NEMURI x GACKT - Osaka 10/02

[pyroyale]

So, here’s the NEMURI review. I want to start by saying that my Japanese isn’t the greatest so it’s very possible that I missed important things or misinterpreted things. Also, the play is pretty long and it’s quite an assault on the senses so I may have missed things or got them out of order.

And, some of the character names may be wrong. I picked up a couple during the play but most of them I’ve translated myself from the pamphlet and I’ve just taken the most popular name readings for the kanji.

All of the NEMURI stage photos are from the press day they had prior to the show opening. I just thought it'd be helpful to include some!



The theatre is on the sixth floor of a shopping centre but it was easy to spot due to these flags being outside.




When I got to the sixth floor, there was a line for the goods and group of people crowded around the poster outside of the LJ cut (*points up*) so that they could get a photo.

The tour goods were inside the theatre and they checked your ticket before allowing you in. At the concerts the tour goods are outside and they don’t care if you have a ticket or not so I think that’s part of the reason why there aren’t as many NEMURI goods for sale in the usual places. They had all of the goods on the flyers available (see entry here for a full list of goods) and they’re all stunning!



After the goods there was a row of ohana. I spotted one from SUGIZO but we weren’t supposed to take photos inside so I was only able to snap one photo.

There was also a display of the kimonos, including the one he wore to the Bunraku premier at TIFF but it really didn’t look like anything special on the dummy. The man makes the cloth huh?

The theatre was pretty small but very nice and modern. My seat was in the third row but right on the end and unfortunately, a little bit of my view was blocked by the speakers on the side of the stage. I could see what was happening but I couldn’t see anyone coming on stage from that side. Luckily they seemed to come on from the other side more.

The first floor was full but the second and third floors had a few empty spaces. Not many, but a few. The Osaka run is pretty long and a lot of days have two performances (matinee and evening) so I guess a couple of empty seats is to be expected. The audience was pretty much made up solely of GACKT fans and they were typically older than the concert crowd.


It was due to start at 17:30 and at that time we were given the big “no phones, no cameras” speech. The play itself started at 17:45.

There were two video walls present – one at the back of the stage that was utilised as a backdrop and then a second wall that came down at the front of the stage leaving about 7-8 feet between it and the edge of the stage. The opening sequence was played on this second video wall (I’m going to call it a screen so I don’t get confused) and showed the child Kyoshiro visiting a grave. The grave had a single kanji written on it, 霊, which translates into English as ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’. I don’t know if it means anything more… The inference from the voice over is that it was his mother's grave.

The screen lifts and GACKT is stood at the back of the stage with his katana drawn. There are two spotlights on him as he walks down the stairs and then he twirls around a lot and throws some shapes with his katana, showing off his skills to the audience. The screen comes back down again and the play begins properly (yes, that was just an excuse for GACKT to introduce himself and show off).

The screen shows some doors opening and then lifts to a scene with two of the older actors. To save confusion, I’m going to call them Bad Guy #1 and Bad Guy #2. They’re obviously bad guys as they have that evil laugh and there is villain theme music playing. They don’t like Kyoshiro and plot to get rid of him. Ayano and her brother are called in and I thought that maybe they wanted to use her to get to Kyoshiro but it was never really mentioned again so I dunno…

They do introduce Mikumo, another samurai who is a bad ass of the highest degree. Seriously, the dude was SCARY. If they ever did Terminator 5 and for some odd reason decided to make the Terminators into samurai, this would be the dude they’d cast. Anyway…. he’s given the task of taking care of Kyoshiro.

The next scene is a bit of comic relief. The main character in it is Tachikawa, who, along with Kinhachi, is the comedian of the show. He breaks the fourth wall by welcoming the audience to Nemuri Kyoshiro in Osaka and gets us all doing deep breathing exercises. Yeah… I didn’t understand it either.

After this he gets back to the story and is being very animated when Kinhachi (Taya, the guy who went on the Euro Tour with GACKT) sneaks up behind him and frightens him. It’s not as funny as they had probably hoped it would be. Lots of extras come onto the stage and it turns into a busy town scene.

Then, there’s some commotion for some reason (I think our Kyoshiro might have had a hand in that) and most of the cast leave the stage. FINALLY Kyoshiro comes back. It’s been twenty minutes since he was last on stage twirling his katana around and now that he’s back he speaks about ten words. Grr. Kyoshiro is a man of few words though, as I found out as the show continued on.

Kyoshiro is fawned over by a lot of people (“sensei! Sensei!” *worship*) and he’s introduced to Ayano. He doesn’t seem too interested. Kyoshiro walks to the front of the stage and the screen drops behind him. A flashback is played of a black mass where a woman is being assaulted. The voice over from the adult Kyoshiro says it’s his mother. She calls out for Kyoshiro and there’s plenty of standard Christian imagery in the scene such as a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding tears. I know that in the original Kyoshiro stories, he was conceived during a black mass but I don’t think that’s what they were hinting at here because firstly, how would he remember his own conception?! Even GACKT isn’t that magical. The flashback finishes and Kyoshiro walks off stage and walks back on behind where the screen was (it’s been lifted).

The stage is dressed up like a garden and Kyoshiro stops to pick some flowers. Mikumo arrives with a few henchmen in tow and they attack Kyoshiro. He puts the flower in his mouth and makes short work of most of them. He throws the flower into the air as a distraction tactic against one of the henchman but makes sure to pick it back up again after the fight has finished. Mikumo merely watches from the side.



There is more plotting by Bad Guy #1 and Bad Guy#2. Kinhachi gets hit over the head a lot because he’s an idiot.

Kyoshiro is then back out in the garden with Ayano. He’s standing on the right side of the stage and she’s at the left with her back to him. She’s tending to the same flowers that Kyoshiro was looking at earlier and pricks her finger on them, exhaling in pain loudly. He asks her what has happened (“doushite?” See? Man of few words) but she doesn’t tell him. He walks over to have a look and sees her injured finger. He bends down, takes her hand in his and pulls the thorn out WITH HIS TEETH. He’s at her hand forever but then pulls away and spits the thorn out.

Or, at least I think that’s happened. I don’t know because GACKT had his back to me the whole time and was shielding the action *sighs*

Ayano sits down and Kyoshiro kneels at her side. He pulls out a cloth from his yukata, rips off a strip and wraps her finger up. He asks her if she’s okay now and that’s that… Conversation over.



Ayano leaves Kyoshiro alone and Mihoyo comes on stage to serve him tea. He seems a little reluctant to take the tea from her but eventually holds out his saucer for her to fill it and he drinks. He then offers the saucer to her and she drinks from it too. They gaze into each other’s eyes, he touches her face and draws her closer to him as he leans in to kiss her… and they’re interrupted.

Haha, DENIED.



Kyoshiro meets up with Mikumo again and they have a brief fight but they both decide to step away and fight another day.



There’s a scene where Kyoshiro is sat outside with a flower in his hand and is looking rather thoughtful. I think there may have been another flashback of his mother immediately before it but I’m not sure. Anyway, he’s sitting out there all peaceful and his eyes slip shut. His head slowly drops to his chest as he falls asleep and it’s all captured in great close up by the cameras that show it on the video wall. It’s really quite cute. He looks adorable when he’s falling asleep even if it is a really stupid idea for Kyoshiro to go to sleep outside considering he has so many people out to kill him… Luckily for him he’s woken by allies and not enemies.



Kinhachi comes running on screaming with a wooden token in hand. Mojikawa, an older lady who’s been very kind to Kyoshiro throughout the play, has been kidnapped! She’s been kidnapped by Mikumo, tied up and taken to a forest but never fear, Kyoshiro is able to rescue her. He walks on stage with his katana to the throat of a henchman but lets him go in return for Mojikawa being released unharmed. He does of course then dispatch of the bad guys other than Mikumo who runs again. Of course Kyoshiro is very concerned with her wellbeing and takes the time to make sure she’s okay (“daijouba ka?” “hai” *walks off*)





I think it was around this time that we had the interval… Maybe.

After the interval Tachikawa is back and he helpfully acts out all of the fight scenes that have happened so far for the audience. He then decides that it’s all too dangerous for him and jumps off stage to find solace in the crowd. This poor girl in the eighth row named Kaori sounded mortified when he sat himself next to her and tried to hide behind her. Eventually he runs off through one of the fire exits next to me.

Because the last kidnapping plot went so well for Mikumo, he decides to do it again but this time he sends his minions to kidnap both Ayano and Mihoyo. Good idea!

Mikumo, Bad Guy #1 and Bad Guy #2 are in the forest and plotting some more. Unfortunately for Bad Guy #2, the plot is to kill him and Mikumo makes short work of putting him out of his misery. There really is no honour among thieves huh?

Kyoshiro comes to the forest and finds the bound and kidnapped girls. Mikumo doesn’t really care about them so he’s happy to let them go and Kinhachi gets them safely out of harms way because he knows it’s about to get violent.

And it does, in what I like to call ‘The Battle of 50 Green Ninjas’. There are only ten guys who act as henchman for Kyoshiro to kill but for this battle they’re all dressed in green with green hoods and as soon as they’re killed, they run off stage only to come back to be killed again. Kyoshiro must kill 50 to 60 enemies through the course of this battle, it was so well orchestrated and planned. The first wave attack him with katanas, the second with spears (I’m sure there is a proper Japanese word for that but I don’t know it) and then it’s back to katanas again. Kyoshiro whirls around and kills them all with his blade (while repeatedly flashing the first ten rows with his distractingly smooth, milky white thighs) and I’d have been quite happy to watch this fight scene all night. It was amazing. So were his thighs.



After disposing of them all, Kyoshiro finally faces Mikumo. Their swords clash and they laugh evilly at each other. They clash again… and laugh again. There’s a lot of evil laughter here but the fight only lasts about a minute before there is a big, booming explosion and a flash of light on the video wall.

It all goes dark and when the lights come back on, both Kyoshiro and Mikumo are stood still at opposite sides of the stage with their katanas raised into the air. Who won? What happened? It’s Mikumo who speaks first and says “Kyoshiro, it’s been fun, huh? Grguadhasuggargle.”

He slumps down to his knees, holding his stomach because obviously, Kyoshiro won the battle. Mikumo shouts something to the sky that I didn’t understand because firstly, he was shouting and secondly, he was shouting so much that there was spit flying into the air. Ugh. Throughout all of this Kyoshiro is just kinda standing there.

The final scene has Kyoshiro, Kinhachi, Ayano, Mihoyo, Mojikawa and the other characters who have been friendly to Kyoshiro all gathered around. From what I could understand of what Kyoshiro said and the body language of everyone involved, he doesn’t want to be Nemuri Kyoshiro or their saviour anymore (do you blame him? Dumb girls, getting kidnapped all of the time) and walks away from them. They frantically call him back but he keeps walking.

They show the credits on the screen and the audience applaud.

The end.

Phew.


General notes
* GACKT’s acting can be slotted into two categories – serene and pretty or stern and pretty. As you can imagine, neither of them are that big a stretch for him! It works for the character though. He’s a man of few words and most of the other characters only have one or two layers to them.
* GACKT had his right ankle bandaged. There was a photo in the DEARS Staff Blog earlier this week showing his bruised ankle and it’s obviously still causing him trouble if he has to wear a bandage on stage. It didn’t seem to slow him down during the fight scenes or stop him from doing that slow, hip swaying supermodel walk of his around the stage.
* All of the male characters of stature, such as Kyoshiro, had the top of their yukatas tied very loosely. This is because they all had their left arms inside of their yukata unless they were about to fight. As soon as that left arm came out, you knew that it was ON.
* The bottom of GACKT’s yukatas, however, were pulled very, very tightly around his waist and hips, probably to stop them opening fully during the fight scenes. It did mean that whenever he turned around there was such a glorious view of this thin yukata material pulled tight across his ass and thighs ^_^
* And yes… his yukata really does come so far open during the fight scenes. ALL of the other male actors had trousers or shorts underneath theirs but not our little man whore exhibitionist Kyoshiro. For ‘The Battle of the 50 Green Ninja’ he may as well have taken the yukata off because he couldn’t have flashed the audience anymore than he did. The one good thing about being on the end of the row was that I probably had a better view of this than most did as his fighting stance always put him facing my end of the row.
* The fighting choreography is amazing. It was distracting in the first fight because the blows obviously aren’t landing and they aren’t trying to trick you into thinking that they are but once you understand that and can see what they’re aiming for, it’s thrilling to watch. GACKT twirls around the stage with such poise and strength that it really does seem like he’s gliding. It is kinda funny though because you get these big flashes of action, and then he’ll just stand there looking serene for a few seconds before twirling off again.
* The soundtrack is fantastic and is used to great effect. Well done SUGIZO! Whenever anyone sheathes their katana, there is a sound effect played and sparks on the screen. It’s very effective.
* GACKT was very shiny. And sparkly. His hair shone, his katana nearly blinded me when the lights caught it, his first yukata sparkled, his obi sparkled and even his sandles had sparkles on them.

Overall it was a little ridiculous in places but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. GACKT was as pretty as ever and really, if you didn’t know that one of the actors wasn’t actually a full time actor, I don’t think you’d be able to point him out. He did exactly what the character needed him to do.

I'll be seeing it again in Hiroshima in January (somewhere in the first five rows again ^_^) and I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll catch some things I missed.

Oh, and black. No sparkles.