Now, when we open the Japanese tokusatsu drama of our childhood again, we all involuntarily comment: "When I was a child, I just watched the holster people fight." ”
Miki police flower in "Iron Armored Little Treasure"
And the "Kamen Rider" series, which is one of the three major tokusatsu dramas in Japan, is even more so, because there has always been such a casual saying:
"There are thousands of handsome guys in Japan, and Kamen Rider accounts for half"
Kamen Rider BlackRX tells you what Kenmei is
If watching "Ultraman" is about world peace, thinking about war, and humanistic feelings, then watching "Kamen Rider" is more or less clicking in to see handsome guys and beautiful women (cough, in fact, it is a tragic story that transforms people's loneliness and cannot survive without fighting).
Recently, the movie "New Kamen Rider" directed and written by Hideaki Anno is being released, and many netizens said that this one does not talk about the plot first, just the appearance of the two actors who play the knight is crotch-pulling.
Huge brain, messy long hair, although, but still have a knightly temperament
The controversy over the appearance of the new movie characters is understandable, because over the years, in the golden signboard of "Kamen Rider", handsome men are definitely a big attraction.
Just like the newly introduced "Kamen Rider Extreme Fox" on Station B, Jian Xiuji, who plays the protagonist, bumps his face with "Yan Yikuan + Chen Weiting".
Some netizens believe that more than one-third of Japan's handsome guys debuted as Kamen Rider, which seems to be exaggerated, but there has been a list in Japanese variety shows, which is the protagonist of the knights of the Heisei dynasty. And the knight enthusiasts of station B gave a more comprehensive list, roughly calculated, there are at least 20 people in it.
If the male protagonist of Kamen Rider who started Heisei is formed into an idol creation camp, the following three actors are definitely three big captains.
These three actors are now well-known star artists in Japan and even internationally, and they have several things in common: 1. New actors; 2. Knight is their first time playing the protagonist; 3. The acting road is brilliant.
Oda Kirito
Kirito Oda, who debuted in 1999, starred in Heisei's first work "Kamen Rider Empty Me" in 2000, in which Uncle Jean has not continued his stubble, but has a green face, playing the protagonist Yusuke Goshiro.
Ken Sato
In April 2005, Ken Sato, a sophomore in high school, was discovered by a scout from Amuse in Harajuku Takeshita during the Golden Week holiday, and starred in "Kamen Rider Denjo" in 2007, in which one person had to play 8 roles respectively, and his acting skills exploded.
Masaki Sugata
In 2009, 16-year-old Sugata played Kamen Rider W, so he was called "the youngest rider in history" by the media. The Kamen Rider, who is in his second year of high school, goes to school during the day and goes to the crew at night to play a knight.
There are many Japanese male artists with the same experience, and Kamen Rider is the first major work of their debut.
Of course, in the eyes of some people, the positioning of "Kamen Rider" itself is not much different from "Ultraman", it is a righteous guy who shouts "henshin" and then transforms into a holster to defeat weirdos and evil organizations.
Some people also always equate tokusatsu works with childish and young labels, thinking that it is not a holster war, do you really need any acting skills?
But when Momo delved into Japanese sources, he found that "Kamen Rider" is on the one hand a springboard for young Japanese artist Carp to jump over the dragon gate, and on the other hand, it is also their strongest trial in the novice village.
"Kamen Rider" as a series of enduring Japanese popularity, if according to the domestic shooting method, must be looking for popular traffic stars, but Toei's approach is the opposite.
Toei selects newcomers, even inexperienced amateurs, so every audition for "Kamen Rider" attracts countless new actors.
Tetsuo Kurata, who plays Kamen Rider Black, stands out from many newcomers with his handsome appearance
Because in Japan there is such a saying called "Wakate-hai 優の登竜門", which means that playing the male protagonist of "Kamen Rider" is the road to success for a rookie actor, and it also means that the carp jumps over the dragon gate.
In the selection of new actors, handsome appearance is indeed a threshold, but this is not all, the filming process of "Kamen Rider" is often the beginning of the actors' trials.
When these rookie actors signed with Kamen Rider, the usual filming period was one year.
On the shooting set, the actors need to fully cooperate with the director and the set personnel in this environment, which is the first lesson of the compulsory course for all "knights" - "Three Chapters of the Law".
Actor Takashi Inuji talked about Toei's requirements for the shooting scene on the variety show.
Challenge acting
Secondly, the length of "Kamen Rider" episodes are 40~50 episodes, and each episode is 20~25 minutes long. According to the storyline, the actor's performance is required to include: friendship, love, family affection, and the plot category must include daily life, comedy and even tragedy.
And these will become the unique experience accumulation of these actors in the future.
Ken Sato, who plays the male protagonist in "Kamen Rider Electric King", plays a Kamen Rider with multiple personalities in the play, and his breakthrough fine acting skills make director Ryuta Tazaki and producer Shinichiro Shirakura both sigh that they have dug a baby.
Read the lines with feelings
"Stick Talk" means to read lines without emotion, and for many new actors, the improvement of line skills is inseparable from Kamen Rider.
Sugata, who plays the male protagonist of "Kamen Rider W", reads his lines without emotion in the first few episodes.
Subsequently, in the next few dozen episodes, the audience can clearly feel the growth of Sugata Masakai
Online and offline events
In addition, in this year, new actors need to constantly accept various variety interviews, participate in various meeting activities offline, and even go to the park to play stage plays for children, and they cannot relax for a moment.
In 2000, at the Seibu Garden Playground, Oda Kirito participated in the performance of the Sora Stage Play
So, playing Kamen Rider is the most important springboard for a Japanese rookie actor.
But this "springboard" will not favor anyone, become a knight, let the public know, the rest of the acting road is like the fatalism that Brother Chen believes in the movie "Infernal Affairs": "How to go, let you choose by yourself." ”
Like Oda Kirito is going international, starring in the feature film "Bright Future" in 2003, stepping on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, and then winning the "Best Newcomer Award" at the 27th Japan Academy Film Awards for his outstanding performance in "Girl Killer Amo".
Zhang Songwen, who was on fire during the Spring Festival, also collaborated with Oda Cherang in "Lyceum Theater".
Or like Ken Sato, who shined in TV with his subversive acting skills, he played eight roles in "Kamen Rider Denjo", which is very outstanding. Subsequently, he starred in the big river drama "The Legend of Ryoma", as well as "Love Can Last Forever" and "Wanderer Kenshin", a super IP.
Or the popular Sugata Masaki in the Japanese entertainment industry, 26 years old on the so-called "Japanese Spring Festival Gala" "Red and White Song Party".
In 2021 "Bouquet of Love", Sugata won the "Most Topical Actor Award" at the 45th Japan Academy Film Awards
So it is not difficult to see that the knight series is the infinite creation camp of Japanese handsome guys, and in the process of industrial production, there are always a few handsome guys who have won the "dragon gate" of the Japanese entertainment industry.
Today's young Japanese actors want to achieve carp leaping over the dragon gate by playing Kamen Rider, not only need to have outstanding appearance, but also need to constantly polish their acting skills.
And the predecessors of the knights of the Showa generation are also "beneficiaries of the Dragon Gate", but playing knights in the Showa era requires not only appearance and acting skills, they also need:
Play with your life
In the 70s, if you wanted to shoot a special photography film, computer CG was quite underdeveloped, with thrilling action fights accompanied by explosive special effects as long as the explosive powder was not killed, and the "Kamen Rider" series was playing with excitement and playing with heartbeats.
Unprotected fighting at height
There is such a scene in the first part of Kamen Rider, on the high-altitude cable car of Mount Rokko Kobe, actor Hiroshi Fujioka, who plays Kamen Rider One, directly staged extreme sports with the weirdos on the high-altitude ropeway.
In the sequel "Kamen Rider V3", in order to shoot a condescending shot, the holster actor needs to climb a 50-meter-high chimney without protection.
Explosion effects
Also in "Kamen Rider V3", in order to show Kamen Rider's thrilling fight, the crew used a large amount of explosives to create explosive smoke and dust and render the entire shooting scene.
At "Kamen Rider 50th Anniversary Project", actor Hiroshi Miyauchi, who plays a V3 rider, said that the close-range explosion shook him to the point of dizziness.
In the Heisei generation, although the delicate holster and the stuntman share most of the performances in the Kamen Rider tokusatsu drama, the young protagonists are not relieved, but need to inject spiritual emotions into the knights they play through a large number of literary dramas, in a word, to give the holster soul.
But as a 50-year-old IP, no matter what era Kamen Rider is, it is a cultural memory for Japanese audiences of all ages.
In 1971, Toei's ratings continued to decline, and the next door company Round Valley had already produced a third tokusatsu hero, Jack Ultraman.
Therefore, Toei urgently needed a tokusatsu hero at this time to boost the ratings. So, together with manga artist Shotaro Ishimori, they created a project for "Kamen Rider".
Kamen Rider designed by Shotaro Ishimori, who studied under Osamu Tezuka, initially focused on the lone hero of "Transformation Man", and its core story revolved around "Transformation Man" to protect justice on the one hand, and on the other hand, it reflected the joys and sorrows of daily life as the protagonist of "Transformation Man".
After the first "Kamen Rider" was broadcast, it set off a continuous "Kamen Superman craze", which brought not only ratings success, but also commercial success (everyone who knows it).
At that time, Japanese children who purchased knight peripherals imitated knight transformation
In February 1972, Kamen Rider Snacks sold more than 1 million bags per day, eventually reaching 620 million bags in 15 months, equivalent to 85 bags purchased by every Japanese boy at the time, according to Calbee.
From now on, the elements of "Kamen Rider" are almost pervasive, and you can see Kamen Rider in any well-known work.
The dynamic superman in "Crayon Shin" combines the image of Kamen Rider with its prototype, and in episode 1368 of "Crayon Shin", Koshin's father Hiromichi talks about how he liked to watch "Kamen Rider" when he was a child.
In the TV version of "Detective Conan" episode 18 "Department Store Hijacking Incident", the young detective team watches the Kamen Rider stage play in a department store.
Even in the famous workplace rectification drama "Hansawa Naoki", the main characters other than Uncle Masato have a fate with knights.
At this point, you will find that "Kamen Rider" has influenced generations of Japanese people, not only tokusatsu and plot visual impact, the actors who play "Knight" have strong cultural symbols in different eras.
During the Showa period, the protagonist setting of the early Kamen Rider was highly educated + highly martial, so actors (Showa boys) who matched the temperament of the times were often required in the selection of the protagonist.
In the play, Hongo is a student at Seongnam University, with an IQ of 600 and a genius young man with extraordinary physical strength
According to Japanese scholar Koichi Katsuragi in his paper "How is the image of a hero drawn?" During the broadcast of the "Knight" series in the Showa era, the enrollment rate of Japanese universities remained at about 25%.
Since then, the university enrollment rate has increased year by year, which has something to do with the image of elite college students such as "Hongo Meng". Because at that time, if a child wanted to become a "knight", then a "university" degree was a prerequisite for becoming a knight.
In the Heisei period, since Kirito Oda starred in Heisei's first Kamen Rider Sorgo, the knight protagonist entered a new generation.
And many young housewives and single women in Heisei, seeing handsome male protagonists on the screen is also a visual comfort for female audiences.
It also allows for common topics between parents and children. In "Heisei Knight Kotou", the male protagonist Tenshi Soji played by Hiroshi Mizushima is a foodie. In the play, he often shows cooking skills and advises everyone to eat well and not to do bad things.
Through the heroic image that children like on TV, it is possible to solve the problem of children's difficulty in eating and also serve as a positive guide, so it is indeed a lot of worry for housewives who are parenting.
After talking so much, Momo talked about the springboard for young Japanese actors from the Kamen Rider idol creation camp, and why the "Kamen Rider" series can last in Japan. As a common memory of generations in Japan, the charm of "Kamen Rider" is more than that.
However, due to space limitations, there are still many interesting contents that cannot be presented in full.
Then put a world-famous painting at the end and let's have a look.
In 1973, Teresa Teng took a photo with Japan and the Kamen Rider V3 statue, and later Japanese netizens researched that the shooting location may be Asakusa, Japan