Cashier Xiao Qiu
It's a nostalgic theater.
Famous actor Masakazu Tamura died of heart failure on April 3 this year at the age of 77. According to the instructions of Tamura, who has always acted low-key, the family did not disclose the news to the outside world until more than a month later.
Tamura, born on August 1, 1943, was born into an acting family. In addition to his father, Sakato's wife Saburo, he also has two brothers who are also actors. Tamura's own acting career began with a visit to his brother's crew. He was assigned a dragon suit role, and thus began his path as an actor for more than 60 years.
Wedding
In the early days of his career, he had a "Showa face" and a melancholy temperament, and he was often active in various costume dramas in Japan. Since the 1980s, Tamura, who has successively starred in modern dramas, has gradually stepped out of a romantic and somewhat witty drama path. This trait of his was also applied to The Furuhata Renzaburō, which was broadcast since 1994. Spanning more than 10 years, the series eventually became Tamura's most well-known masterpiece in Japan and even in Asia.
In fact, at the beginning, Tamura refused the invitation of this criminal investigation drama. Having already starred in too many costume dramas full of action elements, he probably does not want to repeat the previous route. But screenwriter Yuki Mitani repeatedly assured him that the show had neither guns nor dramas, and that it was a "different criminal investigation film." Tamura, who was impressed by him, finally decided to take over this "atypical" series after reading the script.
Interestingly, when the first season aired, the official title of the TV series was "Police Department Supplement Furuhata Renzaburō". This is because the producers are worried that if only the name of the protagonist is added to Tamura's signboard, many people will think that it is another costume drama, thus losing a group of audiences.
"Furuhata Tosaburo" (1994) Kosho
As many media outlets have said, "Renzaburo Furuhata" can be called the Japanese version of "Detective Colombo" to some extent. Like this classic American drama, every case in the series uses a flashback technique. That is, the murderer of the story will be presented to the audience at the beginning. What Inspector Furuhata needs to do is to see through the methods of killing while cleverly using verbal traps to expose the prisoners.
Perhaps looking back with the current eyes, some viewers will be "bored" or "just this?" "Thoughts. Indeed, compared with the "Benge" reasoning that has become the mainstream of the market, which puts the truth at the end, the practice of exposing the prisoners at the beginning of the show is inevitably a bit of a direct spoiler. But one of the fundamental reasons for the filming side to do this is also completely true: because the murderer of each episode is a very topical star, so even if you don't tell the audience, everyone can recognize it at a glance.
Stills from Renzaburo Furuhata 2 (1996), featuring Takuya Kimura, is the only murderer to be slapped by Renzaburo Furuhata
"Furuhata Tosaburo 3" (1999) Koteru, Eguchi Yosuke
"Furuhata Tozaburo 3" (1999) Koteru, Fukuyama Masaharu Customer Skewers
Stills from Renzaburo Furuhata 2 (1996), cameo by Toshiaki Karasawa
Tokusaburo Furuhata Tokushiro (1996), Tomoko Yamaguchi
In a total of 42 stories, actors such as Sanada Hiroyuki, Takuya Kimura and Tomoko Yamaguchi, who were hot at the time, have made cameo appearances and fought wits with Furuhata. It is precisely because the biggest suspense of the murderer has been revealed that the audience can focus on the acting skills of the actors and the details of the script. From this point of view, "Furuhata Renzaburo" has a traditional stage play or drama color compared to other TV series.
This is probably best exemplified by the finale of the second season, which aired on March 13, 1996, with a cameo appearance by Nanami Suzuki. In this episode, Furuhata travels to the United States to visit friends. On a night bus from Atlanta back to New York, he meets Uba, who is also Japanese. After hearing that Furuhata did not believe in the perfect crime, the woman took the initiative to tell a story about the murder of her husband that happened to "her friend" and was successfully exonerated.
Stills from Renzaburo Furuhata 2 (1996), cameo appearance of Nanami Suzuki
The basic plot of this episode takes place in a closed bus space. Whether it is the reproduction of the case, the police investigation or the interrogation of witnesses, it is reproduced by the dialogue between the two actors. In the end, it was also through the contradictions of words and confusing words that Furuhata was able to deduce the truth of the incident. If it were not for the shaking of the bus from time to time, the dim space in the car would easily give people the illusion of being in a small theater. The actors' highly tense performances also make television, a two-dimensional print medium, have the charm of not losing the three-dimensional. It can be seen that confessing the murderer in advance is not the same as being lazy in the story arrangement, but it means that the producer needs to do everything possible to add visibility to the process of solving the case.
The biggest contributor to this is naturally Mitani Yuki, who is a screenwriter. We can see many shadows in the play that influenced his classic works: such as the similar structure of the aforementioned story and "Detective Colombo" and the same birthdays of the protagonists Furuhata and Holmes.
Shintaro Imaizumi, played by Masahiko Nishimura, is The partner of Renzaburo Furuhata
In addition, Shintaro Imaizumi, played by Masahiko Nishimura, is a rash person, but he can always inadvertently provide the protagonist with key clues to solve the case. Their golden pair is actually a replica of Holmes and Watson. Finally, in each episode, before revealing the murderer's method, Furuhata will have a "challenge book" to the audience by breaking the fourth wall. According to the screenwriter himself, the inspiration for this setting came from the American drama "The Detective Collection of Ellery Quinn" that he saw as a child. It is this kind of eclecticism and his own unique creation that makes "Furuhata Renzaburo" have a charm that transcends time and space.
"Furuhata Renzaburo" often has some unbearable passages
In addition to three full seasons in 1994, 1996 and 1999, the TV station has launched several special episodes in different years under the strong voice of the audience. After three consecutive nights of broadcasting with an average rating of 26% in 2006, the main story came to an end temporarily. But since then, related spin-off series and special plans have still appeared intermittently on the small screen.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, Mitani also ran four novels featuring Furuhata in a special article in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper to comfort people who could not go out at home. These are all evidences of the show's high popularity across time.
On the other hand, the drama was once broadcast on several channels in China in the 2000s under the name of "Gentleman's Criminal Police", which is a summer vacation memory for everyone. Although you know who the murderer is from the beginning, the tight plot, coupled with the classic soundtrack created by Isamu Honma, can still make people break into a cold sweat on a hot day. The play and its lead actor Tamura have made many Chinese audiences aware of more possibilities for reasoning and acting, and this has become the fundamental reason why his unfortunate death has made more people feel sad.
After the news of Tamura's death was announced, major Japanese television stations launched special reports for the first time. Fuji tv also rebroadcast the final season two-episode story with cameos by baseball superstar Ichiro Suzuki and actress Naoko Matsushima on May 20-21.
Stills from Renzaburo Furuhata The Fair Murderer (2006), with a cameo appearance by Ichiro Suzuki
Stills from Renzaburo Furuhata (2006), with a cameo appearance by Naoko Matsushima
Probably because of physical reasons, unable to continue to present the best side to the audience, Tamura has gradually faded out of show business since three years ago. He not only disbanded the studio, but also chose a cemetery for himself in advance. He spent his days quietly with his wife every day, but in the last stages of his life he maintained his usual demeanor and decency. In a previous interview, he had said: "I've finished shooting everything I wanted to shoot. ”
Senior Editor of this issue Xing Tan