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

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Takeru san guested in a TV show to promote “Emperor’s Cook” and showed a sample of his culinary skills. Later he was able to taste the dish he cooked. credit: usasa7 and satosato

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Takeru san for Cut Magazine promoting "Tenno No Ryoriban"  April 18, 2015
credit: SakaeDory

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

April 18th, 2015 (Saturday)

~translation~

Dream Cutlet, part 2

Today’s report is about cutlet, following yesterday’s report.

The scene appears in ‘the Story OF Tenno no Ryoriban’.

A clip where a crisply fried cutlet is cut will never fail to stimulate your appetite!

The person who fascinates you in this scene is Ito Hideaki-san, who plays Tanabe Gunso (Sergeant).

To cut into a steaming hot cutlet was one-shot deal.

At the beautiful cross section in the actual shooting, Ito-san couldn’t help a big smile despite himself; ‘Perfect isn’t it?’

On the other hand,
Sato-san, who ate the cutlet said, ‘It’s really delicious! The coating is different from usual one and makes it crunchy. It’s good!’

He licked his lips over the delicious cutlet with a big smile^^

It will unfailingly move all of you as well as Tokuzo.

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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"Emperor's Cook" in France
credit: miyuki0210 via takerubabe321 tumblr

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@ryoriban_tbs April 19, 2015
~translation~
We have only one week to go before the first episode starts at last. It means that it will be being aired at this time next week. I’m getting nervous.

source: https://twitter.com/ryoriban_tbs/status/589773024234057728
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Photos from the press conference for the “Emperor’s Cook” held earlier today, April 20, 2015.
credit: cinematoday.jp

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Photos from the press conference for the “Emperor’s Cook” held earlier today, April 20, 2015.
credit: asahi, ameba news, modelpress and oricon

 

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~translation~

What did Suzuki Ryohei & Kuroki Hana did to love Sato Takeru?
2015/04/20

Press conference for the serial drama ‘Sunday Theater Tenno no Ryoriban’ to be aired as TBS 60th anniversary special project was held in Tokyo, and gorgeous casts, such as Sato Takeru and his co-stars, Kuroki Hana, Suzuki Ryohei, Kiritani Kenta, Enomoto Tasuku, Takaoka Saki, Sato Gajiro, Ashina Sei, Takeda Tetsuya, Kato Masaya, Miho Jun, Sugimoto Tetta, Go Hiromi, and Kobayashi Kaoru got together and talked about difficulties behind the scenes.

*snip* explanation of the story

Sato, who plays the lead for the first time in the TBS’s serial drama and plays a chef for the first time, said, ‘I’ve had no experience in cooking and I’ve never even touched kitchen knife, though I have touched a sword. (lol) So I went to cooking school and learned cooking from the basics. I like eating and I thought that if I would cook at all, I wanted to do it properly. So I avoided cooking.’ So he said showing his extraordinary feelings toward cooking. ‘When I had free time, I practiced cutting vegetables. I think I can shred cabbage faster than ordinary people. People around me said to me, ‘This drama all depends on you as a lead actor’ every time I saw them, and I was pressured. In the end I stopped thinking’, Sato said with a smile.

Suzuki, who lost weight by 20kg to become Shutaro, Tokuzo’s elder brother, who lived a life of tragic fate affected by a disease, said, ‘It took me half a year to lose weight, but once the shooting started, I had a limited attention span and felt disoriented because I ate little, so I felt I had enough on my plate. Then Producer said, ‘Please love Sato Takeru not in a superficial way but from the bottom of your heart’. After that I watched the DVD of ‘Rurouni Kenshin’ every day, never failed to remember Takeru-kun, and thought he is adorable.’ On the other hand, Kuroki as Tokuzo’s wife confessed, ‘I was told the same thing, so I used Takeru-san’s Desk Calendar’, and evoked laughter.

source: http://www.cinematoday.jp/image/N0072509_l
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

Tenno No Ryoriban press con April 20, 2015
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2na9dp
credit: Yenthe Bleachfreak

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"Emperor's Cook"
credit: miyuki0210 via takerubabe321

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Tenno no Ryoriban Interview: Sato Takeru-san (as Akiyama Tokuzo)
April 20, 2015

~translation~

*What was the impression when you read the scenario for the first time?

I thought Tokuzo-san’s life was just a great one. (Since it is the historical story about Mr. Akiyama Tokuzo,) It is shocking that there was a person who actually led such a life.
It’s a very nice story and I enjoyed reading the scenario, but when I read it thinking that I would play the role, I was very surprised because he was the type of a person I had never played and totally different type of figure from my natural self. If I was to play this role, it would be a great challenge, I thought.

*About the cooking scenes

Since I usually don’t cook, ‘the time has come at last for me to cook’, I thought. (lol) I started to go to cooking school last summer at rock bottom, cutting my fingers. (lol) Until the shooting for the drama started, I had been filming a movie in Hokkaido, and there even in the hotel room, I kept practicing cutting potatoes and onions. In reality, there are many scenes where I handle potatoes, and the first difficulty I faced was to peel them into ‘chateau’. We have peelers now, but in those days they did it all with a small petit knife and it’s very difficult. But I didn’t use a stand-in but did all by myself even in shooting close-up shots at hands.
Even though I’ve been practicing again and again, it is the most difficult to show cooking is in my blood because I’m acting a cook. It does not apply only to cooking but to any time when I play a role as a professional; using tricks won’t work in many parts, so I’m struggling. Cooking is artisanal, so the cutting movements of a kitchen knife and delicacy in dishes are also awesome. I have difficulty in making it look convincing. However, cooking scenes are enjoyable. These days I have a strong impulse to cut them into strips when I see vegetables. (lol)
I enjoy eating the dishes we made in the kitchen, and the cutlet that appeared in the first episode was delicious! The cutlet served as a trigger for Tokuzo-san to chase a dream. You will all feel like eating cutlets once the drama starts, I suppose.

*Do you have something in mind when you play Tokuzo?

It was the role I’d never tried before, so for a while after the shooting started, I thought this and that. I read the scenario many times and went to the shooting site thinking what kind of approach would be the best. I proceeded the shooting talking with Producer Ishimaru and Director Hirakawa.
‘Why was Tokuzo-san loved so much? What should I do to be like that?’ I thought, but as a conclusion, I didn’t devise something visible. The reason why Tokuzo-san is loved so much is that he is honest and embracing life, I think. It means that I have to embrace life, straight, with sincerity. That’s the only way, I think, and I’m now doing so.

*Please tell us your impression of the co-stars

Kuroki Hana-san, who acts as Toshiko, who is to be Tokuzo’s wife, is really just like Toshiko-san. So much so that I can’t tell if she is Toshiko-san or Hana-san. She is the type of a woman who supports a man a few steps back of him. There is something traditional about her. She has an inner fortitude, and if you ask if she is strong or weak, she is strong … It’s also like Toshiko-san.

Kiritani Kenta-san, my friend apprentice, is … really a welcome existence. I’ve worked with him many times, but he makes me want to work together again. I want him to be in the shooting site.
Since there are many scenes where Tokuzo plays all alone, I feel saved at the shooting site with Kiritani-san after I kept acting all by myself. He understands how hard it is to act alone and clears the atmosphere, so he makes me realize what it is to become lighter spiritually.

Suzuki Ryohei-san, my brother, is stoic. I think he is really a man. I love his stoicism and manliness that once he has decided, he never fails to do it.
He makes me feel like crying, just being there, just by his existence.
I love the scenes with Tokuzo and his brother very much. But there are not so many scenes with my brother to the contrary, rather few, and we communicate almost only via mails. The reason why I feel so much for these brothers’ scenes is that I know what Ryohei-san feels toward getting into his character. Therefore I feel strongly about my brother, I think.

*You did locations quite widely we hear …

Fukushima, Ibaraki, Kobe, Okayama, and France … In Japan, we started shooting in January and February, but the scenes were not set in winter, so to avoid letting out white breath, we acted eating ice. It was cold.
(Suzuki) Ryohei-san says I never said ‘cold’, but in fact, I said ‘cold’ in front of (Kuroki) Hana-chan. I’m honest in front of my wife but can’t show my weakness in front of my brother. (lol)

*Which is the most impressive location of all …?

The most impressive is France, as expected.
Don’t you have an elegant image to hear ‘location in France’?
In fact, it was tough location as if it weren’t already enough. (lol) It took as many as twelve hours to fly there, and as soon as we put our baggage at our hotel, we started filming … at any rate schedule was so tight.
And this drama has so many scenes where Tokuzo runs. Probably I spent more time in running than cooking, I suppose. (lol) Not only in France but in Japan, I ran, but Paris has more straight roads with a good view than Japan. But running on a road with a good view means that however far I run, you can see me forever. I wished, ‘Please say “Cut!” ~ *cry*’all too often. I had to run all the way to the horizon … doing it every day exhausted me as expected. *bitter laugh*

*This drama starts in Meiji Era. Was there anything surprising during the shooting?

It’s unique to this time, I guess, that pots used in cooking are very heavy! When we wash dishes, we use loofah instead of sponges.
It was the time when books were very precious, you know. So we treat them very carefully. I was about to lay a book face down if not told to stop it, when Ryohei-san taught me because he had just played a role who works in the publishing industry. Since then I’ve been careful. (lol)

In those days, there was nothing like email, so letters had a great power as a communication tool, I think. They conveyed their thought in hand written letters even if they were not sure if the letters would reach the other person. However, the bond between people and love and thoughts toward people were all the stronger in those days, I suppose. It would be more wonderful if we, living in the modern world, too, could lead a live like that … I sometimes think.

Final word for the viewer, please.

Even though I’ve been shooting for such a long time, I myself can’t imagine how this drama will turn out even now. The only thing I can say is that we’re making it in earnest.
To tackle one thing this earnestly is rare occurrence. This is a hot site of creation. To be in there is a blessing as an actor. Since we’re making the drama in such heat, I honestly want you to watch it. We’re working straight and with inexcusable seriousness, so I won’t bother to say ‘This is a drama like this’, but I’d rather only say, ‘Please watch it!’

source: http://www.tbs.co.jp/tenno_no_ryoriban/interview/interview01.html
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Tenno no Ryoriban Shooting Report

April 19th, 2015 (Sunday)

~translation~

Old and new lead actors co-star in ‘Chubo desuyo!’!

It has been decided that Sato Takeru-san will appear in ‘New Chubo desuyo!’ at 11:30 p.m. on April 25th (Saturday)!

Speaking of ‘Chubo desuyo!’, it’s an entertainment program in which Sakai Masa’aki-san participates actively as a great master, and he acted as the same role as Sato Takeru-san, Akiyama Tokuzo, in ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’ aired in 1980.

That means that …
old and new lead actors meet beyond time!

Moreover, they talk about behind the scenes of their dramas respectively, making ‘rice omelet’, the menu of ‘Chubo desuyo!’ this time.
It is super precious moment you could see only here!!

After the filming, Sakai-san said,

‘Takeru has come to have much more adult sense and more inner fortitude, and has become manlier, though he still has soft side left.’

‘I heard that many young people who watched the drama ‘Tenno no Ryoriban’, in which I appeared, wanted to be a cook.
When I heard that one of the executives now decided to be a cook because he watched the drama, I was very happy~.
The new drama is far deeper than the old one in both images and the story, and depicts historical backdrop more closely, I think.
You will get excited to know how he lived, having what kind of ambition, I suppose.’
He told us the hi-lights of this drama at the same time.

On the other hand, Sato Takeru-san said showing appreciation,
‘I was nervous before taping, but I enjoyed it because Sakai-san was nice to me just like the last time I appeared in this program.’
‘He said to me again and again, “I’m behind you. I’ll watch the drama!” It encouraged me. It made me feel that I’ll put more efforts into the shooting’.
It seems that he has got fired up.

‘New Chubo desuyo!’ starts at 11:30 p.m. on April 25th (Saturday),
in which the old and new lead actors will appear!

Don’t miss the precious moment!

credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Takeru san was featured in the “Weekly Woman” magazine that was released today, April 21, 2015
(as part of the promotion of his upcoming drama, “Emperor’s Cook”)
credit: かおる♥健 32321 ‏

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More scans of Shufu “Weekly Women” magazine featuring Takeru san as the cover, as part of the promotions of “Emperor’s Cook”. The magazine was released today, April 21, 2015.
credit: weibo taketaketakeru

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Takeru san was featured in another TV magazine as part of the promotions of “Emperor’s Cook”
credit: ｎａｋａｎａｋａ(なかなか) ‏

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Another promotional interview for “Emperor’s Cook” by the main cast which was released today, April 21, 2015
credit: takeruuuuu321

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Takeru san promoting “Emperor’s Cook” April 22, 2015
credit: 桐油包子w

 

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April 23, 2015

~translation~
Toshiko made me a strawberry daifuku (rice cake stuffed with bean jam).
You should envy me.

source: https://twitter.com/ryoriban_tbs/status/591393569388105728
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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April 24, 2015

~translation~
My brother and Toshiko. I’ll keep appearing on TV today.

source: https://twitter.com/ryoriban_tbs/status/591457793762136064
credit: stephany-310.tumblr.com

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Takeru san appeared in a 5 am TV show last April 24, 2015 along with the main cast of “Emperor’s Cook” to promote the drama.
credit: SACCHI@2015, usasa7, satosato1012

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Takeru san guested in another TV show to promote “Emperor’s Cook”
credit: usasa7