Did you know that the ruins of Ako Castle (the castle of the famous "Chushingura" warriors) is located in Hyogo Prefecture?
curioswitch was offered by the Ako City Board of Education to plan and produce a promotional video for the ruins of Ako Castle, including narrations in both Japanese and English.
Ako Castle was built in the Edo period (1603-1868), and the restored castle ruins are now designated as a national historic site.
The target audience for this project was mainlanders and foreign tourists who are interested in Japanese culture and history, especially castles.
Our main mission for this project was to create content that both Japanese and foreigners can relate to.
We sprinkled in visual tricks based on our know-how of creating local resources, as well as acknowledging the global standard of "visual beauty". In particular, we payed attention to the unique atmosphere seen in foreign videos, and created colors that would be entertaining to a foreigners.
Also, by blending a foreign touch into the scenery, we have come up with a mechanism to make foreigners feel as if they were traveling the alluring world of Ako as the actor experiences it.
In addition, Michifumi Isoda, a historian, gave a detailed explanation of the historical background of the Ako Castle. Mr. Isoda's vivid, descriptive talk has attracted many foreign viewers.
The Ako Castle promotional movie "Ako Castle: The Beginning of a Story" is now available on YouTube in both Japanese and English.
If you have not seen it yet, or if you would like to watch it again, please feel free to click on the link below.
「AKO CASTLE WHERE THE STORY OF 47 SAMURAI BEGAN」（with English subtitles） https://youtu.be/a6mRt-any0U
Outline
Title: [4K] AKO CASTLE WHERE THE STORY OF 47 SAMURAI BEGAN
[4K] AKO CASTLE WHERE THE STORY OF 47 SAMURAI BEGAN (English)
[4K] Ako Castle Promotional Movie "The Beginning of the Story of Ako Castle" (Japanese)
[4K] Ako Castle Promotional Movie "The Beginning of the Story of Ako Castle" (Digest) [4K] Ako Castle Promotional Movie "The Beginning of the Story of Ako Castle" (Digest)
Length of movie: Main movie: approx. 15 min. Digest version: 2 min.
Creative Director: Tadahiro Kondei
Producer: Satoshi Yoshida
Planning and production: curioswitch
Copyright: Ako City
Once again, curioswitch would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Ako City for this precious opportunity, and to all the people involved in the production.