July 14, 2004

Pachinko Hoedown! See Nicholas Cage square(-dance) off against shiny robots (aliens?) in quirky Japanese TV commercials for Sankyu Co Pachinko parlors. Weird/Fun. Description of Pachinko inside, but I look forward to better information from our Monkey Agents in Japan. (Via Peter Payne and his "gaijin in Japan" updates.)
posted by shane 20 years ago
  • Pete Payne says: ...you basically buy a bucket of balls for $50, then sit for hours trying to hold a controller in just the right position to make most of the balls go into certain holes in the pachinko machine. Since "gambling" is illegal in Japan, except for certain events like horse, boat and bicycle racing, you don't win money if you get more balls than you started out with -- you get valuable prizes which you redeem for cash at a shady building next to the pachinko parlor. Pachinko is quite a competitive business to be in, and operators (who always seem to be getting involved with some crime or another) work very hard to bring in the newest machines in -- with little video screens or cute anime-style characters printed on them, for example. They have interesting names to attract customers, like one near us called Al Pacino. Despite the efforts of the pachinko industry to make the activity seem like a friendly and family-oriented thing to do, pachinko always seems to go hand in hand with the yakuza. Pachiko maker Sankyo is trying to change that image, and has hired Nicholas Cage to do its TV commercials. See also the Pogues.
  • oh thank you for this shane! hysterical. The hoedown is both incomprehensible and brilliant, particularly Nic's humming. Also "I love Mt. Fuji!" with his hands in a peak above his head. ha!
  • Um, that was certainly eye-opening. I know that the Japanese love to hire western stars to do commercials that they would never agree to do in the states. I can see why -- Mr. Cage looked like an idiot. It is almost always fun to peek into another culture. Thanks, Shane!
  • I LOVE PACHINKO!
  • I know that the Japanese love to hire western stars to do commercials that they would never agree to do in the states. Either that or American companies are so uptight they'd never allow themselves to be portrayed like this in commercials. Think about all the boring spokes-celebrity tv ads out there (Catherine Zeta Jones, Kirstie Alley, those godawful Radioshack ads, etc. ad nauseum). Which would you prefer if you were an actor? At least these are funny, and Cage actually looks like he was having a good time.
  • Heh, yeah, shades of Lost in Translation... Actors definitely do things on Japanese TV they would never do in their home countries.