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

[pechumori]

*continured from <3>*

~translation~

+act. Magazine

Sato Takeru – Long Interview<4>

-‘+act.’ is a magazine that keeps talking about Sato Takeru’s face, so I’d like to say that you look different again.

Really?

-You have a look of fearless determination now. But listening to you so far, I’ve come to realize that your heart has had some influence on it.

It goes without saying that your heart has an influence on your look! … but I can’t know my face has changed myself. (lol)

-Don’t you often hear it said?

Surely, I am told so about every six months. People I see after a long interval often say so. ‘You look determined’, or ‘You seem to have matured’, or ‘You’ve become manly’ … everybody has been saying so since I was about nineteen years old. (lol)  They say that so often that I feel, ‘There you go’.

-Don’t you feel curious about how you have changed?

I’m not curious and my face changes in a day. Fatigue and poor sleep easily show on my face. I’m aware of it. I’ll tell you the most surprising experience … from eighteen or nineteen through twenty-one or twenty-two I had been thoroughly seriously busy. I had always been on something, and when I took my first long vacation, I spent about a week relaxing. Then I found my face changed because of too much sleep. (lol) ‘This was my original face!’ I thought.

-Did it get better?

It got better. I looked sharp. I thought, ‘Ah, I was exhausted as I thought’. So even now during the drama, my face is totally different just because I stay up all night. I’m aware of it myself. Fatigue easily shows on my face. So if I see someone three days after he/she told me ‘You look different’, he/she might say ‘You look different again’. It may depend on the timing. Well, as for my face, my role may have major influence, I suppose. I mean the role I’m playing at that time.

-If your role makes your facial appearance change, is your way of thinking also influenced by your role? Do you come to think about what you usually don’t think, for example?

That doesn’t happen. Basically, I’m not so much influenced by my role. I intend not to be influenced at least. I’m not sure if I have changed unconsciously. But I intend not to change. Sometimes I just learn something, though. By playing the role, playing the character, I learn something through taking in the person’s idea or something like that.

-Did it happen this time?
The best one is that I’ve come to imagine the faces of those who cooked the meals when I’m eating; how they are cooking this. So it makes difference in the way I appreciate them.

-When our chief editor here was making Takeru-kun’s photo book ‘Shinkokyu (深呼吸)’, Takeru-kun at the age of nineteen said, ‘Acting is imagination’, I heard. Do you still think so?

Acting is surely imagination. It’s usually the alternative of imagination or imitation; imitate something that exists or do it by imagining on your own.

-I see. Your first important choice is ‘imagination’ or ‘imitation’, right?

That’s it. I said it was the alternative just now, but please make it a threefold choice; imagination, imitation, or your experience in life.

-Have you acted basically depending on your imagination?

That’s not the case. It is hardly unusual for me to think, ‘That actor was acting that way, so I’ll imitate it’, and it is what everyone is doing, I suppose. Not only I imitate an actor, when I play a cook, I imitate a real cook. If there is no model for the role to imitate, I’ll play it according to my imagination.

-In your talk at the age of nineteen, you said, ‘I feel happiest when I’m concentrating on something’, I heard. Do you still think so now?

Yup. I haven’t changed my mind. I’m not sure what you mean by ‘happiness’, but when I can concentrate on something to the maximum, adrenaline is rushing, so it makes me feel happy or good because I’m in high spirits.

-Do you often have the moment when adrenaline kicks in?

Just like the motivation, as time goes along, you get used to it, which prevents adrenaline from rushing. That’s difficult. It means staying motivated is difficult. But fortunately, even if I get tired of it now, there is another motivation that after a few months, the next work will be waiting, for example. In that sense, I can stay motivated.

-It would be tough if you should work on a production that will last three years.

I won’t do it. (lol) It’s impossible for me.

-Is half a year your limit?

Maybe so. (lol) I’ve never worked on a work that lasts three years, so all I can do is to imagine, though.

-Playing a new role makes such a difference?

(Saying robustly) It makes a total difference!

- It may be because you concentrate very intently in order to play one role that you cannot do it long.

I think it’s true. It may be that each work is highly concentrated, so it is impossible to keep that concentration for a long time.

-Acting as character A may be different from acting as character B, but there is no difference in that you act as someone else, I think.

It is totally different. As I said a little while ago, just like we have only one word to express an ‘actor’, we have only one word to describe ‘acting’. So it seems as if we were doing the same thing, but it is totally different. We just happen to have only one word for ‘acting’, but, for example, playing Kenshin is one thing and playing Tokuzo is quite another. After all it is impossible to play a role unless you go into much further depth from ‘acting’. As a result, depending on the role, acting is totally different … For example, there is a word ‘live’. But everybody ‘lives’ a different life. It’s the same thing, to put it plainly.

-You’re doing such different things every time?

Therefore, it’s hard to start shooting just after finishing the previous work.

-What will you do in that case?

I’ll work hard. (lol)

-But it will happen that you have to play two different roles in parallel, won’t it?

Well, I have seldom, if ever, done so. I make sure that such a thing won’t happen as much as possible because I probably can’t do it. I hear that actors abroad go to school to attend some workshop to make themselves anew after finishing a work, and then start the next work.

-Just as you’re doing now, after playing the whole life of a person for half a year, if you have only one day before you are told, ‘OK, then you’re a baker now!’, it will really be  hard.

If so, the drama will turn out to be ‘If Tokuzo Were a Baker’. (lol)

-As a matter of course. (lol)

Exactly.

-Really … your explanation is intelligible. To the questions that I threw at you like, ‘Is it so?’, ‘Is it so?’ you always give me answers that make me say, ‘That explains it!’. I always feel as if a fog had cleared up.

No, I’m trying hard. I’m not thinking in words all the time.

-How do you think without words?

With feelings. Thus I’m feeling rather than thinking, but if I put it into words in an effort … something like that.

-It is really something that you can put your feelings into words like this.

So, I’m always doing my best, in the interview.

*to be continued*

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

Tenno no Ryoriban official Twitter via stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

"Emperor's Cook" fan art by Ray
Francoise saying "Haii!" and Tokuzo saying "Oui!" repeatedly, while Shintaro thinks of "Mariage"

[pechumori]

Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

June 14th, 2015 (Sunday)

~translation~

Tokuzo to Be the Emperor’s Cook

At last it’s eighth episode.
Tokuzo-san is to be the emperor’s cook.

It was a long, long way.
It took ten years.

He started at the age of sixteen, when he was called ‘Nokuzo’ …
At Kazoku Kaikan, he was called Petit-ko … then went to Paris.
He started to work in Imperial Cuisine Division at the age of twenty-six (Takeru-san said he is of the same age.), so ten years had passed.

We feel each and every effort Tokuzo-san has made.
Those who has been watching this drama since the first episode must be feeling all the more impressed, ‘You’ve come this far at last …’
But this is where the real fight begins.
Tokuzo-san’s life is really full of ups and downs.

(Photo)

There was a crucial line in this drama.
Those words determined Tokuzo-san’s life.
It was the statement by Awano-san;
‘Please serve his Imperial Majesty as the Emperor’s cook in the Imperial court.’

Summoned abruptly, Tokuzo-san was so upset that he blurted out the wrong thing to say. *bitter smile*
It is just like Tokuzo-san, though.

But suddenly, Go-san as Awano-san interrupted Tokuzo-san’s line with his line earlier than planned.
We wondered what happened.
‘I was beginning to feel bad about listening to his whole story. (lol)’
He was confused about too much daring Tokuzo-san smiling embarrassedly.
He is so kind-hearted ^^

As he talked in the interview, when we asked him about his acting when he said a key line in this drama, he said,
‘I focused on my role, so I didn’t even intend to say it well.
Though I thought I had to put emphasis on my line,
I placed importance more on how carefully I could say with my feelings … than on how skillfully I could say.’


Now finally Tokuzo will return home.
Will he be able to see those who have been waiting again and talk about his memories …?


Next week, Imperial Court Arc stars.

Please watch Tokuzo-san to the last!

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

Teaser for Ep. 9 of "Tenno No Ryoriban" (Emperor's Cook) to be shown on June 21, 2015
credit: TBS

 

[pechumori]

The new relationship chart for "Tenno No Ryoriban" (Emperor's Cook)
credit: TBS via __芹__

[Guest hiranade]

of course @pechumori, we will anticipating their bromance in next project

it seems their shooting is very fun and interesting. from the photos its like they laughing many times in many scenes

[bakachin]

yeah, i finally found the new eps.. and 2 eps at the same time! huhuhuhuh... i want to watch more! XD

thanks for always sharing the info and pics, @pechumori 

[pechumori]

Yes @hiranade, they are always laughing.

You're welcome, @bakachin

The viewership rating for Episode 8 of “Emperor’s Cook” which was aired yesterday June 14, 2015 was 15.3 % based on the Video Research survey, Kanto region. It increased by .4% as compared to last episode's rating which was 14.9%.

Here are the ratings for each episode:

Episode 1 (4/26): 15.1%
Episode 2 (5/03): 11.4%
Episode 3 (5/10): 12.0%
Episode 4 (5/17): 12.7%
Episode 5 (5/24): 14.5%
Episode 6 (5/31): 14.1%
Episode 7 (6/07): 14.9%
Episode 8 (6/14): 15.3%

credit: http://tvmeter.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5091.html

May the ratings continue to rise!

[bakachin]

Here are the ratings for each episode:

Episode 1 (4/26): 15.1%
Episode 2 (5/03): 11.4%
Episode 3 (5/10): 12.0%
Episode 4 (5/17): 12.7%
Episode 5 (5/24): 14.5%
Episode 6 (5/31): 14.1%
Episode 7 (6/07): 14.9%
Episode 8 (6/14): 15.3%

credit: http://tvmeter.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5091.html

May the ratings continue to rise!

​yeah, i hope too! ganbare!

[Guest hiranade]

Here are the ratings for each episode:

Episode 1 (4/26): 15.1%
Episode 2 (5/03): 11.4%
Episode 3 (5/10): 12.0%
Episode 4 (5/17): 12.7%
Episode 5 (5/24): 14.5%
Episode 6 (5/31): 14.1%
Episode 7 (6/07): 14.9%
Episode 8 (6/14): 15.3%

credit: http://tvmeter.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-5091.html

May the ratings continue to rise!

​yeah, i hope too! ganbare!

Wow...it's good news @bakachin and @pechumori.  I hope so

[bakachin]

my fave part in the last eps i watched :

"Emperor's Cook" fan art by Ray
Francoise saying "Haii!" and Tokuzo saying "Oui!" repeatedly, while Shintaro thinks of "Mariage"

 

they're SO cute! and i was like shintaro.. hahahahahha

[pechumori]

Yeah @bakachin, Shintaro witnessed the blossoming romance between Tokuzo and Francoise. 

Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

June 16th, 2015 (Tuesday)

~translation~

Friendship with Shintaro

There was emotional conflict of not only Tokuzo-san but of Shintaro-san hidden in the background of the eighth episode.
Didn’t you feel all the more painful to see his anxious face because Shitaro-san was usually smiling cheerfully?

But it was just like Shintaro-san that he gave Tokuzo-san a supportive push with his usual smile in the end.
We hope they will see each other again, smiling in some funny situation…

Shitaro-san was living in Paris in a willy-nilly way same as usual …He shrewdly stayed in Tokuzo-san’s room, having his own way.
His delight at Tokuzo-san’s decision, ‘I’ll be the best chef in the world here in France!’ lasted just for a short while.
In the next scene where they were having breakfast, Director said to Shintaro-san,
‘Eat breakfast in fine spirits, and sometimes look at Tokuzo-san …’ but Tokuzo-san only had eyes for Francoise …
‘Hey, you! You’re completely ignoring me … *sad*’, he stared at Tokuso-san sorrowfully ^^ 

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

The latest photo update of Takeru san from “Emperor’s Cook”.
Tokuzo has a mustache now.
credit: ｎａｋａｎａｋａ(なかなか)

[pechumori]

Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

June 18th, 2015 (Wednesday)

~translation~

The Choice to Chase a Dream

On the day they were to move … the morning of parting
Francoise decided to part with Tokuzo-san in order to chase her own dream.
Tokuzo-san knew so well how Francoise felt,
so all he could say was, ‘I understand’ … It overlapped with Toshiko and him on that day, didn’t it?

After saying, ‘I promised my mother’ …
Francoise resumed with a faint smile, ‘I may be lying a bit.’
It was the moment she made an honest confession.
Director said, ‘Hesitantly, after forcing back your urge a little.’
Moreover, during the rehearsal of this scene, there were rivers of tears from the beginning.
At big drops of tears with Francoise’s body and soul, Director mumbled,
‘Her feelings were flowing … that showed she loved him so much’.
That scene made us feel her love for Tokuzo-san in our bones.

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

June 29th, 2015 (Friday)

~translation~

Language Barrier for Anybody

In Paris Arc, did you enjoy fluent French of Tokuzo-san and Awano-san to your heart’s content?
Acting of Awano-san required French of native-speaker’s level, while Tokuzo-san had to show the process of gradual development.
The efforts they made were immeasurable.
The language barrier was not only for the cast to overcome, but also for the staff.
They couldn’t follow the unfamiliar lines and they often checked the script with his neighbor, saying, ‘Hey! Where are their lines?’ (lol)

The latter part of Paris Arc described Tokuzo-san’s great success at Hotel Ritz.
The Grand Chef Escoffier, who actually existed in Hotel Ritz, was a well-known cook as a genius.
Introducing the ‘pre-fixe’ menu into French cuisine was his idea, which shows he was exactly the original father of modern French cuisine.
How lucky Tokuzo-san was to have a chance to work under such a great chef!

Escoffier-san diligently practiced on his own because he had to sing a song all by himself.
As a result of his practice, which we heard from the backstage during the break, he finished singing very cheerfully and lightly.
Even if it was not written in the scenario, we erupted into spontaneous applause after he finished singing ^^

Escoffier taught Tokuzo-san that cooking is music. How will it affect Tokuzo-san’s cooking in the Imperial Palace Arc to come?

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

The show "Ousamanoburanchi" reported that the scene in Ep 8 of "Emperor's Cook" that got the highest viewing rate, ranked at # 2! with 17.1%, was when Toshiko entered the red-light district. It raised the viewers curiosity.
credit: satosato1012 and usasa7

[pechumori]

A bemustached Tokuzo.
(I think this is the plot summary for Ep. 10 which will be shown on June 28.)
credit: weibo taketaketakeru

[pechumori]

continued from <5>*

~translation~

+act. Magazine

Sato Takeru – Long Interview<6>

-Actor is a queer job. (lol) To hear you say that though it is called by the same word ‘actor’, you are doing totally different job in each shooting site, I think it must be very hard. But you yourself desire to do something you have never done before. Most jobs have a pattern to some degree, and following that pattern makes you master the skill, right?

It’s not always the case, I suppose. It’s just that someone has decided some pattern. But as I have never done any other job than this, I want to try taking an office job. What on earth is it like, I wonder?

-Actor is a job which requires you to perform something with reality, while wondering what it is like, right?

Um, but it is totally different from actually taking the job. What we’re doing is how realistic we can make it look; how much reality we can put it.

-Do you want to try taking an office job?

I have interest in it. It’s just because I don’t know it.

-Is it simply out of Sato Takeru’s interest rather than for the purpose of getting experience for the acting?

Yes. After all I can get something from the experience for the acting as well, though. But it’s out of interest as a human being. However, I probably won’t be able to keep doing the same thing for a long time.

-Why do you think you can’t?

I get bored. I get bored and feel like squealing, I suppose. (lol) For, suppose you have two days off each week, you have to go to work every day without fail except for Saturday and Sunday, right? You do it even in two years or three years, right? It seems impossible to me. As for an actor, if you hang on with all your might for a certain period of time, you can rest a bit. Well … regardless of whether it is weekend or weekday.

-To put it the other way round, is it OK if you can’t have a rest while you’re hanging on with all your might?

Yes. Well, it’s indeed tough, but it suits to my tastes. So I really respect those who are working for a company properly.

-Even if you have to work from early in the morning till late at night without day off for months, it is better for you to know it has an end, right?

So I’m a sprinter. Distance race is impossible for me.

-Well, but you’re running quite a distance race now? (lol)

You said it! Though I started running at the speed of a sprint, it turned out to be a long-distance race. It’s as if I started running expecting it to be a 100-meter race, but I found the goal was 800 meters away. (lol)

-You’re weak in continuing to do something without seeing a goal, aren’t you?

Yes. It will be hard without a goal. But I’m not sure because I’m telling you so just imagining in my head. If I try it in reality, it may not be so simple as I’m saying now.

-You may find some stimulus or motivation in it, right?

That’s right. It differs from person to person about anything.

-Exactly. In Tokuzo-san’s case, his job now ‘suits to his tastes’, right? In the first episode, Toshiko-san (Kuroki Haru), Shutaro-san (Suzuki Ryohei), and all the other cast showed really nice expression, I think. But I also think they were inspired by Tokuzo-san you played.

That goes for all of us. That’s a truth about actors.

-In addition, to hear about the ‘peculiar’ way of shooting in your talk today, I thought really skillful actors had got together.

We’re making it very sensitively.

-By the way, I remember you saying it when you were playing Kenshin, but is the ideal person for you still the character that appears in anime or manga?

Yes, it is. After all, anime realizes the ideal, or describes the ideal, so real person cannot defeat it, never.

-But don’t you think a kind of humaneness including faults is better?

Um, but if you don’t think it to be the ideal, anime or manga will lose its raison d’être, I suppose. In that sense, I think dramas and films also describe the ideal. Though they are weaker in that human beings are acting, fictions are, including novels, something that depicts our ideal or our longing after all, so if we cease to think of it as our longing, it is meaningless to produce them, isn’t it?

-In all aspects, you don’t waver at all. Don’t you sometimes feel, ‘Ah, I was wavering at that time’?

I don’t remember. If you give me some example, I may be reminded, ‘Ah~!’ but I really don’t remember the past. But do people usually waver so much? Those around me don’t seem to waver so much.

-We waver, or something like ‘I thought this was so, but I found I was wrong’ will sometimes happen, right?

In that sense, there are times when ‘I’ve found something new!’  ‘I was wrong’ … I don’t indeed remember finding ‘I was wrong’.

-And as you used these words several times today, when Takeru-kun says, ‘I’m trying hard’ or ’I’m doing my best’, it has special importance, I feel. Some people use ‘I’ll do my best!’ very lightly, right? (lol)

Some people say so as a kind of greetings, or so-called a fixed phrase. But it can’t be helped because those phrases will settle everything nicely. I myself say, ‘I’ll do my best’ in such a way when I’m at a loss for words.

-But most of the time, Takeru-kun’s ‘I’ll do my best’ is a true ‘I’ll do my best’. I need another word to distinguish your ‘I’ll do my best’ from a lighter one.

Fufufu. Then let’s add ‘super’ to it. (lol)

-When I read the script of Tenno no Ryoriban, I noticed that you appear in almost every scene and you’re challenging cooking without using a stand-in. Judging from what has reached my ears, they say you have been working now as hard as you did in ‘Kenshin’ for nearly half a year. But does experiencing the toughest role in Kenshin, for example, made some difference in the way you accept or deal with the difficulties next time?

No, not at all. For the first time in my life, I searched ‘irritation’ space ‘can’t stop’ by keyword. I turned to the Internet for the resolution of my ‘difficulty’. (lol)

-(lol) Did you get an answer?

Let me see, deep breathing and stretching are good … said some curation website. Oh, and exposure to the natural light is good, too. Since the first episode was aired, I’m getting a break a bit now at last, but producing a drama seriously is such a tough thing, I suppose.

-This drama is worth your effort, I think, and Tokuzo-san is supremely attractive.

I’m really glad to hear it. As expected, our job is not just a manual labor but a job that wastes mental energy, so … we can’t avoid being mentally exhausted. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is only difficulty but there are more things that enrich our lives.

-Every time I have felt your will to step over your limits at that time, but after I watched ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’ and talked with you today, I reached a conviction that since ‘Kenshin’ that attitude has been getting far stronger. This year ‘BakuMan’, and next year ‘Sekai kara Neko ga Kietanara’ will be released. I’m looking forward to seeing Sato Takeru step over his limits once again. Please let me interview again then.

By all means. I’ll do my ‘super’ best. (lol)

~the End~

Thank you for reading this long interview!
I hope you’ll know Takeru’s attitude toward acting better

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

[pechumori]

Tenno no Ryoriban Official Twitter

~translation~ They are checking some strange motion with Director …
Tokuzo-san saw O-Ume-san again. Is he going to give in to her again …?!
The Imperial Court Arc starts from the ninth episode at nine o'clock this evening! Is his first and large project make a great success?! Please watch him tonight, too!

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com