Youtuber Chris Broad who is known for their Abroad with Japn Series recently conducted famous Japanese Actor Ken Watanabe, it's a really insightful video and i recommend you check it out - i am curious to know pepole's thoughts and opinions on it.
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Youtuber Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan) spent a week with famous Japanese Actor - Ken Watanabe
- Thread starter TheGamingNewsGuy
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Watched it last night with food (Generally save the good stuff for meal time) as with all Chris's stuff a good watch. The guy got me through Covid lockdown boredom and everything he does is pretty interesting.
Was kinda cool how they both just switched between English and Japanese without the obvious edits when there is a translator involved. Mad how popular Chris had become too, started seeing him on Japanese government/tourism ads on Facebook now.
Awesome video and amazing to see how much the area has recovered.
Ken seems like a great guy through and through.
Ken seems like a great guy through and through.
Going to watch it later today. Chris always produces great content. Folks new to his channel should check out episode where they made a song that got into iTunes charts 😂.
I want to see this just because I love what I've heard and seen of Watanabe's post-Fukushima efforts. I still find it tragic that his Serizawa character in Godzilla King of the Monsters had to share screen time with that shit stain "wise-cracking" "scientist" in that film. He deserved to be portrayed as a leading expert on the matters and not having to be told about animal and kaiju behavior by Bradley Whitford and Kyle Chandler...
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the vid.
Edit: reading posts, so this seems to bring up those efforts? Such a great guy.
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for the vid.
Edit: reading posts, so this seems to bring up those efforts? Such a great guy.
Very powerful footage of the devastation and the rebuilding, the note about the quiet/silence. Nice of him to be so involved in the effort, hear the stories from the fish-monger, etc.
That said is the "oh wow Ken Watanabe" an in-joke? As someone unfamiliar with the material it comes off as heavily repetitive and tedious.
That said is the "oh wow Ken Watanabe" an in-joke? As someone unfamiliar with the material it comes off as heavily repetitive and tedious.
Chris does really good work, his more documentary style videos are really polished, and I used most of his tips when I went to Japan myself!
It was a good video, but he's done many individual videos that were better, like his previous videos on the earthquake and Fukushima, as well as all the Journey Across Japan variations. It felt a bit awkward, maybe because he was a big fan himself. He came across more natural with Hyde a few years back.
yeah he has a lot of different styles of videos so definitely it's to each their own. i feel like i like JAJ, Wacky Weekend, and the food collabs with tokyo creative the best. basically when he's collabing with friends he's a really good foil.
this video was definitely very sweet--almost like a passion/dream project so it's really cool he got to do it, but yeah i almost could have done with more setup about ken watanabe and who he is coming into this video, and yeah the fawning was a bit much (and even seemed to make ken a bit uncomfortable, but maybe i'm just projecting) but knowing how much a dream project it is i'm not gonna hate haha
The video had to be vigorously vetoed and checked by Ken Watanabe's PR manager, so maybe he was trying to be extra cautious. Japan PR firms can be brutal.
It was an interesting video. Though I wonder Chris was truly able to ask Ken what he really wanted to ask him. The questions felt a bit tame for someone who supposedly has been interested in his work for a long time. I might be expecting Sean on Hot Ones interview quality questions from more interviewers now.
Great film. Funny as the egg scene is Koji Yakusho - who is up there with Ken as my favourite Japanese actors.
I thought on the podcast at some point he's mentioned there's been two visits and two planned videos but that might have changed or I might have misheard. He said he'd been super nervous the first time and tried to do better the second.
Also, Chris's documentary of the disaster itself is probably his best work and people should watch it if they haven't already.
Watch all his vids of course but yeah was a good watch. He was rather disappointed at one point that video did less well and it's a well produced thing.
I know Chris's channel and run in Japan has to end at some point or change dramatically but I really enjoy how it's always around and providing great content. He's been doing it 10 years now, and selfishly I want to see him do it for 10 more.
I'm really surprised no tv network or streaming service has offered him a deal to adapt older videos, but then again, YT is where it's at either way
I'm really surprised no tv network or streaming service has offered him a deal to adapt older videos, but then again, YT is where it's at either way
Chris felt out of his element here, but in a good way. It wouldn't really work to be snarky with Watanabe.
I wouldn't be surprised to see these two interact again in the future. This video is probably great publicity for Watanabe that brings attention to something he cares about personally. And I do believe it was Watanabe's team that approached Chris about doing a documentary, not the other way around.
I wouldn't be surprised to see these two interact again in the future. This video is probably great publicity for Watanabe that brings attention to something he cares about personally. And I do believe it was Watanabe's team that approached Chris about doing a documentary, not the other way around.
I know he's said he wants to do short films but I'd love it if he moved onto feature documentaries. He has stated a distaste for Japanese TV networks so it's possible there were some offers in the country he turned down after prior bad experiences.
I only watch some of his videos so I'm not in the loop on the background stuff but the documentary sounds interesting (paywalled?).
Ah that's one of the things that I didn't realize I missed.
He did make that video about disliking Japanese TV but that was about watching probably (haven't watched it).
He seems like he could make some interesting documentaries without restrictions one would normally find with a major network.
Thanks. Those I have not yet watched. (I misinterpreted that as a disaster like he felt he blew his chance with the Watanabe interview - not that it was but him being British etc).
His best work imo is the cycling around japan series he did before the pandemic.
This is my favorite one of those just because of the delightful bit with the old ladies 2 minutes in.
Wasn't he caught cheating his wife who at the time was was receiving treatment for cancer? That seemed pretty scummy. Then again, he seems to do lot of good as well and the video was pretty good.
Now see, these are great, very snarky and acerbic. Wife while watching: "Does he even like traveling?" "Does he even like Japan?"
Would they need a translator? Chris is very fluent in Japanese.
To be fair, he almost killed himself with the workload at that point. Cycling all day, doing all kinds of wacky challenges, and then editing all night. He had been at it for weeks already cycling through half the country.
In hindsight, the premise of delivering daily videos while actually on the road, even if he had a crew doing the filming and B reel, was completely nuts.
I remember him saying he'd stay in Japan at least through the Olympics, but since then he's gotten a new fancy studio set up so it seems he may be in Japan for a long haul. It's a bit surprising to me, but having all of your friends and professional life in one place and your family far away is a situation I relate to too well.
OP
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They don't tend to be his most popular videos, but his "serious" documentary videos hit a similar vein to the Watanabe one. This one was a sort of follow-up to a video he did on the Fukashima clean-up a few years back that's worth a look - someone above posted it but that's it here:
Anything from Journey Across Japan or Wacky Weekends is great, also his documentaries:
Wacky Weekends
Journey Across Japan: Escape to Fuji
Journey Across Japan: The Lost Islands
Journey Across Japan: 2000km Cycle Series
Abroad in Japan Documentaries
There's also great collabs with other channels like Tokyo Creative
