This morning shinsuke and I got up early and went to Eigamura. Its this film studio in Kyoto that is open to the public and allows tours and explains how they do all the things they do. We met up with sara, seth, and mark. The five of us went in together. I really didn’t know what to expect but it seriously was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. They had a series of shows we could go to and we went to all of them. The whole park was set in the Tokugawa period (1603-1868) and thus had streets and objects from that time period, as well and fun movie set stuff. The first show we went to was this samurai show where the actors were outside and they had this huge battle. They first performed their show which was maybe five minutes and they had this fight scene they had rehearsed. It was awesome. But then it got even cooler. They explained some of the actions they used to make scenes. They had this scripted way of doing things and they asked for volunteers, Seth got selected to go up and act with the samurai guys, he and two kids a boy and girl. They taught some different moves like this one where both guys run up and clash swords and then stare at each other making manly grunts for like five –ten seconds…SO funny, then they back off from each other and run again and the bad guy goes for an overhead blow and the good guy gets him in the stomach in a sweeping/ slicing motion. After that the bad guy dies and the good guy gets to pose for a few seconds in victory. Well, they had the little boy go first and he was so cute! I did everything and tried to slit the bad guys stomach but could really reach that high and he got him elsewhere…I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time. Then hi struck his victory pose. So awesome. Then the little girl went on and she was out for blood! She got done with the in the face manly part and was supposed to run back but she just ran forward and charged the bad guy who had tripped already and she I think just stabbed him a number of times. They saved seth for last. They announced that it would be the American vs Japanese and they slaughtered him haha. Then they re-did it and he (seth) did everything and when it came time for the killing stroke, he did so and ended with a pose/ move you’d see from a video game of the winner. It was so classic. I got the whole thing on film.
Next we went and saw this ninja play…wow…seriously SO COOL! They were all acrobats and they had this sinister old guy that had this scroll that told all the intimate details of the enemies of the Tokugawa shogunate, the heroin who pretty much kicked the crap out of all the other ninjas and even the bad guy at the end had a mission to steal that scroll. The best part of this thing was they had the cheesy sound effects to go with everything and they had lighting to go with the scnes and movie tricks…it was awesome. What was really funny was the sinister old man had this part where he came out and showed his face for the first time (up until that time he had his hair in front of his face…scary) and he did it into the front row of people. There were little kids sitting there and he must have felt like he was to scary because he went from this terrifying scary man to this really nice old man and showed the peace sign. He talked a little and interacted with the audience and then the show continued with its dramatic conclusion. It was awesome. We got to meet this famous stunt man who had acted in a number of films in his day, he was the ninja fight scene coordinator. He had been in movies with Michael Cane and some other famous people. Pretty good stuff.
After ninja we went to the ninja suvenier shop…I almost bought a ninja suit which would have been awesome for making movies with…but I was recently told that I spend money to freely so I opted not to get it. But in that store they had a solar powered flashlight. I kid you not. They also had this chance to throw shuriken (Chinese stars) at targets. I did do that, and I won a prize. Its like darts sort of but a lot cooler. We ate lunch then headed to the other side of the park and there they had a demonstration of how they film scenes and what not. They had a fight scene between a samurai and a ninja but along with that they had the set, rain, thunder and lightning, a ton of effects they used to simulate whatever they wanted. They also had day and night settings and stars etc…it was really cool. Then they showed effects like shooting an arrow down at thte samurai…the arrow was on a string and it flew down and stuck in the side post of an entry way. They also had knives and they would simulate throwing them. Both people carried the same knife and worked together on the timing and the delivery of the knife to the other person. Then choregrophy as well was included. The director gave some good examples of what he wanted in the show and then had the actors do it. You seriously felt like you were there in it, and I wished I had done that as a profession.
The next event was yes, a ½ hour POWER RANGER show. Only in Japan can you see the mighty morphin power rangers live…and it was for sure a sight to see. The work these actors had to go through in order to pull this off was fascinating. They as well were total acrobats jumping and flipping everywhere and anywhere. There were a lot of kids in the show and they seemed to really like it.
The last show was an educational show describing the use of money in the Tokugawa time, how Tokugawa period living people made fire, and the different katana’s the movies use to make shows. They have one for close ups and another for actual fight scenes that is really light and easy to use yet harmless if you hit someone.
It was a great experience all in all, and I was completely worn out afterwards. But duty called in the form of karaoke that night so shinsuke and I went…there just isn’t anything like a good session of singing your heart out to wrap up the day.
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