It is a mess, but everything happens within an order. Let’s put ourselves in situation: late April in Tokyo, one of those huge complexes that combine shopping center and offices located in the bustling district of Shibuya. A long queue stretches out next to the city’s Museum of Photography. From the outlandishness of his outfits, it is clear that exhibitions are not his thing.
They go in groups: five young people inspired by glam rock, with impossible hairstyles in bright colors and flip-flops with socks, their hair and the attitude of music stars -which, indeed, they are, we will know after going through the Google translator the brochure that tend-; two guys dressed only in a fundoshi, the classic sumo thong, let out war cries at almost every step and take selfies with everyone who comes near them; several apparently normal men and women observe the scene in silence, and when they turn around, they discover their noses painted to match their shirts, each one in a different color; a man and two girls are also waiting patiently dressed in shirts of a blonde cat, probably theirs.
The excitement is palpable, some have been waiting 34 years for this moment. The scallops are back, the nougat is back, the conquest of Takeshi Castle is back, although it does so with a humor without taglines, something of the new sensibilities.
30 years have passed and the mood has changed, it had to be updated
The conversation with the fans is a lost in translation of manual, but finally we understand that some of them are not only followers of Takeshi Kitano but also contestants in the crazy tests that lead to him. «It has been amazing, we did it fatally but we laughed a lot. I assure you that the screams and laughter that are heard in the program are completely real, “confesses Mr. Sato, who we left in the queue with his rag loincloth. The Rocket News reporter appeared at a virtual casting together with his writing colleagues and four of the 300 chosen were selected.
The room where the first chapter of the new Takeshi Castle will be screened breaks into applause: a couple who met in the contest announces that they are getting married. The recording took place in the summer of 2022, but the program requires an arduous assembly: “Normally, it has taken us eight months, four years have passed since we proposed it…”, says Tsuyoshi Katayama, from TBS, television from Tokyo, which again produces the show together with Prime Video.
In this new edition, the role of Takeshi Kitano is almost testimonial, in fact he is played by an artificial intelligence. The producers say that they showed him the first chapter with fear: “he saw it in silence, turned around and said: ‘It has been very funny and yes, it is Takeshi’s castle'”. There they finally breathed.
There are things that cannot be done anymore, that should not be done, we ourselves heard jokes from then and we thought that now they would kill us
The new adventure exudes nostalgia spiced up with cutting-edge technology and even more lurid colors. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that everyone involved was a fan at the time. James Farrell, Prime Video’s vice president of local original content, the man in charge of making the Japanese contest once again a global phenomenon, met Yellow Humor in 1998 when he spent six months in Madrid to perfect his Spanish. «He lived with a family and we saw him together. We were laughing. I thought that was the craziest thing I had ever seen in my life”, he recalls. Óscar Prol, responsible for original entertainment content for the platform in Spain, ups the ante and releases: “I dedicate myself to this for Takeshi’s castle.”
The landing in Spain of “the program in which hundreds of people left their teeth and dignity 30 years ago” on July 10 will be piloted by Encofrados Encofrasa, the producer of David Broncano, with Jorge Ponce as chief adapter and announcer . “It had to be them, they’re the only ones crazy enough, in a good way,” says Prol.
The Japanese didn’t know that we called it that here, when they found out they freaked out: ‘But what are these people up to?’
The first thing was to adapt the title and dialogues to the new times. “Three decades have passed and the mood has changed, it had to be updated,” justifies Ponce. No one better to confirm this evolution than Fernando Costilla and Paco Bravo, responsible for the second generation of Yellow Humor back in 2006 in the newborn Cuatro. “There are things that can no longer be done, that should not be done, we ourselves heard jokes from then and we thought that now they would kill us,” admits Costilla.
«The Japanese didn’t know that we called it that here, when they found out they freaked out: ‘But what are these people up to?’”, recalls Bravo, “now you can make humor by going the other way, it’s still daring but there is no racism or jokes with the sexual gender as we did before ».
The mythical voices of the childhood of many, youth of others, return along with a much more choral cast: «Before we did everything, now we are the guest artists. Much more comfortable!” Leading the narration will be the youtuber Mr Jägger, who enjoyed playing Captain Tani so much, which he calls “Captain Nougat” for obvious reasons, that he asked to play more characters: “They are jokes on top of jokes, not there is relaxation. I would watch each chapter a couple of times to get it all », he advises on the phone.
They are jokes on top of jokes on top of jokes, there is no relaxation. I would watch each episode a couple of times to get it all.
Eva Soriano and Dani Rovira interpret, along with Ponce, the contestants. And yes, there are Cudeiros, but “without nationality”. The trio trade mud for luxury and host the press at the Ritz hotel. “We are all lacking in affection, we come from the pandemic and now we need to recover that granny that you look at and recognize and give you a hug, but who has changed and now dyes her hair lilac,” Soriano argues, “we are lacking of nostalgia and we are going to have a double ration ».
«There are two things that are funny in any place», predicts Rovira for his part, «the first is the hosts. That is universal. A host and a good peo, that is liked everywhere. And then there’s the Japanese attitude, with a brutal sense of humor and one of the least ridiculous. The show is one big bachelor party.”
Having seen and experienced the gibberish involved in interviewing the three comedians, it is not hard to imagine them in the studio. There was a script, of course, but much of the result is the result of improvisation. “Above all the insults, the lack of respect between us,” says Ponce. “It is the way to show affection for each other, there is nothing that a comedian likes more than that another insults him,” adds Rovira. «We began with the locutions calmly and after a while we were already: ‘You, wretch!’», Soriano adds, and again, Ponce: «I got to throw a glass at you at a given moment». And so, indeed, the program develops.
Hosts are something universal. A host and a good ‘peo’, that is liked everywhere
If in the previous generation Costilla and Bravo were allowed jokes that would be offensive today, but political issues were vetoed, in Prime Video’s Takeshi Castle there will be some reference to current events. «It is a white program, but it is not childish either…», Ponce excuses himself, «and it is not that there are allusions to specific political figures. That character is called similar, yes, but it is spelled Hay Uso…».
The contest will be released in the middle of the electoral campaign, it is not clear if it will have any influence. “Of course,” says Costilla, “Sánchez will be able to sell it as an achievement: ‘I brought back Takeshi’s castle’.”
According to the criteria of The Trust Project