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Cold Case Japan Gets Season 3

Cold_Case_Japan_Promo_photo_1600x1190The WOWOW TV network in Japan has announced that their version of Cold Case has been renewed for a third season.  It is expected, no doubt subject change in the difficult current global situation, to air towards the end of the year.

10 new episodes will be made.  Each of the previous two seasons also had the same amount too. This means that by the end of this new set it will only a handful more episodes that the first season of the original US show.

The Japanese cast is retained, with Yo Yoshida reprising the role of Yuri Ishikawa, their lead female detective like Lilly.

The WOWOW network website HERE has details on their Cold Case.

According to Variety’s article on this news, the localised version of Cold Case started a trend in the country for other America TV shows to be remade like this by other networks.  Suits and The Good Wife and 24 are mentioned as example.

If you know of a localised version of Cold Case in your part of the world then please do let me know.

Japanese Cold Case Season 2 Due Soon

Cold_Case_Japan_Promo_photo_1600x1190It has been two years but the Kanagawa Prefectural Police’s First Investigative Division squad are returning to Japanese television screens in the autumn.

The WOWOW TV network is airing 10 new episodes of their version of Cold Case starting on the 13th of October.  WOWOW is the Japanese home of the original American version too.

Yo Yoshida returns as the Japanese Lilly Rush.  Her character is called Yuri Ishikawa and, as I noted previously, in a nice touch Yuri is Japanese for Lily.  The rest of the core cast looks to be the same as in season 1 too.

Read all the details on the WOWOW website HERE.

If you know of a localised version of Cold Case in your part of the world then please do let me know.

Cold Case Japan Débuts

Cold_Case_Japan_Promo_photo_1600x1190They’re all there:  Will, John, Lilly, Nick, Scotty, file boxes.  But some how they look different.

The locally created Japanese version of Cold Case premièred today (22nd October 2016).  Or was it yesterday?  At the time of writing it is very late in the day in Tokyo.  Is it now?  It all makes my head ow.  Speaking of which the show is being broadcast on the WOWOW TV network in Japan, the home of the American version there too.

The news of this local version being in the works broke back in April, at the time it was said that 10 episodes had been commissioned.  From looking at the WOWOW website (even though I cannot read Japanese) it looks like that is still the case.

Cold Case Japan is set in the Kanagawa Prefecture.  This is south of Tokyo and has a mix of topography from major cities like the capital Yokohama, to more mountainous regions, and ancient areas.  The large bay and the fact that Yokohama is such a major port for the country makes it a good replacement for Philadelphia.  The Prefecture gives a lot of scope for vary varied stories across all aspects of Japanese life now and, as is so important to the show, the past.  The theme music is based on “Nara” by E.S. Posthumus too.

Cold_Case_Japan_Promo_smallYō Yoshida leads the cast as ‘Yuri Ishikawa’.  In a lovely nod to the original ‘Yuri’ translates as Lily.  ‘Ishikawa’ apparently is a combination of the words ‘stone’ and ‘river’ or ‘stream’.  That sounds like Lilly Rush:  a stone, with hidden undercurrents.

I hope the Japanese viewers enjoyed their new TV show as much as they enjoyed the American original.  If you have seen the programme and want to tell us what you thought then please contact me or post a comment below.  We’d love to hear from you.

I’ve a new ‘Global versions’ sub-section to the Cold Case area of the KM UK Gallery, kicked things off with a Japan album and put the above photo and a short promo video to it.  You can see it here.

Japan To Open Its Own Cold Cases

cc_promo_tokyo_004Hello!

Oi!  I’m over here!

Left a little more!

Glad to see you finally managed to drag yourself away for a moment :-)  Can’t blame you though.  It is more than a little captivating isn’t it?  I didn’t need a good excuse to post it again, but I’ve got one anyway.

Last week it was announced that WOWOW TV in Japan had signed a deal with Warner Bros. to create their own local version of Cold Case.

The new production is said to be made up of 10 episodes which will première in October of this year (2016).  The wording in the press release says that that number have “already been commissioned”, so it could very well be added to before broadcasting starts.

The plan appears to be to take the essence of Cold Case, that it is about the people and their stories and not the science or gun fights, and write new tales around that ethos.  Japan has an incredibly rich history to draw from and huge capacity for story telling so I am sure they will not be short of ideas.

Although it wasn’t said in the official statement, according to an IMDb listing the show is called Cold Case: Shinjitsu no Tobira.  A few attempts by me at translating have come up with ‘Shinjitsu’ meaning something like ‘truth’ and ‘Tobira’ as ‘door’ or ‘opening’.  So, it could be something like ‘door to truth’.  If any of our Japanese friends want to help out please comment below.

WOWOW TV has broadcast the whole of the original Cold Case in Japan.  The event pictured is Kathryn’s 2007 visit to Tokyo promoting the 3rd season of the show.  Enjoy more details (and pictures!) here.  The day before that she also took in the Japanese première of a Harry Potter movie, as posted about here.

The full Warner Bros. International Television/WOWOW TV press release can be seen here at the Broadcasting Cable website.

There is also an official WOWOW TV website (in Japanese of course) for the show to be found here.