A Takumi Saito Hair Appreciation Post: Criminologist Himura edition
Before we get to the focus of this post, I want to share a picture that summarizes what I meant about the difference between the variety of hair you get from Japanese male actors vs. their female counterparts. Here is a still of a video from a premier for a show someone sent me. It's from 2016, I don't recognize anyone but Saito in this, and I don't read Japanese, so I can't tell you anything about this event, but look at the contrast between him,his male counterpart and the women. I think this pretty much says it all about hair and fashion. Very traditional for women and something else for men.
Now onto more hair . . .
Well, here we are again. Who knew that a hair post would get over 100 comments! That's what happened for the previous Takumi Saito Hair Appreciation post. I don't expect it to happen here because this is a very focused post, a tribute to the hair fans on the set of one drama in particular.
Whenever we talk about Takumi Saito (and I say "we" meaning the people I know in person and in my blog/twitter sphere), we talk about his hair and his lips. I mean in addition to his acting and his roles. I don't know if other people talk about his hair as much as we do, but when I watched the 2016 drama, Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa, starring Takumi Saito as the criminologist in the title, I realized that someone on that set was as fascinated with his hair as we are.
At first, I just noticed the hair. Whoever the stylist was really wanted that tousled "I couldn't be bothered because I'm an intellectual and have no idea how inviting this is" hair.
Seriously, there is no way I would have been able to concentrate if he was my professor! I was happy. I love this hair. It's like they went into my brain and created my fantasy Saito hair. It may be my favorite version of his hair.
However, then I noticed that they found a way in every episode, sometimes multiple times in an episode, to specially light him so his hair would glow. Sometimes a little. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes "I'm auditioning to be a stained glass saint" a lot.
And if you aren't convinced that his hair is special, take a look at how his hair is lit and how Masataka Kubota's hair is lit in the same scene. Both have lamps above their heads, but . . .
Now onto more hair . . .
Well, here we are again. Who knew that a hair post would get over 100 comments! That's what happened for the previous Takumi Saito Hair Appreciation post. I don't expect it to happen here because this is a very focused post, a tribute to the hair fans on the set of one drama in particular.
Whenever we talk about Takumi Saito (and I say "we" meaning the people I know in person and in my blog/twitter sphere), we talk about his hair and his lips. I mean in addition to his acting and his roles. I don't know if other people talk about his hair as much as we do, but when I watched the 2016 drama, Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa, starring Takumi Saito as the criminologist in the title, I realized that someone on that set was as fascinated with his hair as we are.
At first, I just noticed the hair. Whoever the stylist was really wanted that tousled "I couldn't be bothered because I'm an intellectual and have no idea how inviting this is" hair.
Seriously, there is no way I would have been able to concentrate if he was my professor! I was happy. I love this hair. It's like they went into my brain and created my fantasy Saito hair. It may be my favorite version of his hair.
However, then I noticed that they found a way in every episode, sometimes multiple times in an episode, to specially light him so his hair would glow. Sometimes a little. Sometimes a lot. Sometimes "I'm auditioning to be a stained glass saint" a lot.
So you might be thinking, "Trot, they were probably filming on a budget, and they were taking advantage of the outside, natural sunlight." Hmm. I might believe that if we didn't have these equally strategic light placements in inside shots as well.
I hear the skepticism. You are thinking, "Sometimes, you get natural light inside. And isn't that last shot on a bus during the day?" Yes, these are all true. But in what hospital room, do you have windows behind the bed to light the patient's hair?
And what prison interrogation room is lit like this?
Oh, yeah. I forgot. He always has a major shot in front of a window. The hair loves windows.
As I said, I don't read or understand Japanese, so I have never been able to find out who was in charge of lighting and/or cinematography on this show. However, I would like to personally thank the director, Noriyoshi Sakuma (who also directed Miss Devil), for allowing this special lighting trend to carry on throughout the series.