Review - Taiheiki

I wrote the storyline of the drama till the end, as it is so complex and probably hard to understand without previous knowledge about Japanese history. If you don't want to know, please read only the last 4 paragraphs.

NHK's historic drama is a big deal in Japan , watched by all ages and all over the country. Hiro's appearance in this series is the second time, after a small role in "Dokuganryu Masamune" in 1987. Taiheiki is based on "Shihon Taiheiki" (part-fiction novel based on the classic literature "Taiheiki", literally means "Peace Story") by the prominent popular novelist Eiji Yoshikawa. Hiro plays Takauji from 20 to 54 years old. I have only seen the "summary version" sold in DVD's, and the following review is based on this summary version.

The story starts at mid-14 th century, when Kamakura Shogun government is ruling Japan , but by then Kamakura 's system has started to become outdated. Ashikaga family is a respected samurai clan within the Shogun government, but all the power belongs to the Hojo family. They consider Ashikaga as a rival and a danger to their rule, so they give Takauji and his family all kinds of humiliation and even try to trap them. Young Takauji gets frustrated and wants to get away, but his father convinces him that he cannot escape from his own destiny as the heir of the clan. So he gives up his love to a young dancer (Rie Miyazawa) and chooses the political marriage with a princess of their rival Hojo family, to realize the dream that his father could not realize.

Takauji meets a group of nobles and samurais who support Emperor Godaigo in Kyoto , who wants to overthrow samurai's Kamakura government and bring back the Emperor-ruled country. Takauji gets impressed by Emperor Godaigo and becomes sympathetic to their ideals. Emperor's group starts to rebel, but their attempts get crushed repeatedly by Kamakura . In the meantime, Hojo's pressure to Ashikaga gets stronger, and the country's confusion surmounts, so Takauji finally decides to fight against Kamakura , and eventually wins the battle.

So the Emperor Godaigo's rule starts, but people become quickly disillusioned by their unfairness and heavy taxes. Takauji is treated as a lower ranked person by the nobles, and when he is unfairly ordered to risk his family's life, he decides to go against the Emperor Godaigo this time. Godaigo flees from Kyoto and moves to Yoshino to become "The South Emperor", Takauji brings in another emperor in Kyoto as "The North Emperor", and so then the Nanbokucho (South and North Emperors) period begins.

Takauji is appointed as Shogun by the new North Emperor and starts Muromachi Shogunate in Kyoto , but things are still unstable. People go back and forth between the North and South Emperors, the Hojo's remainders still rebel repeatedly, and the staff members of his new Shogunate fight each other. Even Takauji's son, who was born from the dancer and is not recognized as his heir, and Takauji's brother get involved in the infighting, and eventually rebel against Takauji. To protect his new government and stability of the country, he has to fight through all the battles, and finally kills his brother with tears. As a result, though, his government continues to rule the country for the coming 200 years.

In the pre-WWII era, when the emperor was considered "the god", Takauji was positioned as a villain in the official history, because he betrayed Godaigo. It is not the case any more, but still Takauji is not often featured in popular period novels or movies, and as a result, his character is not very well known among Japanese people. So I could not picture Sanada-san as Takauji before myself, but now they totally convinced me.

Here, in his early days, Takauji is pictured as "the noble prince on a white horse" (literally, when he saves the dancer from assassins), the young leader with a good education. As he gets older, he becomes more of a savvy worrier and a trusted statesman, who maintains the gentleman's consideration and high ideals. Historically, Takauji is now thought to have been the balanced personality and was highly respected by samurais as their leader in the chaotic Japan during this period. Even though he went against Emperor Godaigo, he kept a high respect to this aggressive but unfortunate Emperor after the incident. Sanada-san is perfect for such a complex gentleman role.

Takauji keeps struggling throughout the story, and Sanada-san plays all of the aspects of Takauji - the struggling human being, majestic warrior, and thoughtful statesman - with great skills, especially in the latter part of the story. The sad ending of the series, when he poisons his own brother, is remarkable with so much emotion and agony. At the same time, his gorgeous armored warrior style with mustache reminds me of Ujio, and I was amazed at his real "Yabusame" (shooting arrows at targets from the fast running horse) scene.

As I only saw the abbreviated version, sometimes story line is omitted and hard to understand, and the middle part seems to be more focused on Masashige Kusunoki (the samurai hero on Godaigo side, played by Tetsuya Takeda). But what I like about this drama is the beautiful visual schemes, both for sets and costumes. Especially the color scheme of costume is really fresh to the eyes. I don't remember being so impressed by the visual beauty of the armors in other period dramas - and especially with Sanada-san in it.