In these culturally sensitive times, having an American director and showrunner on a quintessentially Japanese series will certainly raise the challenge of cultural appropriation. But “Home of Ninjas,” directed by Dave Boyle and released by Netflix in February, stands out as not just a hit but a seemingly happy mix of East and West.
An original story about the last ninja family in modern times, the show ranked as the streamer’s best non-English present in 16 countries and regions, as well as achieving a top ten record in 92 countries.
In an interview with SelectionBoyle (“The Man From Reno,” “Big Desires, Little Tokyo”) said his career’s impressive left turns introduced him to the series and helped him keep the show authentically Japanese.
At what stage were you part of the mission?
It all started with Kento Kaku, the star of the show, and his two comrades, Murao Yoshiaki and Imai Takafumi, who began working on a ninja revival show. They needed to return everything. It’s been a minute since a present ninja actually appeared. They came up with this ninja family idea and a 15 to 20 page project proposal that they took to Netflix.
Netflix liked the idea, asked me to develop this central concept and bring you something that hadn’t been seen before in the ninja genre. And then I went in and wrote the current ‘Bible’ and the first episode, at first. Afterwards, I became director and showrunner. But it all started with the three of them negotiating ideas on Zoom, evolving into this idea of a ninja family in modern times.
Have the three of you worked together before?
They worked together before on a TBS drama. Murao was the director and Kento and Imai participated. And the three of them are fast friends who were kind enough to let me take the wheel. It’s no small feat to entrust your mission to someone else. Netflix informed me that the trio were fully on board (after Boyle created the show bible) and liked the way it was going. Then the group of three grew to become the group of 4.
Why revisit the well-known ninja style?
Well, it’s true that there has been every ninja-flavored leisure number. To the point that the style itself becomes a kind of self-parody. When I think of ninja style, I think of things like the Shinobi Nomura series from the 1960s, where it was really taken seriously. It was really about the idea of what constitutes a ninja.
What made it relevant to fashion events, for me, wasn’t necessarily the skills or tricks that ninjas can perform. But the truth is that they reside in a set of very outdated values.
Ninjas have all these guidelines that they must observe, whether or not they are dietary restrictions, such as not consuming meat and never drinking alcohol, or restrictions on who they will fall in love with, who they will marry. They usually always have a master who gives them instructions. It was interesting to have a family that also follows these outdated rules for so many years. They are creatures of fashionable occasions and are struggling to fit in right now. And besides, they are just part of a dying tradition. I come from a Mormon background, so I just imagined them as a family of Mormons who aren’t allowed to drink. The family has different emotions regarding this identification with which they are all related.
How do you respond to potential cultural appropriation issues?
You always have to ask yourself: am I the right person to tell this story? It was those of us at Netflix who I worked with on my previous film, ‘Man from Reno’, who had the idea that I would be able to provide you with a great story engine for the show.
It wasn’t a situation where the reins were simply handed to me. More like ‘can you try this and we’ll take it from there?’ And then, little by little, I was also asked if I could write an episode? So ‘could you direct an episode?’ Then several episodes. One thing that made me feel good about this conversation (cultural appropriation) is that I just wanted to be part of the group. I was the only Westerner on the set. We made the entire gift in Japanese. The entire undertaking was carried out in Japanese. And so I thought it was more of a collaboration than an appropriation. These questions are very critical and encourage a lot of self-examination, but I felt good about what we did.
Where does your interest in Japanese culture come from?
In a humorous left turn way in my life. I did Mormon missionary work in Sydney, Australia, when I was a very young person. There, I was assigned to learn how to speak Japanese. And I really loved learning the language and learning more about the culture. My first films were very straightforward, based mainly on that. I simply saved the montage artists I needed to work with. There wasn’t much design to it.
How did you approach the transition from film production to series production?
I was a visiting director for an independent TV show. However, this was my first sequel. It was positively new. For starters, I never shot for six months. In Japan, there is much less crossover between the world of TV drama and the world of cinema. We were largely film people on set, but the writers had TV experience and the producers had TV experience. A series was something I wanted to do for a long time. I wrote several riders and hadn’t gotten past the finish line. But once you got this far, it was simply sink or swim and learn anywhere.
What are you looking for in terms of feel, look and target market?
I was looking for a really real family story. And have characters that people can really fall in love with. Turns out they’re just entangled characters. in this ninja world. The other thing is that there are a lot of great things about ninja culture that I’ve never seen emphasized. And I needed to take advantage and transmit this tradition to the world.
What will you do next?
‘Home of Ninjas’ has been a three-year marathon and I’m still catching my breath. I’m back in Tokyo to work on other tasks. And I wrote some solutions that I’m trying to implement again. Nothing concrete enough to announce yet.
