18-year-old Yuko Nakayama. "I'd rather watch dramas and other entertainment shows."

The decline in young viewership has cost the genre.

Few samurai dramas have had ratings above 20 percent — a level considered a hit — in the last 10 years. Even Japan's favorite, "Mito Komon," has seen its ratings cut in half from its 1970s high of 40 percent.

With fewer viewers, networks have begun thinking twice about paying for the wigs, the kimonos, the historical sets and the swordplay experts that samurai shows require. It's much cheaper to simply produce a trendy drama about the love lives of young city people.

But no one is counting out the samurai just yet.

Samurai movies are where many of Japan's best-known directors found their fame, and continue to draw solid movie audiences.

Akira Kurosawa used the feudal warriors as his vehicle in "Seven Samurai," "Kagemusha" and "Rashomon." Kenji Mizoguchi won acclaim with "Ugetsu," and more recently there was Kon Ichikawa's "Dora-Heita," and Nagisa Oshima's "Gohatto: Tabou."

Younger directors are also re-examining the genre, and updating it with the lavish use of computer graphics, special effects and popular actors.

And despite the fickle tastes of youth, the samurai are not dropping off TV listings.

Japan's public television network, NHK, has devoted Sunday night prime time to samurai shows for nearly 40 years. Currently, it's showing "Hojo Tokimune," about a young 13th, century lord who fought Mongolian Emperor Kublai Khan's naval attacks.

NHK also has a samurai sitcom and another samurai drama every week.

"Mito Komon" and another long-running series, "Crime Memo," about a feudal cop, are to begin new seasons this month.

The long-awaited return of "Crime Memo" even has travel agents organizing tours to visit temples and teahouses that appear in the drama.

"The shows represent Japan's good old days in our mind — the scenery, men next door who play with neighborhood kids, women doing laundry in Sumida River," said Yoichi Nomura of the Fuji Television Network.

That sentiment is particularly strong among the 30-and-older audience. Instead of growing up playing Game Boy and watching "Pokemon," they mimicked their favorite samurai heroes, with plastic swords tucked under their belts.

"When I was a kid, I enjoyed the action of samurai dramas," says 31-year-old viewer Tatsuru Kamiwaki. "They also remind me of a cozy family living room."