Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Trivia about "Triangle" as revealed by its producer Shigematsu Keiichi

On the official blog of "Triangle", the drama's producer, Shigematsu Keiichi was interviewed and revealed some unknown facts and trivia about this drama:

1) The original novel was developed at around the same time as the drama.
Plans for this drama started about 4 to 5 years ago. In celebration of KTV's 50th anniversary, there was an idea for KTV's local office in Japan and overseas offices in Paris and Shanghai to work together to produce a drama.

In contrast with the current trend of using existing novels or manga for adaptation, KTV decided to work with a writer to develop the novel and the drama at the same time. As such, the author, Niitsu Kiyomi went to Shanghai and Osaka for research and she was given a free hand on how she wanted to write the story.

In view of this, the drama and the novel are structured differently thus will have different endings.

2) A suspense drama to prove that Japanese TV dramas are still interesting
Currently, local dramas have been overshadowed by the immense popularity of foreign series such as The X-Files, 24, Prison Break. However, I would like to show viewers that they can still get a high-quality drama for free on TV without paying for the rental fees of DVDs. We hope to make viewers feel excited about watching the suspense unravel weekly.

3) Every character in the story is suspicious?
We deliberately made the story in the way that everyone appears suspicious. In addition, the culprit in the novel doesn't appear in the drama! In most suspense stories, viewers can usually guess who is the culprit by looking at the cast lineup. To avoid this, we assembled a cast of A-listers who all decided to act in this drama because of Mizuhashi Fumie's excellent script.

4) A refreshing set of combinations
Eguchi Yosuke, Inagaki Goro, Sakai Masato, Tanihara Shosuke, Sasaki Kuranosuke, Kohinata Fumio, Kitadaji Kinya - a strong assemble of actors plus actresses Hirosue Ryoko, Aibu Saki and Fubuki Jun. No matter how you look at it, this is a cast where you can see interesting combinations which cannot be found in other dramas.

5) What the title means
Triangle has a number of meanings. For example, the story is set in three places i.e. Paris, Shanghai and Japan. In addition, it spans over three time frames i.e. the past, present and future. Besides that, it also refers to the identities of the real self, living for others and the real culprit.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just watched Triangle, and LOVED it! Thanks so much for posting. It's always interesting to read about the facts and trivia. I WISH I could read the homepage, but since I can't read Japanese, I appreciate this. Thanks.
- Viewer in America