Madame Butterfly (Cho-Cho-San)

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TV Movie: Madame Butterfly (International English title)
Romaji: Cho-Cho-San
Japanese: 蝶々さん
Director:
Writer: Shinichi Ichikawa (novel)
Network: NHK
Episodes: 2
Release Date: November 19 & 26, 2011
Runtime: Saturday, 21:00-22:13
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Set in the Meiji Period, Cho-Cho (Aoi Miyazaki) was born as the daughter of a samurai. After the deaths of her parents and step-mother, Cho-Cho eventually becomes a geisha. Cho-Cho hoping to one day help the world studies English. She soon meets an American naval officer named Franklin (Ethan Landry). They marry, but Franklin already has a wife in America. Ocho gives birth to a son, but her husband has left for America by this time.

Notes

Filming begins August 22 and finishes in October.

Cast



Aoi Miyazaki	Atsushi Ito	Hideki Noda	Toshiyuki Nishida	Ethan Landry
Cho-Cho	Isaku Tanigawa	Isaku Tanigawa	Soshichi Obiya	Franklin



Chizuru Ikewaki	Keiko Toda	Rie Tomosaka	Shiho Fujimura	Kaoru Okunuki
Yuri Tanigawa	Matsu	Kinu Miura	Miwa Ito	Yae Ito



Ryo Iwamatsu	Yumiko Takahashi	Hirotaro Honda	Kimiko Yo	Patrick Harlan
Kisaburo Ohta	Otaka	Genkuro Obayashi	Okou	Army Doctor



Masato Ibu	Jay Kabira
Police Chief Ijichi	Joe Franklin

Additional Cast Members:

Rina Endo - Chiyo
Toru Kazama

Comments

Sousuke Takaoka Dec 30 2017 1:46 am She's so cute wwww

jjmarold Mar 03 2012 7:54 pm I love Miyazaki and believe she was exactly the right person for this production (seen on NHK on March 3rd, 2012). It is based on Puccini's Madame Butterfly in which the anti-hero is Lt. Pinkerton (vice Franklin) and there was no Tanigawa in the opera. One must realize that there was a significant amount of racism at the turn of the twentieth century and Americans (not unlike the Japanese up to mid-century and most other countries) were significantly xenophobic. I recommend reading James Bradley's "Imperial Cruise" to get the flavor of those times. Also, unlike Puccini's opera, this production ignores that racism and xenophobia and (thankfully in my opinion) chooses to make Tanigawa and the Doctor as the cause of the tragedy. Well, Ambassador Sharpless and his wife do show some of the attitude of that era, but all in all, this is a classic tragedy, well written and well produced. -JJM

huh Jan 17 2012 8:53 pm I would suggest reading some of the travelogues of Pierre Loti, which I'm told had some influence on the drama. Whether that is so or not, he would still certainly be more representative of this era, by which I mean, like other Westerners, he shows a complete lack of respect for the Japanese as actual human beings. That writer compares common Japanese people to monkeys and other animals and trots around with a huge sense of entitlement. Actress Miyazaki says about her character: "It was a marriage of love, and her husband (in the program, an American named Franklin) was entirely true to his feelings." But when you look at actual history, not everything is so pretty.

As if white males didn't have it easy in Hollywood already.... now we have some token pretty boy in this romantic nonsense straight from Japan....

So, in one word: whitewashing.

Hamako Sep 26 2011 4:25 am Who play American roles in the movie? The American naval officer and the American wife? Very happy to see this movie!

Beth Aug 20 2011 3:18 pm I had read the comic too! Very exited about this movie.

Madame_Moony Aug 19 2011 6:58 am I had already read the comic. It was good one so that I can't wait to see this movie,,,

Good Luck ^^

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