In China, there is one Japanese who is particularly popular, and that is Koji Yano.
Koji Yano's treatment in China has made many foreigners "jealous" to death.
He has starred in TV series such as "Railway Guerrilla", so he has many Chinese fans and will naturally enjoy various "privileges". When he took a taxi, he would often be recognized by the driver and sent him home for free.
Chinese netizens have even said that Koji Yano is a foreigner, but not an outsider. It can be seen that Koji Yano is not low in the minds of Chinese.
Having been in China for more than 20 years, Koji Yano not only learned Chinese culture, but also married a Chinese wife, and his daughter joined the Chinese nationality as soon as she was born, which he said was his proudest thing.
Why does a Japanese person love China so much? And why do so many Chinese like him?
A boy was born on January 21, 1970, in an ordinary family in Osaka, Japan. The boy, named Koji Yano, was the eldest and youngest, and had three older sisters on top of him.
Because he is the only boy in the family, he is naturally pampered by his parents and also gives high hopes. However, contrary to his wishes, he was mischievous from an early age, his achievements were average, and his biggest advantage was that he was handsome. After graduating from high school, in order to reduce the burden on my family, I gave up my studies and entered society.
Without academic qualifications, without a skill, naturally you can't find a good job. As a result, Koji Yano had to work as a security guard and a postman, with a meager salary.
At the age of 20, he worked as a bartender in a bar, a job that became a turning point in his future life. One day, a guest said to him: "You look so handsome, why don't you become an actor and become a star?" ”
These words lit up Koji Yano's heart at once. With this beautiful dream in mind, he decided to go to Tokyo to develop and joined the famous Sun Music Agency.
However, the acting career is not as smooth as he imagined, he can only take over the role of the dragon set, no drama, do assistant work and miscellaneous, help the star to pour tea and water, lift shoes, drive.
Even so, he has always insisted, always feeling that he still has a chance to stay up and let more people know him. That persistence is five years.
Finally, he waited for a "big role". In 2000, he starred in "Midnight Bells", a man who was going to be killed by Sadako. Although there is no name, no lines, it adds up to a total of a few minutes of footage.
However, Koji triumphantly believes that he was killed last, and there are shots from beginning to end. Perhaps, it is this optimism, this love for the acting career, that has the later "drama bone" Koji Yano.
Not long after the play was performed, Koji Yano was introduced to participate in the filming of the TV series "Eternal Lover" invested by Huayi.
In the play, he plays a Japanese student. Koji Yano cherished the role and immediately went to China. This was his first time in China, but he had an inexplicable sense of intimacy.
Although this play did not make him popular, he fell in love with China, felt that the people here were warm, friendly and generous, and he decided to come to China to develop.
In 2001, Koji Yano came to Beijing alone with 900,000 yen saved from years of part-time work. In the year of its establishment, it became the "North Drift".
When he first arrived in Beijing, Koji Yano did not shoot for more than half a year. But he was not idle, while going to Beijing Language and Culture University to learn Chinese, while holding his resume to run around the crew, looking for opportunities.
One day, he finally got a role as Emperor Meiji, his first "devil" in China. This TV series is "Towards the Republic", and it is this role that has helped him open a door to his acting career.
In 2003, Koji Yano received a play that was important to him, "Proof of Memory", this time playing a Japanese military officer.
Because the scene is very heavy, Koji Yano is very careful to shoot. Even when acting, he was too involved, and he didn't even know that the tip of the pen was stuck in his hand. It wasn't until the director shouted "card" that he found that there was blood on the table and on the ground, and he didn't know the pain.
It is precisely because of his dedication that he moved the director, and as soon as the shooting was over, he immediately signed him to his own company.
After the drama was broadcast, it was unanimously praised by experts and audiences, and won many awards such as "Golden Eagle". Koji Yano also completely opened up the Chinese market with this drama.
Subsequently, he made a lot of war films with similar themes, although they are all popular dramas, but the roles are the same, and they cannot escape the fate of "Japanese devils".
Because in the eyes of Chinese directors, instead of looking for fake "devils" who only say "Baga", it is better to find real "devils" like Koji Yano who can speak fluent Japanese.
2005 marked the 60th anniversary of the victory in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the peak of Koji Yano's acting career. That year, every night at 8 or 9 o'clock in the prime time, as long as you turn on the TV, you can see the various "devils" played by Koji Yano, and at most, 17 of his characters are played at the same time. As a result, he was called a "ghost professional household".
At first, when he went to the street, someone recognized him: "Aren't you the Japanese devil?" He was also very happy and felt that the audience knew him.
However, as time went on, he felt more and more that the role he played was too single.
In the play, the director always wants him to be fierce and violent, and the characters have no personality, no characteristics, only know how to blindly kill, and often the ending is dead.
He felt that he was a machine of war, cold and rough, and that an actor's skill should not stop there. However, if he refuses to play these roles, he will not have a job opportunity, which puts him in a dilemma.
In Japan, netizens called him a "traitor", right-wingers began to boycott him, and personal websites were attacked.
On the one hand, he began to dislike the cookie-cutter characters he created, and on the other hand, his ears were filled with all kinds of abusive and disturbing voices. At this point, Koji Yano fell into confusion, feeling bound by an invisible shackle and feeling suffocated. He began to resent playing "devils", and even for a while, as soon as he saw the military uniform, he wanted to vomit.
Until one day, the words of a well-known director opened his heart: "If you don't want to play a 'devil', don't force yourself to act." He seemed to have waited for this sentence for a long time. At that moment, he was relieved, and the person was much more relaxed.
He decided not to play pure villains who had no ideas. He began to look for new breakthroughs, hoping for transformation.
2008 was a year when Koji Yano ushered in a highlight moment. This year, he was fortunate to be invited to join Hunan Satellite TV's "Every Day Upward" program as a host, and had the opportunity to host with Wang Han on the same stage.
Koji Yano and the Tiantian brothers gag together, giving full play to his witty and humorous personality, because he often can't keep up with the rhythm of other hosts, it seems very cute, but let the audience see a different him, won the love of more audiences.
This change of identity has greatly increased his exposure. On the streets, there are often fans who recognize him to take a group photo, and he generally does not refuse and accepts warmly.
In the same year, Yano Koji also reaped love, married a Chongqing girl, and officially became a Chinese son-in-law. Two years later, the crystallization of their love was born, and they named their daughter Xinyue, following the last name of the child's mother.
Koji Yano thought he could do a lot, but life is full of twists and turns.
In 2012, there was a fish island incident. As the events continued to ferment, the historical issues between China and Japan and the sensitive relations between the two countries also affected Koji Yano's career. He was pressured to quit "Every Day Upwards".
For a long time, Koji Yano's career was in a window period.
During that time, he did nothing every day, and the whole person was extremely depressed.
One day, he suddenly felt breathless and was later pulled by an ambulance to rescue him. After treatment, the talent turned the crisis into safety. Regarding the cause, the doctor gave the conclusion: symptoms caused by long-term mental stress.
This experience made him understand that there are many paths to be taken in life, and hope should be embraced.
He remembered a sentence that Wang Han once said to him: "Don't give up, keep doing it, you will become a special channel of communication between China and Japan." ”
So he made a decision to try to return to Japan, and he wanted to use his every move to change the special impression left in people's minds.
When he first returned to Japan, his development was not smooth, almost no one knew him, and he completely developed himself as a newcomer, always showing a low-key and humble attitude in front of his predecessors. He didn't want japanese audiences to look down on him: This guy is just famous in China, and he's not very good.
He always believed that he would be famous in Japan in the future, just as famous in China. He hopes to let Japanese audiences know that becoming famous in China is not an easy task.
To his relief, many Chinese fans have not forgotten him, sending greetings and comfort from time to time.
However, there have also been some false news about him, such as his "intimidation by extremists", "beaten by radicals", and "delisted from Japanese nationality" in Japan.
Although Koji Yano has repeatedly come forward to refute the rumors, these discordant voices have never stopped.
On the issue of the position of China and Japan, Koji Yano once responded: When he was in China, he never denigrated his motherland. For China, we must not forget to be grateful.
Therefore, all he can do is to silently do what he should do, work hard to act, and get the recognition of the audiences in both countries.
With the perseverance of Koji Yano, the audience found that there were more and more roles he played in Japanese dramas, Chinese local tycoons, Japanese policemen...
Koji Yano also joked: "In Chinese performing arts, Chinese and Japanese people have starred, and the same is true in Japan, I am a four-round actor." ”
Later, he worked as a host on a Chinese show in Japan. The Japanese media also specially filmed his documentary, saying that he "easily crossed the gap between China and Japan". In the program, he still unabashedly said loudly "I love China".
At the same time, he did not give up the opportunity to perform in China, and constantly broadened the path of drama, doctors, small, all roles can be interpreted into three points, modern dramas, costume dramas also have his figure.
In the special program for the 10th anniversary of "Every Day Upward", he reunited with the Tiantian brothers and sang a song "Sunflower", implying that the future is even better, and they will always walk like sunflowers chasing the sun.
With his own efforts, Koji Yano was finally officially certified, and the Japanese Embassy awarded him the "Foreign Minister Commendation Award", recognizing his efforts in Sino-Japanese communication and encouraging him to continue to play the role of "Bridge between China and Japan".
In the early years, he won the "2010 Best Foreign Artist Award" issued by the People's Daily's "Global Daily", becoming the first Japanese to receive this honor.
At this point, Yano Koji finally lived out the role he had always wanted to play most - to make a bridge between China and Japan.
"What starts with me, that's what I only understood when I was 49 years old." Koji Yano once expressed his attitude towards life in an interview.
Some people have heard a lot of truths but have a bad life, but when Yano Koji understood a truth, he practiced it.
In the matter of "I love China", he is "starting from me".
Therefore, when the epidemic broke out in Wuhan, he donated 130,000 masks, personally packed and sent them, and donated 1 million yuan with his brothers every day. When xinjiang cotton on the mainland was boycotted by foreign countries, he openly expressed his support. The domestic vaccine was questioned, and he filmed a video of himself vaccinating himself to thank China.
Koji Yano's actions greatly touched Chinese. Some say he loves China more than the "fake Chinese" with foreign nationalities.
He said that he really likes China from the bottom of his heart, because this country has given him warmth, and he only wants to give back gratitude with actions.
The reason why Yano Koji was able to win the hearts of Chinese audiences was actually not much related to his nationality.
Someone once asked Koji Yano: How did you survive the most difficult period? He said helplessly: "There is no way, only boiling." ”
For many years, he has been surviving in the gap between the two cultures, encountering difficulties far beyond people's imagination, but he has created his own world.
Regardless of nationality and actor status, he is a person who strives to live seriously.
Some people commented on Koji Yano, saying that he belonged to Japan in the first half of his life and China in the second half of his life.
When asked where his final destination would be when he grew old, Koji Yano said: "Japan is where I was born, and China is my second hometown." ”
He hopes that he is working hard now and finally find a place where he can be satisfied.
A man who strives to live, no matter where he is, life will not fail him!