{"id":691011,"date":"2025-09-20T05:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/junichi-okadas-epic-netflix-samurai-survival-drama-promises-blood-honor-and-hype\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T05:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T02:25:10","slug":"junichi-okadas-epic-netflix-samurai-survival-drama-promises-blood-honor-and-hype","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/junichi-okadas-epic-netflix-samurai-survival-drama-promises-blood-honor-and-hype\/","title":{"rendered":"Junichi Okada\u2019s Epic Netflix Samurai Survival Drama Promises Blood, Honor and Hype"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tJapanese heart throb-turned-tough guy Junichi Okada hopes to have a global hit on his hands with the upcoming Netflix tentpole Last Samauri Standing<\/em>, and the formula he believes will work is a combination of contemporary aesthetics with a healthy dose of old school action.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking on the sidelines of this week\u2019s 30th<\/sup> Busan International Film Festival, Okada \u2014 a veteran now of two decades in cinema \u2014 explained that the aim was to produce Japanese period drama and action that \u201cspeaks to the new generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was thinking about how I could deliver this, and what I had in mind was taking traditional elements, the intrinsic parts, the basics [of martial arts], but we encapsulate them in stories and characters for the younger generation,\u201d says Okada. \u201cWe wanted to look into how people could experience <\/em>the action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAudiences in Busan have this week been treated to a preview of Last Samurai Standing<\/em>, Netflix\u2019s much hyped six-part actioner that\u2019s set for a November 13 global rollout.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series<\/a> throws its 292 fallen samurai warriors into a fight to the death and, ultimately, for the winner, untold riches, with period echoes of FX\u2019s\u00a0wildly successful Shogun<\/em>\u00a0and plot echoes of Netflix\u2019s\u00a0own blockbuster Squid Game<\/a>. <\/em>But the style and substance in the action sequences is its own.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Okada \u2014 onboard as lead actor, producer and action choreographer \u2014 and director Michihito Fujii explained, the plan here has been to eschew leaning heavily on CGI in order to capture the spirit of history\u2019s martial arts masters \u2014 and to not allow technology<\/a> to distract from the drama.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI wanted to make sure that the human drama is not something separate from the action sequences that we will be delivering in the show,\u201d says Fujii, who named-checked the likes of great cinematic \u201crealists\u201d Buster Keaton and Akira Kurosawa as his inspirations.<\/p>\n

\n\tA former member of Japanese boy-band V6, Okada has become one of Japan\u2019s most bankable stars in recent years thanks to a brand of believable action built on his own decades-long commitment to traditional martial arts. His proficiency in Japanese and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, as well as Jeet Kune Do and Kali fight styles, has helped him become one of the industry\u2019s leading fight choreographers. <\/p>\n

\n\tOkada today gives a nod to the great Japanese director Kurosawa, creator of the epic Seven Samurai<\/em> along with a string of hits that redefined action cinema, and a filmmaker who learned martial arts in order to make his films feel more real.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am a martial arts geek, or otaku,\u201d says Okada. \u201cEver since I was a child, I wanted to work in movies. I wanted to work in action. I started out as an idol, a pop star, and being in the movies was my dream. Basically, to do that I looked into what Kurosowa did and what he did is he had these people around him to make it authentic, actual martial arts experts, sword fight experts. So to be authentic, I wanted to make sure I had the skills of martial arts. Having that is kind of my weapon, that is my skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast Samurai Standing<\/em> is set in 1878 Japan, the post-samurai period when these famed warriors had \u2014 along with their swords \u2014 been left on society\u2019s scrap heap, as the country\u2019s feudal system came to an end.\u00a0Drawn by mysterious invitation to the historic grounds of the Tenryuji Temple in Kyoto, they are tempted into a game of survival, with the claim that 100 billion yen awaits the winner. Cue violence, and a wild cast of characters and \u2014 in case we\u2019ve not mentioned it \u2014 a bloody fight to the death.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series comes lifted from the pages of Shogo Imamura\u2019s best-selling Ikusagami <\/em>series of novels, later turned into a manga<\/a> series. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe show is quite obviously a passion project for Okada. \u201cI felt that in the original source material, [Shogo Imamura] was basically working on period drama but trying to change the model,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to speak to a newer audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Japanese heart throb-turned-tough guy Junichi Okada hopes to have a global hit on his hands with the upcoming Netflix tentpole Last Samauri Standing, and the formula he believes will work is a combination of contemporary aesthetics with a healthy dose of old school action. Speaking on the sidelines of this week\u2019s 30th Busan International Film…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":691012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01_FIRST-LOOK_FINAL_L1011451-edit-4c.jpg?w=1296&h=731&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[25196,146352,124783,158761,1377,83351,117772,1525],"class_list":["post-691011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-asia","tag-busan-international-film-festival","tag-international","tag-last-samurai-standing","tag-netflix","tag-shogun","tag-squid-game","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}