[Current Japanese Drama 2015] The Emperor's Cook/Tenno no Ryoriban 天皇の料理番

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OFFICIAL STILLS OF EP. 1 OF "TENNO NO RYORIBAN"

credit: takeruzone.tumblr.com

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Takeru san ate a spicy curry with co-star Ryohei Suzuki in a TV show as part of the promotions of “Emperor’s Cook”.
Check out the cute expressions. (^ - ^)
credit: satoh takeru holic

April 26, 2015

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

April 26th, 2015 (Sunday)

The Beginning of the Dream

~translation~

Hi, everybody.

How did you like the first episode of ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’?

In the last scene of the first episode,

the process where Tokuzo headed for the kitchen of Kazoku-kaikan (the Peers’ Club)

expresses Tokuzo’s life

of ups and downs

with many twists and turns …

Tokuzo’s face filled with hope.

Finally … he took the first step toward his dream.

All of you that shared the moment when his dream was born,

we hope you will live Tokuzo’s roller-coaster life to the last with him.

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

April 27th, 2015 (Monday)

~translation~

Fateful Bank

Today, feeling the after effects of the first episode …

By the way, in today’s shooting report,
we’d like to talk about the scene at the riverbank where Tokuzo told Toshiko about cooking.

In the first episode, it is impressive how the two are talking under one umbrella in the rain of early summer.

In fact … that scene was filmed in the middle of winter!!

In the world below zero, wearing summer clothes,
moreover, eating ice in order to lessen their white breath, it was taken … *shiver*

Actually they were in the world where they breathed white breaths like this.

Not noticing Toshiko’s anxiety,
Tokuzo talked about cooking happily on this riverbank,
but it must have become an unforgettable place for Toshiko.

This place will turn out to be a key site later.

It is still a long way off…

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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April 27, 2015

~translation~

Sato Takeru (26) plays the lead in TBS Sunday Theater ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’ (Sunday 9:00 pm), which started on 26th. Last year the action film ‘Rurouni Kenshin’, in which he played the lead, made a great hit. He is by far the most brilliant in his generation. He is now acting in the remarkable drama with all his strength and all his heart in his tenth year after his debut as an actor, regarding it to be his masterpiece.

He got his silky hair chopped off. He cut his hair 1cm in December last year and it was the first time since his junior high school days, when he played baseball. Since he has already finished the scenes with short hair, he put his hair on his head, a little embarrassed. He looks so adorable with his short hair even in the eyes of males that you would like to tell him to remain so!  He is the very man for the post.

The role he is playing in the new physical appearance is a youth named Akiyama Tokuzo, who was fascinated by cooking and came to Tokyo from Fukui in Meiji Era. He was supported and loved by those around him, and advanced in the direction of his dream of becoming a cook. At last, he became the best cook in Japan, who served Show Emperor as a cook.

One of the themes described in this drama is the ‘turning point’ in your life. What motivated Akiyama to be a cook was ‘a piece of cutlet’. He was fascinated by the taste of cutlet he ate for the first time in life and made a decision; ‘I’ll become the best cook in Japan.’ It’s just the turning point.

Sato Takeru’s turning point arrived in the Golden Week holidays when he was a second-grade high school student. It was the first time he visited Harajuku from Saitama, where he lived at that time. ‘When I was walking along Takeshita-dori nervously with one of my friends, a man and a woman came up to me and handed me a business card.’: They were talent scouts from Amuse Inc., which he now belongs to.

The first impression was ‘I didn’t know they scout boys’, he says smiling. Of course finding such an ikemen must have made the scouts’ eyes sparkle. ‘I didn’t know entertainment agencies, but somehow only Amuse Inc. was familiar to me. “Oh, I know it!” I said, and we exchanged contact information. It was the beginning. He made a debut as an actor in 2006 and this year is the tenth anniversary.

‘I had been interested in actors, but I had no dream about what I would be in the future.’ Thinking of his great success now, he says, ‘I’m lucky. I’m making my living by doing something I really love. It’s really a blessing.’

He gives his work everything he has according to his feeling of thankfulness. ‘A man should fight in doing his work. If he fights, he should aim to be No.1. As for me, I have no choice but to be the best actor.’ His aim is to reach to the top just like Akiyama, who aimed at becoming the best cook in Japan.

Last year the two films of ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ became a tremendous hit with box-office profits of 9.5 billion yen. But he was not satisfied with it; ‘I feel frustrated when I see Hollywood movies. I want to do something new that nobody tries. It would make me sad to be said, “It’s OK if you play only Kenshin”. I think I encountered a more challenging role straightway.’ He seems to be highly-motivated.

To cross over his successful role ‘Kenshin’, he is intransigent about getting inside his character, especially about cooking. He knew nothing at all about cooking as he says, ‘I’ve never used even a kitchen knife’, so he went through hard training. Last August he started to go to cooking school, took cardboard boxes of onions and potatoes home, and if he had time, he cut, cut and cut them.

When he stayed in Hokkaido for the film shooting, he used a kitchen knife in the room of the hotel. Now he goes so far as to say, ‘I feel an impulse to cut them when I see vegetables.’

‘I often cut my fingers’. He is devoting himself to cooking and has never asked for a stand-in even in the close-up scene. ‘In the first place, they haven’t prepared any stand-in for cooking hands’, he says with a bitter laugh, but it means that the producer places complete trust in him. He cooked every dish in reality. He got no ‘NG’ in cooking scene.

Just like NHK’s Taiga Historic Drama, this is a biographical narrative of growth of a man. But Sato emphasizes, ‘Tokuzo-san’s success story is not the high-light of his drama’. ‘It is a love story of people supporting Tokuzo-san, rather than a story of the way Tokuzo-san pushes his way to his dream’. At the shooting site, Sato is also loved by people around him so much that his co-star Sato Gajiro (70) offers him energy drink every day.

This drama is a special project to celebrate the 60th anniversary of TBS. Unusual for a serial drama for one term, it takes half a year for shooting, starting last December. Location shooting was done in Paris, too. ‘Surely, I feel pressure.’ But he has good reason to dedicate himself to this drama. ‘Usually, we are forced to find some ground for compromise. But this time, we never made compromise in any scene, in any cut’, he shows confidence.

From ‘Kenshin’ to ‘Tokuzo’. It must be a new turning point. To hear that, he said lightly, ‘It means every moment is important’. He is not talkative, but he sits up and listens to each question and tries to face them squarely. When I said to him, ‘You’re serious-minded, right?’ his eyes sparkled.

‘When they call me serious-minded, they tend to think of me as a decent person, but ‘a serious-minded person’ is synonymous with ‘a poor loser’ and ‘a vain person’, I think.   It is me that is seen, and it is me that receives feedback’.

I see. Behind his seriousness, there may be a feeling that he hates to lose, he wants to attract attention. If he doesn’t lose that feeling, the day will surely come when he is called ‘the best actor in Japan’.

source:http://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2015/04/28/kiji/K20150428010252230.html
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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“Emperor’s Cook” fanart
The wife feels shy while the husband seems proud. (^_^)
credit: Japanese fan Ray via weibo __芹__
second photo credit: satoh takeru holic

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“Emperor’s Cook” article posted on Myojo
May 1, 2015
credit: Satosato1012

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Takeru san appeared in another show to promote “Emperor’s Cook” and demonstrated his culinary skills.
credit: weibo satoh takeru and usasa7

May 1, 2015

 

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According to a news program, the scene where Shutaro Akiyama played by Ryohei Suzuki talked to his brother Tozuko played by Takeru Sato got the highest viewing rate of 17.1%
credit: Satosato1012

On the other hand, based on the Drama Prime Time Report - 4/24~4/29
May 1, 2015

The average rating of Episode 1 of “Emperor’s Cook” is

15.1% – 21:00-22:48 – Tenno no Ryoriban (1) #START
(the highest for that time slot)
Congratulations, Takeru san!  ＼(^o^)／

credit: http://www.tokyohive.com/article/2015/05/drama-prime-time-report-4-244-29

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Takeru san signed his autograph on the frying pan! (*‘∀ `*) ♡
credit: weibo __芹__

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Digital Asahi: at 3:30, May, 2nd, 2015

Sato Takeru Plays the Lead in ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’
Without Being Given Way nor Being Pushy

 ~translation~

I’ve never thought Sato Takeru’s acting to be ‘skillful’.

It is not that he is a poor actor, but just the opposite. His acting doesn’t have contrivance or slyness. A high-school boy who fell in love with a robot in the drama ‘Q10’, a tender wanderer in the film ‘Rurouni Kenshin’; both characters have cogency and reality beyond the roles as if he were the character itself.

What Such Sato Takeru newly challenges is the role as Akiyama Tokuzo in TBS ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’ (Sunday 9:00 pm). An actual person, who served as a master chef in Imperial Household Agency from Taisho through Showa Era, is the model for him. Tokuzo, before he encounters cooking, is depicted as a failure who quit everything in a halfway manner.

‘Though he is a hopeless guy, he is loved by people around him. He may have such a personal magnetism, I suppose. You cannot make your dream come true all by yourself. It is support by everybody around you that enables your dream to come true.’

Unfamiliar cooking, Fukui dialect of Tokuzo’s hometown, French he speaks in Paris where he trains cooking, etc; He had to cross over a lot of hurdles. To match his role, he had his hair cut short. ‘I’ve long had the same hair style and I was getting bored, so it was just as well. I’m fickle-minded just like Tokuzo.’

So the profession of actor, which is changeful, comes naturally to him, he says. Having steadfast core, he isn’t afraid of keep changing. ‘Think out of the box. Don’t give way to a majority opinion. Think by yourself properly. But don’t force your opinion to others’ it is Sato’s style.

His mysterious atmosphere can’t help attracting the viewers.

‘I’m often told that kind of things, but it’s just I don’t react so enthusiastically. I think I’m just an energy-saving person.’

Embarrassed, he chuckled.

（words・Kamba Ryosuke photos・Iagsaki Shinobu）

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

May 2nd, 2015 (Saturday)

~translation~

Kazoku Kaikan’s Kitchen is …

The day, when Tokuzo-san put on his cook costume at Kazoku-Kaikan (the Peer’s Hall) for the first time, was also the first shooting day not only for Tokuzo-san but all the other co-stars who played the kitchen members.

As soon as they entered the kitchen, they were curious to see the others in cook costumes.

Kobayashi Kaoru-san, who plays Usami, the leader of the kitchen,
He is tall, and in addition, wears a pair of geta … moreover; he wears a tall white cap.
so he had to struggle with the shelf over his head.

‘The shelf is just the right place ~ It will be hard before I get accustomed to it (lol)’.

In addition, the kitchen in Kazoku-Kaikan is challenging work by art staffs!
The kitchen stoves that the members will use were all made on a special order to make them match the historical background!

In the years of Tokuzo-san, they had no gas service yet, so the kitchen stoves were fueled by woods.

The task to set fire is, of course, that of apprentice.
Don’t miss how Tokuzo-san sets fire by main force (lol)!

The chapter of lively Kasoku-Kaikan starts at 9 pm tomorrow at last.

Before that we will rebroadcast the first episode.So don’t miss it, too~ ^^

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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photo credit: miyuki0210 via takerubabe321

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Yahoo News:
Tenno no Ryoriban

source:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20150503-00000084-spnannex-ent

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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“Emperor’s Cook” fanart
credit as tagged

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

May 3rd, 2105 (Sunday)

~translation~

Doyazaaaaa!

How did you like the second episode?

Tokuzo-san has come to face straight with cooking.
From now on, he will show you amazing progress, so please look forward to it!

Now, in the second episode, his life in Kazoku-Kaikan started,
and Tokuzo-san expected to have hopeful days,
but he started to feel so frustrated because of monotonous and repetitive work
that he recklessly stole Usami-san’s notebook!

The scene where Tokuzo-san returned the notebook to Usami-san,
Director took Tokuzo-san’s shouting again and again until he was fully satisfied with Tokuzo-san’s expression.

His voice got hoarse … and eyes reddened.

After several takes … at last Director said, ‘OK!’
Then first of all, Director ran up to Tokuzo-san and hugged him.

Just as Usami-san and Tokuzo-san established an emotional bond with Tokuzo-san in this scene,

so Director and Sato Takeru-san may have sympathized with each other at that moment.

He learned ‘sincerity’ from Usami-san.

From here, Tokuzo-san’s ‘sincerity’ begins.

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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OFFICIAL STILLS OF EP.2 OF "TENNO NO RYORIBAN"
from the official gallery
credit: takeruzone via takerubabe321 tumblr

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“Emperor’s Cook” starring Takeru Sato was off to a good start with 15.1% viewership rating on its first episode.
May 5, 2015

It was reported last April 27, 2015 that “Emperor’s Cook” starring Takeru Sato, which aired its first 2 hour special episode last April 26 at 9 pm, gained more than 15% viewership rating based on the records of Video research Kanto district.

credit: http://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2015/04/27/kiji/K20150427010242720.html

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

May 5th, 2015 (Tuesday)

~translation~

Tokuzo, As If Dancing

Tokuzo-san changed after he was taught sincerity by Usami-san

Tokuzo-san, at the end of the 2nd episode, moves freely around in the kitchen very quickly.
They took a series of movements in succession, so Sato Takeru-san was moving to and fro in the kitchen just as if he were dancing.
The way he carefully discussed his acting with Director and the camera operator was impressive.

Where Tokuzo-san is working energetically in Kazoku-Kaikan, surprisingly, Toshiko appears next week!
Tokuzo-san is made to serve dishes for Toshiko for the first time, but will it turn out a success!?

The third episode to be aired on May 10th will be full of not-to-be-missed developments.
Please look forward to it!

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Tenno no Ryoriban Photo Gallery #2 45/47

Toku-yan devised a way to make his cap fit him LOL

source: http://www.tbs.co.jp/tenno_no_ryoriban/gallery/g02_45.html#gallery
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com