Shun Oguri learned much from playing a manga mountain man in 'Gaku'

BY KENSAKU NISHIDA THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2011/05/21

Actor Shun Oguri (Photo by Shinobu Igasaki)Shun Oguri and his costar Masami Nagasawa scale a wall in a publicity event for "Gaku: Minna no Yama" during an international rock climbing competition. (The Asahi Shimbun)

It is hard enough for an actor to portray a fictitious manga character on the big screen, but that is particularly true in the case of "Gaku: Minna no Yama" (Gaku: Everyone's mountain), a manga about mountain rescue workers.

That's because the protagonist, Sanpo Shimazaki, is himself a mountain of a man, who effortlessly carries injured climbers on his back up and down rock walls, smiling all the while.

Long before Shun Oguri learned he would be cast as Sanpo in the live-action movie, the actor was a fan of Shinichi Ishizuka's mountaineering adventure manga titled "Gaku."

"Sanpo is a huge man, and he has philosophical views; he's a character who can only exist in a manga," Oguri said. "I had the impression that he was a rough man, so I thought that my version of him might seem rather slightly built. I thought that my version would be a different Sanpo."

Sanpo is a volunteer mountain rescue worker who has a passion for mountains. He lives in a tent in the Japanese Northern Alps.

In the manga, he repeatedly confronts harsh reality as he battles to rescue stranded people.

He watches as a father breathes his last in front his young son. He finds the decomposed body of a person who has been missing for six months.

But Sanpo neither moans nor feels sad in an obvious manner. He simply accepts reality, as if he has himself transcended life and death. Whether he must carry a survivor or a dead body, Sanpo treats each equally, reciting the same lines: "You did well" and "Come back to the mountains!"

The manga has gained a wide readership who admire its unique views of life and death.

But while appreciating the finer details of the manga, Oguri spared no effort to prepare for his role.

In reality, the 28-year-old Oguri admits he is afraid of heights and says he has not gone mountain hiking since one such experience on a school trip while in elementary school.

But in preparation, Oguri started training at a climbing gym before the shooting began. He also received intensive training in areas along the Jogasaki coastline, famed for its jagged cliffs, in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and the Tanzawa mountains in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Director Osamu Katayama was so impressed with Oguri's improved physique and skill that he added a scene involving ice climbing.

The actor, a slim 184 centimeters tall, gained 9 kilograms of muscle to make himself look more like an experienced alpinist.

Oguri has starred in many TV dramas, stage productions and films in recent years.

But "Gaku" was "different from any of my other movies," he said.

"When we shot in the mountains, it often took three to four hours before we could start shooting after we left in the morning. And when we got to the location, we were all drenched in sweat and had to redo the makeup all over again, waiting in the cold for shooting to resume."

Oguri said he didn't think too much about how he should portray his character. Instead, he just tried to "be" Sanpo.

"I just thought I'd play out whatever came into my mind naturally," he said. "I even changed the way I smiled in the way I portrayed him. I gained so much from the mountains."

He had a close shave while filming a scene in which Oguri was climbing a vertical rock cliff. The actor slipped and fell about 2 meters.

"I was really scared, but I told myself that I must do this," Oguri said.

Before the movie was released in early May, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11. The real-life volunteer rescuers working to help tsunami survivors remind us of the theme of "Gaku."

"We can do very little when an earthquake hits. But in the end, it is people (like Gaku) who must deal with the threats of nature and help those who are injured. I think that is the message this movie conveys," Oguri said.

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Born in December 1982, Oguri shot to fame after starring in the TV series, "Hana Yori Dango" ("Boys Over Flowers"). In 2010, he directed his first feature film, "Surely Someday." He has also starred in many stage productions with director Yukio Ninagawa.

Isaku Kageyama( taiko player)

Taiko drummer bringing tradition bang up to date

BY SOPHIE KNIGHT STAFF WRITER

2011/05/17

Isaku Kageyama (Photo by Naokazu Oinuma)

To many, the rumble of the taiko drum is the sound of traditional Japan. Yet to up-and-coming taiko player Isaku Kageyama, the instrument can do much more.

"Playing taiko at a matsuri (festival) is part of tradition," says Kageyama. "But taiko on stage, and what I'm doing, is not traditional."

It's only been 50 years since the taiko first moved from the streets to the concert hall. According to Kageyama, who's just released his first album, "Ik," the genre is struggling to find its own identity as it teeters between tradition and new directions.

"If you play taiko like a drum set, what are you going to play?" he says, referring to those using a row of drums rather than the traditional two. "You don't need all those drums if you're going to play a traditional piece. But if you create something new, what are you going to sound like? Latin? Jazz? Rock?"

Although Kageyama at times incorporates other styles into his drumming and has played with African percussionists and jazz musicians, he finds wholesale imitations of other genres a little perturbing.

"It's like fusion food," he explains. "It can be interesting, but sometimes you just want to keep your ramen and your spaghetti separate."

Unlike many of his peers, Kageyama uses just two drums, and tries to stay "authentic" by retaining traditional taiko beats. This doesn't mean that he's stuck in the past. On the contrary, he's eager to broaden the genre's horizons.

"There haven't been any taiko artists who have created something that makes you want to watch taiko," he says. "Everybody's poking holes, but no one's really been able to move forward."

Although too bashful to admit it, Kageyama might just be the perfect candidate to do that. He is bilingual, and the son of a Japanese mother and a third-generation Japanese-American father, which makes him "Nikkei," or someone born abroad of Japanese descent. He was born in San Francisco, attended an international school in Japan and has lived in Detroit. He's also about to move to Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music, in the hope that exposure to new influences might further his skills.

It will be his first time in 15 years back on American soil, although he has made five trips to Brazil to teach taiko to Nikkei children. His workshops there were met with great enthusiasm.

"Playing taiko well in Brazil is as sexy as doing capoeira or dancing the samba," says Kageyama.

Beyond music, taiko also has a deep social significance for the Nikkei who immigrated to Brazil just over 100 years ago, as it provides a context to explore their Japanese identity.

Kageyama notes that although second-generation Japanese-Brazilians now in their 70s and 80s care deeply about preserving Japanese culture, the third and fourth generations have no idea what Japan is like. However, they relish the chance to play taiko.

"The kids are really eager to learn. Even when it's lunchtime, they won't stop playing!" says Kageyama.

In Japan, taiko is played at festivals that strengthen relations between tight-knit local communities, but in Brazil, the drum brings people from across the country together.

"The unifying bond is that they're all Nikkei, it doesn't matter whether they're from Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo," Kageyama says.

He is also eager to encourage the same friendliness between Japan's exclusive taiko clans. As a member of the group Amanojaku, he caused ripples by collaborating with Yuu Ishizuka, a member of rival group Oedo Sukeroku Taiko.

Kageyama's refreshingly undogmatic attitude and desire to cross boundaries might be a product of his international background, which left him feeling "neither fully Japanese or fully American."

He evidently has a strong connection to both. Having pledged part of the proceeds from his first album to survivors of theMarch 11 earthquake and tsunami, he's heading to the United States to soak up inspiration.

Will the experience establish him as a representative of modern taiko?

Kageyama smiles, then says, "I don't know--you're not cool if you try to be cool, right?"

(See www.isakukageyama.com for more details).