<figure id="attachment_317661" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-317661" style="width: 5384px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="44922764"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/06/3b942d1497b598a1ace8207f124747d5-e1687332645393.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-317661" class="wp-caption-text">It was a triumphant press conference held at the Japan Press Club.</figcaption></figure>
 Actor and dancer Min Tanaka (78) is causing a stir with his comment that &#8220;those who make movies and TV dramas are making fun of the people.
 The comment was made at the end of a press conference held in Tokyo on June 13 with Koji Yakusho (67), who starred in the movie &#8220;Perfect Days&#8221; and won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. Tanaka began, &#8220;What I keep feeling is that the people who make these films are making fun of the general public, or the people themselves, or the general public at large.
 I have been involved in TV dramas and NHK morning dramas for a little over 20 years since I first appeared in films, and I think that just by being Japanese, I enjoy the culture very much. Therefore, I think it is necessary to make movies and TV dramas that bring out the best in the viewers. The only thing we can do is to make things that suit the current situation. 
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 As an example, he shared his feelings he had when he appeared in NHK&#8217;s morning drama series.
 He said, &#8220;They try so hard to make you laugh. When I asked him, &#8220;Why do you have to make us laugh so much? I asked him, &#8220;Why do you have to make us laugh so hard?　I thought to myself, &#8220;You&#8217;ve got to be kidding.
 （I thought, &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter if I make them cry or get them angry. It&#8217;s more interesting to get a reaction, isn&#8217;t it?　That&#8217;s where I stopped. Is this about ratings or money, NHK?　I want to ask. 
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 Although Tanaka is now active as an actor in numerous dramas and movies, he began his acting career at the age of 57. Until then, he was known as a world-renowned butoh dancer. He won the Japan Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Best New Actor for the movie &#8220;Twilight Samurai,&#8221; in which he played a role for the first time.
 In the morning drama &#8220;Mare,&#8221; which aired in 2003 and starred Tao Tsuchiya, he played the role of salt manufacturer Okezaku Motoharu, and his sun-scorched, well-trained body silently pumping tidal water and spreading it on salt fields caught the attention of viewers. He also played a comical scene in this work, and some people called it a &#8220;new frontier&#8221; because it greatly betrayed his previous image. At the time, she also appeared in NHK&#8217;s &#8220;LIFE: Life Dedication Contest,&#8221; which surprised even her own audience.
 Let&#8217;s take a look back at a scene from episode 4 of &#8220;Mare.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The scene in &quot;Mare&quot; that caused the problem"></div>
Mare Tsumura (child actor Yume Matsumoto) and her family come from Tokyo to Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, where they have no connection to the city, and end up being taken care of by an oke artist.
 Her father, Toru (Yo Oizumi), has changed his mind and helps Motoharu with his salt farm, but he is completely useless, making nothing but mistakes. His mother, Aiko (Tokiwa Takako), praises Motoharu for being &#8220;serious, taciturn, and truly a man of character. However, Motoharu&#8217;s wife, Fumi (Yuko Tanaka), overhearing this, says, &#8220;He has his faults. You&#8217;ll understand soon enough. 
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 Then, the villagers come to the house and say, &#8220;Good evening. Then, Motoharu comes running out from the back of the house. 
 Motoharu says, &#8220;Sit down quickly! Sit down quickly! Hey, Fumi, bring me some sake! Fumi, bring me some sake!&#8221;
 The Tsumura family is taken aback by Motoharu&#8217;s unprecedentedly high spirits. 
 Motoharu is in a good mood as he makes arrangements for the festival with the villagers, but he changes when a man in the village tells him that the lion dance has been torn.
 Motoharu says, &#8220;It&#8217;s done! You&#8217;re not managing it properly! Our festival is the best in the area.
<h2> You&#8217;ve got to be kidding!</h2>
 The Tsumura family is stunned by Motoharu&#8217;s furious shouting, but Fumi calmly tells them, &#8220;Every year on the 17th and 18th of August, the Tsumura family holds a festival.
 Fumi said, &#8220;The summer festival is held every year on August 17 and 18. Until then, it will be held every night.
 Aiko &#8220;What?　But there&#8217;s a salt kettle burning at night&#8230;&#8221;
 Hearing this, Motoharu exclaims with a big smile on his face.
 Motoharu: &#8220;Holiday yawai ya!&#8221;
 Toru murmurs as he stands up, claps his hands, and looks at Motoharu in a good mood.
 Toru: &#8220;He&#8217;s a festival fool, this man&#8230;&#8221;
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 Motoharu, who had been a taciturn craftsman character up to this point, hardly said a word in the scene, and his change of character was a topic of conversation among viewers, but there were also many who were puzzled.
 What was also pointed out by many on the Internet was the &#8220;Fumi-san quiz&#8221; scene in episode 24.
 This is the scene where Motoharu&#8217;s son Tetsuya (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) and his wife want to come back from Tokyo and the Tsumura family face off over who gets to live with Motoharu and Fumi. The winner was the couple who answered the most questions correctly in a quiz to see who knew more about Fumi.
 The fact that the contestant, Fumi, was wearing a tusk that said &#8220;Today&#8217;s leading man,&#8221; and Motoharu was wearing a large bow tie for some reason, was touted on the Internet as being &#8220;too much of a joke.
 In fact, as they fought in the quiz, a sense of unity emerged among them, and it was a touching ending, saying that since they all knew Fumi so well, it didn&#8217;t matter whether they were related or not. However, some people were too impressed by Motoharu&#8217;s &#8220;cosplay&#8221; to get into the story.
 A person involved in the production of the show commented on the situation on the production side regarding Tanaka&#8217;s comment.
 A production company official said of Tanaka&#8217;s comment, &#8220;It is not an extreme direction by any means, but it is a bad tendency for the production to unnecessarily sway the emotions of the viewers, because they have to be aware of the ratings, which are measured in 60-second increments.
 Also, on social networking sites, for better or for worse, such staging is more likely to get a reaction. Mr. Tanaka&#8217;s comment is a wake-up call that even NHK is being influenced by this trend.
 In fact, it may be that the viewers who are bitten by the production that only shakes their emotions are the ones being tested to make sure they are not made to look like fools.

 AFRO

 Min Tanaka (78) is causing a stir with his comments at a press conference held at the Japan Press Club that "the people who make movies and TV dramas are making fun of the people. A look back at the scene from the problematic morning drama "Mare" that he criticized as an example.

Veteran actor Min Tanaka complained about “problematic scenes” in NHK’s morning dramas.

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