In Japan, 'Sliced-Up Actors' Are A Dying Breed
Japan is home to Asia's oldest and largest motion-picture industry, with its own unique genres and traditions. While every film industry has stuntmen, only Japan has a class of actors whose main job is to be sliced and diced by samurai sword-wielding protagonists. But the decline of period dramas means that this class of actors is literally a dying breed.
At the Toei Company's film studios in Japan's cultural capital, Kyoto, fight choreographers rehearse for an upcoming stage show. Kirareyaku, or so-called "chopped up actors," are staging the show in hopes of reviving audience interest in period dramas.
Veteran fight choreographer Mitsuhiko Seike directs the actors as they slash and parry with wooden swords and daggers inside the studio's own dojo, or training hall. The most senior actor on stage is Seizo Fukumoto, to whom Seike respectfully refers to as his sensei or teacher.
