Re: "A fake form of old-fashioned Japanese speech supposed to represent the old style of the language is used."

aesthete8@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
That was from Wikipedia's article on JIDAIGEKI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jidaigeki

I was puzzled by the next two "dramatic conventions," which seem rather natural.

# In long-running TV series, like Mito Kōmon and Zenigata Heiji, the lead and supporting actors sometimes change. This is done without any rationale for the change of appearance. The new actor simply appears in the place of the old one and the stories continue.

They don't choose actors who look exactly like the person they are playing. In the case of those who really exist, such as Mito Kōmon, there aren't any photographs, and the others didn't even really have any looks.

The same thing is done in American soap operas.

# In a sword fight, absurdly, when a large number of villains attacks the main character, they never act simulaneously. Instead, the villains each politely wait their turn to be dispatched, often standing motionless holding their sword within easy striking distance of the main character until their turn to be easily defeated arrives.

The villains know that if they tried a simultaneous attack, the main character would duck and let them chop each other up over his head. I would think that was obvious.

Bart
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