Although the program has been switched over to Tuesday afternoons from Fridays, TV Japan has been showing the NHK variety program "Variety Seikatsu Sho Hyakka"（バラエティー生活笑百科）which has been translated into English as "Law and Laughter". It features a few legal cases for a few TV personalities to solve while comedy duos appear to explain the cases through their routines. Meanwhile, a legal expert is also on hand to provide the final verdict and the reasons behind it. In many ways, it reminds me of the 1970s Canadian game show "This is the Law" whose host was actor Austin Willis, who showed up in a small role in "Goldfinger" as the titular villain's hapless gin rummy partner until James Bond ruined things for old Auric. Mind you, Goldfinger ruined Bond's lady friend a few minutes later in petty vengeance.
"Variety Seikatsu Sho Hyakka" has been running since 1986. The first host was veteran comedian Kiyoshi Nishikawa（西川きよし）who served as the Chief Consultant for about a year before he dropped out for his political ambitions at the time. Then the second host, rakugo storyteller and TV personality Sanfukutei Nikaku（笑福亭仁鶴）, the third person to hold that august title in rakugo, took over and stayed as host for over 30 years until retiring in 2017.
After coming back to Canada, I started watching him in his last years on the program, and I noted him for that distinctive delivery of his. From that delivery, I gather that if there were a North American version of Sanfukutei Nikaku, he would be a Southern gentleman. As I recall, in 2017 he took a leave of absence due to health reasons and then maybe he appeared one or two more times before it was announced that he had left the show for good. Then in August this year came the news that he passed away at the age of 84. Fellow rakugo entertainer and fellow panelist on "Variety Seikatsu Sho Hyakka", the 3rd Katsura Nankou（桂南光）has been the host ever since.
Last night, NHK's regular music special "Waga Kokoro no Osaka Melody"（わが心の大阪メロディー...The Osaka Melodies of Our Hearts） appeared on TV Japan after its original broadcast on October 26th. TV personality and singer Emiko Kaminuma（上沼恵美子）is a regular on the show but she was also once a regular panelist on "Variety Seikatsu Sho Hyakka" and so she was very well acquainted with her old friend, Sanfukutei Nikaku.
In tribute, she sang a song that the rakugo-ka had recorded decades ago in 1969 as the B-side to his second single "Dounankana"（どんなんかな～...I wonder） which was actually the catchphrase that got him famous. That B-side was "Obachan no Blues" (Old Lady Blues) and although as originally recorded, it came out as a somewhat comical ditty, it actually hit me a little more poignantly than expected. Written by Sanfukutei Nikaku and composed by Masafumi Tanaka（田中正史）, it deals with a man meeting a familiar elderly cleaning woman who proudly boasts of her son since becoming a top-class businessman. However, she confesses that she has gradually not been able to see him all that much due to his work and his own home life with a wife. The man then encourages her and then tongue-lashes her son in absentia for not showing more filial piety. The moral of the story is "Guys, do more than just send a Mother's Day card, eh?".
Kaminuma almost broke down but was able to hold the emotional fort while she sang her old friend's song.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Feel free to provide any comments (pro or con). Just be civil about it.