Go Ayano—photo courtesy of Nippon TV
TOKYO—For Go Ayano, lead star of the fantasy TV series, “Frankenstein’s Love,” the biggest challenge in adapting a 100-year-old story was how to update it and introduce it to a different audience in 2017, and “at the same time honor the original work.”
“Frankenstein,” a novel by British author Mary Shelley, tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a grotesque but intelligent creature through an experiment.
Since the novel’s publication in 1818, there have been numerous retellings of the story of Frankenstein and his monster on TV, in theater and film.
“I have a lot of respect for the novel. First, I needed to fully comprehend the details of the great work that is ‘Frankenstein’ before I felt confident enough to follow in the footsteps of the other actors who have portrayed the monster,” Go told Asian journalists during a recent visit to the program’s set inside the Nippon TV studios in Tokyo.
In the series presented in the Philippines by Sony Gem TV, Dr. Franken succeeds in creating an ugly but kind-hearted monster, who vanishes and resurfaces a hundred years later.
The situation becomes difficult when the monster, whose body holds a secret that prevents him from touching any human being, falls in love with a young woman named Tsugaru (played by Fumi Nikaido).
“The cast and crew have all agreed that we needed to update this tale for the modern audience. So, I work each day with that sense of responsibility and reverence for the original work in my heart,” Go pointed out. “Everything the monster sees is new to him—like the smartphone, for example. What I really like about him is the purity and innocence with how he accepts the things he’s seeing for the first time.”
Kawano Hidehiro, producer of “Frankenstein’s Love,” said that more and more Japanese production outfits are becoming aware of the need to address a bigger audience abroad, and not just the Japanese market.
“We need to produce more content that will appeal to the overseas market,” he conceded.
Kawano said this was why a lot of those involved in creatives have been participating in various “knowledge exchanges” abroad.
“We’re very much in the research and experimental stage. We study Asian trends and attend workshops,” he explained, adding that Nippon TV is one of the organizations that are actively sending younger creators abroad either to learn or share their knowledge.
In “Frankenstein’s Love,” Kawano said the idea was to make the story “relatable” to Japanese culture and see how this can be used to increase global viewership.
According to Go, there’s a “monster” in all of us—“even though we have different jobs and live in different time zones, we have to recognize that we’re all the same. Accepting the monster inside us could be our greatest path to happiness.”
Playing the monster was physically demanding, said the award-winning actor. “Nothing about it was easy. It required the application of a special makeup, which takes a long time to put on. I’d go to the set early in the morning, still sleepy, to begin the process,” he said in Japanese.
Go added: “Putting the makeup on to transform me into this monster has made me realize how close that [process] is to what we actors normally do. The monster is sort of a public image that I take on as an actor. That aspect truly fascinates me.”
Go has appeared in numerous TV shows and films since he joined show business in 2003. The biggest roles he has played so far were those in the action films, “Gatchaman,” “Lupin III” and “Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.”
The series, “Frankenstein’s Love,” airs every Thursday at 9 p.m. on SkyCable Channel 116 in Metro Manila and on Channel 222 in Cebu, Davao, Bacolod, Iloilo and Baguio.