Puppet Theatre Romance of the Three
Kingdoms
(人形劇
三国志 / Ningyōgeki Sangokushi, 1982-4, 45’x 68話, TV)
Episode 3: Zhang Jue’s Last Gasp
張角の最期 / Chōkaku no Saigo (original
airdate: 16 October 1982)
Central Characters in Order of
Appearance:
Liu Bei 劉備玄徳 りゅうび げんとく
Guan Yu 関羽雲長 かんう うんちょう
Zhang Fei 張飛翌徳 ちょうひ よくとく
Sūrin
淑玲 すうりん
Mei Fan 美芳 めい ふぁん
Cao Cao 曹操孟徳 そうそう もうとく
Zhang Liang (Yellow Turban rebel
leader) 張梁 ちょう りょう
Zhang Bao (Yellow Turban rebel leader)
張宝 ちょう ほう
Zhang Jue 張角 ちょうかく
Ron-Ron 竜々 ろんろん
Shin-Shin 紳々 しんしん
the new Shōgun Dong Zhuo (warlord) 将軍 董卓 とうたく
Episode 3, Part 1
Historical Introduction
Our mop-headed hosts Shinsuke Shimada and Ryūsuke Matsumoto, with their stylish
80s sweaters and white pants, begin this episode with a reminder that at the
end of that last episode, we left our 3 heroes surrounded by the Yellow Turbans and with their horses stolen.
Horses were an integral part of life
during the Warring States period. Emperor Qin (260-210 BC) introduced
horses from abroad. They were
particularly useful in battle, as a mounted soldier was more likely to win a
battle against foot soldiers. If you
didn’t have horses, you couldn’t win wars.
They were so important that they were also immortalised in clay as part
of Emperor Qin’s Terracotta Army.
Hosts Shinsuke Shimada and Ryūsuke
Matsumoto then interact with their puppet selves: Ron- Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron. They are acting a bit smug because their
alter-egos are members of the Yellow Turbans, who currently seem to be winning.
Story
Our three heroes Liu Bei (aka Gentoku), Guan
Yu (aka Kan-u) and Zhang Fei
(aka Chōhi) are under attack at the saké shop.
The women, Sūrin and Mei Fan, scream as arrows rain down
upon their hiding spot, scaring away the horses. Hot-blooded
Zhang Fei is indignant at the loss of the horses and wants to fight for them,
but level-headed Liu Bei points out that they are out-numbered by the Yellow
Turbans. Through the fog they can make
out that the rock escarpment is swarming with the enemy.
Sūrin spots the horses, causing Zhang
Fei to shout at the horses to come back.
Zhang Fei’s rash action provokes another volley of arrows from the
Yellow Turbans. He cracks a sexist joke about
the horses attracting more arrows than the women do because they are
cuter. Zhang Fei heedlessly runs to
catch the horses and is rewarded with an arrow in the arm. Mei Fan is worried about Zhang Fei’s safety,
but Guan Yu is less concerned. He points
out that Zhang Fei still has one good arm.
Yellow Turbans appear to be approaching and Sūrin is worried about their
safety. The men fight off the Yellow
Turbans and Sūrin passes out in all the excitement. Guan Yu offers to take the arrow out of Zhang
Fei’s arm. He claims he can handle the
pain, but he nearly passes out when the arrow is removed.
Our three heroes have come up with a
cunning plan to fight off the Yellow Turbans.
At the moment however, things are too quiet . . . until a flaming arrows
interrupts the calm. Mei Fan looks after
Sūrin while the men put their plan into action “Yosh… Ikko!” (Okay, Let’s Go!”).
. . They
are interrupted by the sounds of drums.
The great warlord Cao Cao has
arrived. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei
introduce themselves as Liu Bei’s “brothers”.
Mei Fan interrupts the proceedings with her concerns about Sūrin’s
health. Sūrin sighs and faints for the
umpteenth time, calling out Liu Bei’s name: “Gentoku-sama!”
Cao Cao remarks that a woman as
beautiful as Sūrin is rarely seen, not even in the capital city. He tells Mei Fan that she is beautiful and
calls upon her to introduce herself to him.
Mei Fan introduces herself as the proprietress of the saké shop that has
unfortunately been burnt down by the Yellow Turbans.
Side Note on Mei Fan: In the first episode, I mistakenly identified Mei Fan as Zhang Fei’s
wife. I found her identified as such
from an online cast list, and as she and Zhang Fei seemed to both live at the
saké shop, I presumed this was the case.
It would seem that at the present time he is just a regular customer. They do clearly have a close relationship and
Zhang Fei does have a keen interest in Mei Fan, but they are not yet married. I have also noticed in this episode that
Zhang Fei often calls her “Mi-wa”, possibly an endearment. It is hard to keep on top of the names of
characters in this story. The male
historical figures have at least two names in Chinese (the name they were born
with and their courtesy name). The
Japanese seem to have developed their own readings of these names –some similar
to the Chinese, some based on Japanese readings of Chinese characters. I will note them from time to time, but I have
chosen to use the English names for historical figures / characters as found in
standard translations of Luo Guanzhong’s
Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Cao Cao is displeased to hear that
the ladies have been ill-treated by the Yellow Turbans and offers to take care
of them. This causes Zhang Fei to become
jealous. He steps in front of Mei Fan in
a protective manner and announces that he has always had his eye on Mei Fan and
plans to make her his wife one day. Mei
Fan reprimands him, but he cuts her short.
He adds that Sūrin is meant for Liu Bei, warning Cao Cao off in no
uncertain terms. As usual, Liu Bei
advises Zhang Fei to calm down and be more reasonable. Zhang Fei remains irritated. Cao Cao suggests making a bet: he who kills Zhang Jue (aka Chōkaku), the leader of
the Yellow Turbans, gets the girl. Zhang Fei puts on a show of bravado: “With
these arms I will take the head of Chōkaku” he declares. As they talk, a plaintive trumpet melody can
be heard, reminiscent of the kind used by Ennio
Morricone in The Good, The Bad and
The Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966). Liu
Bei take the moral high road and refuses to be drawn into a bet concerning the
women. He declares that the women should
be left out of the equation, but that he will happily join the quest to knock
off Zhang Jue.
The scene shifts to the enemy
camp. We are introduced to two of the
leaders of the Yellow Turbans: Zhang
Liang (Chō Ryō) and Zhang Bao
(Chō Hō). The men think that things are
going well for them so far. They claim
to have 50,000 men under their command.
They joke about their success and laugh at the emperor’s attempts to
thwart them. Their commander, the
infamous Zhang Jue displays a more serious demeanor. He declares that he is exhausted and not
feeling very well. A yellow candle burns
in the foreground.
Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron are in the
corridor standing on guard. They are a
bit impatient with just standing around and talk about the likelihood of the
Yellow Turbans winning the rebellion.
The sound of a door creaking startles them back into their
positions. Zhang Jue exits the room and
walks down the corridor. Shin-Shin and
Ron-Ron are confused when Zhang Jue turns down a corridor with a dead end and
vanishes. Perhaps there is a secret
corridor that these two fools are ignorant of?
Meanwhile, our heroes are on
horseback heading through the fog.
Everything seems to be fine until Zhang Fei freaks out at the sight of a
snake. We can always count on Zhang Fei
to provide comic relief, in this case going from bravado to being as terrified
as a child in a matter of minutes. Liu
Bei and Guan Yu just laugh at him. Their
laughter is short-lived however as they hear the approach of an army of Yellow
Turbans. They lie low and come up with a
new cunning plan. They split up. Liu Bei goes to incite the troops to come
towards them by shooting an arrow at them, while Zhang Fei and Guan Yu set up a
trap. The heavy fog allows them to hide
a rope across the valley. When the
troops on horseback approach, they lift the rope and knock the riders off their
horses. Their plan works a treat.
In the next scene, we meet the
warlord Dong Zhuo (aka Tōtaku) for
the first time. He has a grumpy demeanour and would seem completely fierce if he weren’t comically playing with a
disentanglement puzzle made of metal (what the Japanese call chi-e no wa /知恵の輪). He praises our three heroes for defeating
such a large number of Yellow Turbans, but he damns with faint praise. Liu Bei introduces himself, but Dong Zhuo is
not impressed. This enrages Zhang Fei
who bickers with Dong Zhuo about matters of rank. Dong Zhuo insults the three men, saying that
they are not in his league at all. He leaves
abruptly after taking a smug delight in suddenly solving the disentanglement
puzzle. Zhang Fei is simmering with rage
and wants to punch Dong Zhuo in the face.
The other two advise him against being rash.
Episode 3, Part 2
Historical Information
The historical introduction to the
second half talks looks at the historical roots of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
In particular, the Emperor Qin Shi
Huang (260-210BC), whose mausoleum is guarded by the famous life-sized
Terracotta Army. I must admit that a lot
of the information imparted during these interludes goes right over our heads
because my
husband and I do not understand the subtleties Kansai-ben – especially when
delivered at such a rapid fire place. They
do point out that Emperor Qin lived about 4 centuries before the story we are
seeing – which takes place between 169 and 280AD. I would imagine the reason for invoking Emperor
Qin is that the discovery of his Terracotta Army in 1974 led to a remarkable wealth
of new information about the people and culture of ancient China. This series was made a less than a decade after
the discovery and the ongoing excavations and restorations relating to this
site continue to reveal fascinating new information. They also show an illustration of Xianyang
Palace (咸陽宮), in Qin (Xianyang/咸陽), 15 km east of modern Xianyang, Shaanxi province. This was the royal palace of the state of Qin
before the Chinese unification, and then the palace of the First Emperor when
China was unified. It was burnt down by
Xiang Yu after the fall of the Qin Dynasty.
Referring to the closing scene of the
first half with the Shōgun Dong Zhuo, Shimada and Matsumoto joke about what
social level they might have been at during the Three Kingdoms Period. They speculate that they would have been at
the bottom of the ladder and remark upon how lucky they are to be living in
modern times!
Story
The scene opens with Dong Zhuo
playing another of his disentanglement puzzles: “Yatto! Dekitta!” (Finally, I
did it!) – he delights in his little victories like an obnoxious child. News
arrives from the battlefield, but Dong Zhuo seems more interested in having his
lackeys find him more puzzles to play. A
guitar riff indicates growing tension.
. . the news from the battlefield is increasingly
bad. A camel looks into the tent,
looking unperturbed by the commotion.
Our three heroes are on their own,
having rejected the support of troops.
They have the impression that many of Dong Zhuo’s commanders are
skilled, but for some reason he is not utilising them as he should. In fact, many of them were sent in but have
not come back, which seems strange to Liu Bei.
They decide to find out for themselves what’s going on.
The three heroes are spotted by Shin-Shin
and Ron-Ron, who are on duty for the Yellow Turbans. They are surprised to see only three, but
recognise Liu Bei as a figure of importance.
Smoke billows ominously behind the rocks. Liu Bei warns that the enemy is likely to
attack at any moment. As if on cue, the
younger brother of Zhang Jue chuckles in an evil way from off screen. The camera turns to show him on
horseback. He introduces himself as Zhang
Bao (aka Chō Hō). Guan Yu and Zhang Fei
both declare they want to take Zhang Bao on singlehandedly. Zhang Bao dares all three of them to take him
on at once. The three heroes are ready
for the challenge. Zhang Bao then
appears to run away. Guan Yu and Zhang
Fei take the bait and follow hot on his heels, while the ever-cautious Liu Bei
shouts that they should not follow him. By
the time Liu Bei catches up with his friends, Zhang Bao appears to have disappeared
into thin air. Liu Bei expects that they
will be attacked at any minute.
Our heroes become enveloped in evil
laughter and billowing smoke or clouds.
It becomes as dark as a cave.
Zhang Bao appears like an apparition – likely shot using rear projection
and mirrors to distort the image. He
speaks as if using an echo-y speaker: “Are you afraid? You won’t be going anywhere anymore.” A large rock knocks over Guan Yu, pinning him
to the ground. Zhang Fei is
panicking. “One down, two to go.” There appears to be some kind of magic at
work. Sūrin and Mei Fan’s voices can be
heard calling for help. Liu Bei warns Zhang Fei not to fall for this
trick, but Zhang Fei heedlessly charges in to rescue the women. Sūrin and Mei Fan have been captured by a giant
snake, which we learned earlier this episode is Zhang Fei’s greatest fear.
Zhang Fei conquers his fear by
deciding to attack with his eyes closed, inadvertently causing the vision to
disappear. He calls the women’s names to
no avail. Liu Bei asks him what is wrong
and Zhang Fei explains what he saw. Liu
Bei has suspicions as to what is really going on, he whispers to Zhang Fei: “Don’t
move and clear your mind.” Poor Zhang
Fei finds that difficult to do. Darkness
falls again and the vision of Zhang Bao reappears shouting “This will be your
grave!” with an army of Yellow Turban warriors at his side. Liu
Bei and Zhang Fei don’t react and manage to keep their eyes closed. Something resembling feathers / snow / white
cutout paper appears to fall from the sky, startling the protagonists.
Meanwhile, Guan Yu awakes to find
himself on horseback instead of under a rock and wonders aloud if he is alive
or has died and returned to life. Liu
Bei has unmasked Zhang Bao as a trickster.
Finding his magic no longer works on them, Zhang Bao backs out of his
original threat of fighting all three of them at once and says it would only be
fair if they each attack him individually.
For the umpteenth time, Zhang Fei gets to ready to charge in but gets
stopped by Liu Bei. Liu Bei declares it
time for him to prove himself. He raises
his sword and fights Zhang Bao. For a
moment they seem evenly matched, but then Liu Bei forces Zhang Bao from his
horse. He falls dramatically off a cliff
to his doom.
Shin-Shin and Ron-Ron are running
into a cave for shelter and banter in Kansai-ben about the fate of Zhang
Bao. In spite of his demise, they still believe
that the three are no match for Zhang Jue.
A title card tells us that the Yellow Turbans are now losing and the
final battle is approaching.
Back at the camp, Sūrin overhears guards
chatting about the huge rewards for bringing back the head of Zhang Jue. Sūrin worries about Liu Bei’s safety. Later, Mei Fan comes to wake Sūrin but she is
no longer in the tent.
The three heroes are back in the presence
of Dong Zhuo. They want his permission
to kill Zhang Jue. He doesn’t
object. Liu Bei takes this as acquiescence
and declares that they should go, Zhang Fei complains that he wants to eat
something first. Comically, Dong Zhuo is once again more
interested in his toys.
Our three heroes arrive at the Yellow
Turban fort to find it in flames. Cao
Cao is inside with his blade drawn. He
is looking for Zhang Jue: “Chokaku!!”
Instead, he finds Zhang Liang (aka Chō Ryō) and they fight. Cao Cao brutally slashes him with his
sword. Zhang Liang falls against the
wall, revealing a secret passageway.
Here Cao Cao discovers Zhang Jue in his hiding place. Zhang
Jue’s body falls to the ground --- it turns out that he is already dead!! (dramatic
violins!!)
Cao Cao is back on his horse with his
men. He declares Liu Bei as the winner
because Zhang Jue was already dead when he found him. Actually, it’s more of a draw because he
killed one brother and Liu Bei killed the other brother. At any rate, it doesn’t matter because Sūrin
has run away anyway. “I guess she didn’t
like me,” Cao Cao laughs at his own joke and rides away. Liu Bei has remained silent throughout this exchange
and looks nonplussed— “Sūrin!”
Our live action hosts, Shinsuke
Shimada and Ryūsuke Matsumoto, end the show by saying farewell to the puppets
of Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang.
Despite the fact that these three have exited the game, they point out
that there are still many Yellow Turbans around and trouble in brewing in the Three
Kingdoms.
Catherine Munroe Hotes 2015
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Next Post:
Episode 4: The Rebel Heroes Head tothe Capital / 英雄 動乱の都へ /
Eiyū dōran no Miyako e
